Belonging Together: The Making of Justice and Art

“What does poiesis have to do with slavery?”

Shadow of Monique Villa, CEO of
Thomas Reuters Foundation. Photo: Deborah Espinosa

That is how internationally renowned artist Anish Kapoor began his 14-minute keynote address during the 2014 Trust Women’s conference recently held in London. The conference, which puts "the rule of law behind women’s rights," gathered advocates and activists focused on solutions to women’s economic empowerment, including women’s access to land and financial services, as well as on the global fight against modern slavery. A short video captured the breadth of issues covered. Notable speakers included two Nobel laureates, Muhammad Yunus and Kailash Satyarthi, CEOs of many major corporations and NGOS, and survivors of the slave trade.  

The Trust Women two-day gathering was highly cerebral, sometimes academic, and always stimulating. It also was visually compelling.  Each theme was introduced with a 2- to 3-minute multimedia piece, including Women and Finance, Access to Land, and Slavery and the Supply Chain. (All of Trust Women conference videos are available here.)  

We learned that 35.8 million people are working in slave-like conditions around the world in violation of their human rights on a daily basis.  We were challenged to consider whether the supply chains of goods we use everyday include forced labor or debt bondage, including considering the human rights abuses necessary to sustain "fast fashion."

We were also encouraged to consider how responsive cities are to women's needs, including safety, particularly given their typically greater reliance on public transport for going to work and taking care of child and household responsibilities.

And for me, a women's land rights practitioner, of utmost interest was the panel on the issue of women's access to land, which Trust Women aptly described as the "biggest challenge to women's empowerment."   

So imagine my surprise when, amidst this dialogue, sculptor Anish Kapoor took the podium. “What does poiesis have to do with slavery?", he asks. I wasn't familiar with the term “poiesis,” but I imagined it referred to poetry. Later, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that poiesis is actually a much broader concept dating back to Ancient Greece — more like "a making” or the "making of art.”
    

No doubt Mr. Kapoor's words meant many things to many people.  For me, his words caused my soul to soften. I had steeled myself for a day on the global slave trade, and there he was opening a part of me that I’d purposefully locked down.

The artist and advocate in me heard him liken the making of art to acts in pursuit of justice — and that the time is now.   

“Does my making have truth?  Or is it that belief and therefore beauty is something that lies in the future?  Is it something that is always out of reach? . . .  Freedom and beauty are the future — only possible because of what we do next."

Kapoor continued:

Mr. Anish Kapoor speaking at the Trust Women
Conference on November 19, 2014.  Photo: Deborah Espinosa

The oppressed, as we all know, are asked again and again to wait for the right time to press for change.  Right time?  What is this right time? 

Always in the future.  The right time for respect and dignity is always in the future. . . . 

Time and courage and beauty are now. I’m linking them together because I think they belong together. . . .  Rights are dreamed of as if they belong in the future. But rights, as we all know, depend on what we do next."

Mr. Kapoor's full speech is available here.

Thank you Mr. Kapoor and Thomas Reuters Foundation for uniting our efforts to make the world replete with justice with the our making of art. They belong together for me, too.

In Conversation with Sarah Maple

Why do you define yourself an artist? And what is the role that art has in your everyday life?
I think it is there in my everyday life because I see art in everything…especially conversations. I always pick up on things people say and use them in my work, or they inspire a piece. Everything I see everyday from TV, advertising, the internet, family and friends, all these things influence me and inform the decisions I make as an artist.

Why do you consider yourself a “Feminist?” And what is for you “Feminism?”

To me feminism is a much broader term than what it is perceived. For me it all about equality, equality between all people. It’s funny how so many people agree on these principles but so scared of the word ‘feminism’. In my work I use humour and other ways to getting across this message, like a trojan horse.

I know you use art in different ways: paintings, video, photography, and performance… What work do you most enjoy doing?
It’s hard to say because I love them all, I take joy in them all. I always saw myself primarily as a painter but photography opened up so much for me as well. I love how each media can say and do so much used in the right way.

What do you want to achieve and/or demonstrate with your art?
For me the most important thing about the art is the message, I want to make people think and I want to bring about change. I want my work to challenge what is seen as ‘the norm’. I always aim to make my viewer question the world around them. I’m not sure art has the same power that it used to, but I try my best!

