Week Nine: October 21-27: Topless Cellist: Pages 283 - 361
We finish Topless Cellist this week.
I remember when my Aunt Jan was diagnosed with breast cancer for her third and final time. Knowing the treatment processes that faced her again, she decided immediately to have both breasts removed. Her mother, my grandmother, died of breast cancer at the age of 36—an age that now, as it is in my rearview mirror, seems painfully young, especially as I look at my 8-year-old son and realize my dad lost a mother by this age. (I love and admire dad in new ways, too.)
I was always very close to my Aunt Jan because we were the only two singers in my family. She started teaching me proper breathing techniques when I was 5, and one of my favorite memories involved her accidentally passing gas when she would show me how to use my diaphragm to sing. She would get so embarrassed, but I always happily reminded her of how much kids love farts in general. I told her she should continue farting whenever possible.
Aunt Jan was always very modest, but when she had her breasts removed, she wanted to show her chest to everyone. I remember sitting in her living room a few weeks/months after surgery, and she asked enthusiastically, "Kristi, can I show you my breasts!?" I had never seen her naked before, but her scarred chest was now a sign of life to her, so she displayed it like a trophy symbolizing her greatest victory. She didn't stop with me. She was happy to show it to anyone who was willing! She was proud. She owned it. She approached her first wig the same way, saying, "Kristi, I've always wanted to be a redhead, so make me a redhead!"
In a way, my Aunt Jan wanted to "perform" her cancer and her healing in her own ways and on her own terms. We were all surprised when the cancer took her a few years later, but I was thankful to have those moments with her when, even though she was dying, she taught me so much about living. In losing her breasts, she claimed not to feel less "feminine," but rather, to feel more alive than ever.
I welcome your thoughts this week about the body, art, performance, surgery, death, legacy, etc. Had she lived longer, I wonder what conversations I would have had with my Aunt about legacy, her art, motherhood, her body, etc., if she had known her days were that short . . . like Paik's comments about video and immortality, once legacy becomes of such great concern to Charlotte.
I welcome your thoughts as we wrap up this text.
Charlotte had an amazingly giving personality and heart for helping other artists – she left a pretty impressive legacy! I’m going to list just the few quotes that impressed me in this weeks readings: Ch. 21 p 250 7th Festival – due to failures of it – it actually helped changed perceptions or define a need for outreach relevant to its environment. I think she found success in failure!
ReplyDeletep. 284 – Well, she’s a very tough woman and she’s very dedicated to what she’s doing.” Her mentor’s reply – It was an approach she had never accept denial.
P279 – the Ice Music and ice cube cello and nudity – I think she took one for the “team”! lol! I don’t like to be cold with clothes on can’t even imagine this, lol! It was said she had courage, endurance and strength after this performance.
P288 Toche and Hendricks – Referring to the festival, “The Festival is still one of the freest forums of expression in our otherwise repressive society.”
And finally she gets her “due” in 1972 when the festivals are seen as an important established NY institution and she is given foundation support and a grant to help accommodate it.
All these quotes in this time period make me ask the question, “Could I withstand the time with my art work? Will I or can I believe in myself and artwork in the face of affliction, persecution against what I believe and create as my art, my narrative in my work? Charlotte’s tenacity to do so is such a mentoring thought and gives such encouragement to me.
Ha. I like that Gail.Taking one for the team! I agree on the cold issue, I do not like to be cold, clothed or not.
DeleteIce Music and ice cube cello and nudity--this was the first nudity piece that there is a logic to other than the male gaze for me--the topless with flowing evening skirt, the twirling tassels, a lit bikinini of me seem only to be spectacle that fulfills the male gaze.
whereas, the ice cello seems to engage all right from the start from the automatic visceral response to pressing one's self up against the cello. it is attentional captivating also because of its formal simplification--the continues soft warm flesh pressed and manipulating the continues pale white hard cold ice cello--hard/soft, cold/warm, living/melting, matted (flesh)/glossy, pliable/fixed but melting.
this works for me extremely well. the nudity isn't about "let me shock you and show you my boobs" while i play, instead it was about the juxtaposition of opposites, and a juxtaposition of similarity (both are in the process of decay and just as the ice will waste away, so will charlotte, just at a slower rate)
this feels like "high" art and not an action packed spectacle B movie. yup i am biased this way.
Could it also be a way of mocking the male gaze? The TV Bra seems to me to parody the way men stare blindly at both the female nude and the television. Whether or nat that is the intention, I am not sure, but there is a parallel.
DeleteKathy - Yes I agree - it was "high" art vs a sensational appeal of Paik's work. McWilliams seemed to have more thought in his work and Paik seemed on a more surface level of trying things that seemed sensational.
DeleteJustin - thats interesting perspective!