I have seen in your work that ‘Islam’ is a repeated topic, I know you have a mixed religious background , but why for you is it so important to talk about it?
I haven’t made work on this theme for a few years now, it was something at the time that I felt the urge to speak about and comment on. Not only was I commenting on the world around me but on my own life experiences with I felt was a reflection on the current political climate. People often ask if I will return to this theme….as a muslim it is part of who I am so I think I will return to it at some point but not right now. I felt I’ve said what I needed to say.

What do you want to denounce in your performance “ It's just like any other job really - dedicated to world peace?”
The piece was inspired by artist Santiago Serra who had a successful show in London at the time. I found the great thing about performance is that you can have an idea about what you want to say and how you want yourself/viewers to feel, but you will only really know the impact when you are performing. In this piece we had 30 girls doing a ‘Miss World’ catwalk and then standing silently against a wall for a whole day. It looked incredible but was very hard work, 5 girls fainted. The gallery was all glass and the viewer had to look from the outside, like we were untouchable in this goldfish bowl. It was a very surreal experience, being watched in this way….definitely an experience I won’t forget!

Can women do everything?
Yes!

The Quilting Women of Gee's Bend

I am not a quilter but something about quilting always captivates me. The patches of fabrics of various patterns and colors, the handmade stitches, the “imperfect” lines and shapes. In the culture where I was brought up, traditional Chinese quilts are often used as a gift for newborns; friends and family are invited to contribute a patch of cloth with a wish for the baby. They are called Bai Jia Bei (in translation "One Hundred Good Wishes Quil"t). The quilts contains symbols of luck, energy, and good wishes. They are to be passed down from generation to generation, just like those in America.

CLIO TALKS BACK: Can mothers be artistic geniuses?

While reading Paula Birnbaum’s fascinating new book on Women Artists in Interwar France, Clio came across a debate that took place in the mid-1930s between those who claimed that motherhood might be incompatible with artistic genius and women artists who defended women as artists and proclaimed that motherhood in no way inhibited their genius. Denial of women’s genius, artistic, literary, or scientific, was an old antifeminist trope in European circles, but even this more nuanced expression of such views by a well-meaning man, in an era in which well-known women artists abounded, triggered a sharp response.

In early 1934, a government official from Geneva named John Albaret opened an exhibit of Swiss women artists by asserting that to date there had been no great women artists. He indicated that wifehood and motherhood was women’s most important role – and that, given the obligations of these roles, wives and mothers could never become “artists of genius.” Albaret did acknowledge, however, that as more and more women did not marry, some were indeed showing promise in the arts. He hoped that some would soon display their creative genius. Implied in his introduction, was that no women had done so to date.

 Some women artists were highly offended by Albaret’s analysis. Marie-Anne Camax-Zoegger (1887-1952), the Parisian artist and founder of Femmes Artistes Modernes (a collective of women artists) and the mother of five, replied to the Swiss official as follows:

Maternity and art are two different things that in no way detract from one another. There are very great women artists who are not married, and there are others who are married and who have been admirable mothers. I believe that the more cultured a woman is, the more worthy she of raising her children. Maternity does not diminish her art, and Art does not erode her capacity to mother. 

To illustrate her point, Marie-Anne Camax-Zoegger invoked the examples of Mme Vigée Lebrun, the celebrated French court painter of the late 18th century, who “exalted maternal tenderness,” of Berthe Morisot, who had several children and painted with the Impressionists, and of Camax-Zoegger’s near-contemporary Suzanne Valadon, whose son Maurice Utrillo had also become a great French artist.

 “I know from experience,” Camax-Zoegger wrote, “that children do not detract from one’s art; they renew its vigor. For a woman they are the immortal fountain from which she is able to draw tenderness and life.”

What do Clio’s 21st century readers have to say about this debate? From the perspective of your own culture, what response would you make to the question of whether or not mothers can be artistic geniuses?


Source: “Attendons avec patience les artistes de génie, que les femmes nous donneront avec le temps,” Comoedia, 8 Nov. 1934; “Deux femmes artistes répondent au Conseiller de Genève qui plaça l’art féminin au-dessous de l’art masculin,” Comoedia, 24 Nov. 1934. See Paula J. Birnbaum, in Women Artists in Interwar France (Ashgate, 2011), p. 36. Translations from Camax-Zoegger lightly amended by Clio.

USSSA and Engaging the Public During the Presidential Election

Recently, I was invited to document and join a group of artists who are planning an exhibition with a series of multi-city art rallies, which are anchored by a collective engagement with America's ongoing Presidential Election process. The USSSA project is curated by m. ryan noble a.k.a. imagici. noble’s previous efforts culminated in a collective effort called FLAG STOP. Dedicated to the ideals of democracy and self-expression, the USSSA project aims to finding a meeting space for these two endeavors, which are the primary agendas for all candidates involved.  

The collective's approach to art and its role in society was largely shaped by performance artists such as Linda Montano, Sharon Hayes, and Marina Abramović.  

For instance, Marina’s 2010 retrospective at the MoMA The Artist is Present could be understood as the act of stripping the to its core elements -- perception, (self) identification, and, hopefully, a subsequent understanding. To really look at a subject is to really try to understand it, and this has largely informed noble’s approach to art and its role in society.

Where does art fit in?  Just think about how Romney's weakness tends to be his lack of sensitivity about the working-class conditions in the United States or even Santorum's misguided and overtly misogynist advice about "friends" not letting friends "use pink balls." Video played a large role in how that information became public knowledge. In short, thank goodness that there are politically engaged individuals and groups out there that don't let these missteps go unnoticed. We can all agree that these are not the appropriate messages for the nation to obey.  

Much of this commentary is made possible by art and media -- YouTube, the news, and even performance art!  It's important to note that all of the aforementioned resources are highly collaborative mediums, which rely greatly upon its audience.  And this is where USSSA aims to be more far-reaching in carrying its message that there is much more to be spoken by the (potentially voting) public. San Francisco was the site of the first meeting, and Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago are under consideration for future rallies. The meetings are free and open to the public, too! 

As we move forward in the election process, and learn more about the current state of democracy, these artists will convene in an effort to create an additional layer -- a discussion in tandem with what’s been made public. In essence, there is plenty of room to document and express more private concerns that seep through political debates, publicity, and legislation. noble suggests that, more often than not, the common reaction to the often-frustratingly generalized language used during the presidential election season can lead many to feel a sense of invisibility or hopelessness. As noble states, it can make many of us perceive "social reality as an illness—pervasive, contagious and stigmatized."  

As mentioned, in order to successfully engage with a subject, perception must be followed by the act of identifying with it (in some form) and understanding it on our own terms. With that said, the artists aim to provide this dialogue and invite the public to make this happen.  The project includes several visual and performance artists, including Wafaa Bilal, Barbara Horiuchi, Sarah Sense, Christy Speakman, and Dread Scott.  For a complete list of participating artists, see the USSSA: Phase 1 fundraiser page.

Dread Scott.  Imagine a World Without America.  Screen print on canvas. 

If you'd like to support this project, please donate.  Each phase of this project depends upon active participation in the spirit of democracy!

Somewhere in Between the Darkness and the Light: The Music of Fat Transfer

Singer and songwriter Fat Transfer. Picture courtesy of the artist

Fat Transfer is an Oakland, California based artist who owns her emotions. Her tunes come wrapped in a sweet package and also pack a serious punch. On the track "we r enemies" from her latest EP Highly Sensitive Supremacist, she sings, "this isn't MTV, you can't treat people so irresponsibly." The sound of her music is lo-fi and delicately layered. Bells and melodious synthesizer chords harmonize perfectly with pulsating drumbeats.Some tracks are down tempo and contemplative, while others are outright dance tracks.

How would you describe your sound?
Dreamy and sentimental. Cartoonish sometimes. Sad, lovesick, introverted. My friend said it is sounds like Hall and Oates but scarier. I've also heard it sounds like massage music.

On "Highly Sensitive Supremacist," you sing candidly about tapping into emotions that aren't necessarily considered nice or acceptable (naming enemies, giving up on a struggle, allowing oneself to be sad and in pain). What was your inspiration for exploring those themes? Why is the not so nice stuff important?
One of my favorite books is called The Highly Sensitive Person, by Elaine Akon. It describes sensitivity as an neurological orientation as opposed to a defect of the wimpy. Anyway, I identify as one of thse HSP's. My emotions demand a lot of attention. All of them, including ones that are societally devalued, like uncertainy and hopelessness. Challenging feelings are important because they're as big a part of my life and identity as pleasant ones. I view all emotions as spirit guides. They can be cryptic, contradictory, straight up bat-shit whacky. But when I'm listening and decoding them, life feels less exhausting and scary. I find that if I ignore them, my mental, physical and emotional health suffers. Making music is one of the ways I tend to them.

Fat Transfer in concert. Image courtesy of the artist