Justin - Ha! Perhaps! And perhaps it is a lovely way to mock the gaze. To look 'into" a woman's breasts only to see the objectifying perversion looking back at you. I am sure it was a shock.
DeleteThough, I really liked the use of TV Bra while filiming Guadalcanal Requiem. The very idea that those small televisions were ambassadors of western art AND culture to the natives who wer amazed and.... titillated by them. I wonder if the natives who viewed them were more fascinated by the technology than Moorman's ample breasts.
DeleteI also wonder how an innocent would react to the avant-garde. Perhaps if I knew nothing about art, western culture, the academy, ect what my reaction to the avant garde and Moorman would be. For instance - I am sure that Sky Kisswould have been a transcedent experience. It seemed to, according to Moorman, already be poetic piece. Remove the supposed symbolism of the cape and sequens though and suddenly Moorman becomes an angel, goddess, bird, muse....
Well Charlotte Mooreman definitely had passion for her work! 15 years as an experimental artist and to have had the thought to save and document everything – for the Avant Guarde cause was pretty significant. I definitely think with her music training she understood “the big picture” within her particular space of the world. I find it interesting that you either understood what her work was about or you didn’t. Two final descriptions by friends and colleagues, “fatuous kitsch or “transgressed”. (pg 348)
ReplyDeleteGail, I agree! To have saved all that stuff meant a lot, granted it didn't make for a very comfortable apartment. She clearly realized this was important to not only maintaining the art's legacy, but her own. I feel that she saved the things to sort of justify what she had dedicated her life too, in a tangible way. And, yeah some people simply didn't get her work, but it was about that doing, that making, engagement in the moment, and in part the documenting for the future. Having that tangible material made the memories, aims, and all that work more real.
DeleteI think that was one of the things that drove Charlotte, her resolute belief that she was forever changing the way that people viewed or were exposed to Avant gard art. Sometimes I think it was also the excuse that she used to keep her lifestyle and apartment slightly chaotic. Perhaps she just enjoyed having her legacy nearby where she could pull it out and look at it. In the military, I had something like this called an "I Love Me" book (I did NOT name this book) and you kept all of your awards, temporary assignments, successful projects, etc. so that you could take it with you from unit to unit. The reason many of us had these books in the military was because unit administrators were notorious for losing your paperwork. Reading Rothfuss's description of Charlotte's archives, it makes me wonder how well I'm preserving my own art, and what someone will think of the random box in my storage that houses all my clippings and odd bits of my past.
DeleteI also agree.When my mother had had several outbreaks of cancer from 1993-2004,(her death), I had often thought of her belongings and other things which had meant alot to me.I had to clean out her home ,sell it and inventory what i could .Some things were given to Goodwill or her next door neighbors who had helped her during her struggles.Her sheet music ,dated from the 1940's-50's -her art,,piano.It was hard to look at.I cried while doing what was necessary in getting her affairs in order.Past memories of her life surfaced.She was a fun loving person who liked people.Technology caught up with me when I had received that fateful phone call that she had passed 5 minutes before my wife and I were en route to visit her! The attending nurse mentioned how she had read a letter my mother received from her friend Hazel in St,. Louis.She had known this lady since she was 5! My mother thanked her and went to sleep never to have woken up.Brain cancer had taken her and yet I felt a certain closure to this as I had packed up her stuff 7 months before her death.She also passed in the month of November.My mother and Charlotte were the same age!
DeleteAnd thank goodeness that she did save so much. I appreciate it from a pedigogical perspective. Based on the discussion of it on page 322 it seemed as though research and discovery for a future generation was on her mind. As if each performance was not only a social experiment but a pedigogical one as well.
DeleteDr H, I lost my grandmother to breast cancer. She fought for decades and it finally took her a few years ago. Everytime I hear that my mother is getting her breasts graphted and complains of pain I completely freak out.
I wonder if I would be able to just cut mine off. They mean so much to me - puberty (wanting them!), womanhood, fertility, sexuality, nurturing, food, dirty pillows (haha Carrie). But I suppose, like your Aunt Jan I'd choose life. As my sister says, "what's the big deal? they are just lumps of fat on your chest." Well said Bonnie, well said.
I think what would have been really neat would have been for us all to have viewed her art commented on it before we read the book then later to read and see how our opinions changed after....
DeleteThis all has gotten me thinking about the specifics of the lives of my students as it relates to gender. I began talking to some of my more advanced students about their feelings towards how being women might affect their futures. It was an interesting conversation. I am curious to gather more information. I am thinking of creating a questionnaire online and asking my students to volunteer to take it. I am very curious about how gender is perceived contemporarily. How are current perceptions different then they were in my youth? How are they different from Morman’s time? Anyway, I drafted a list of questions to use. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
ReplyDeleteWhat year were you born?
How do you define the term gender?
What is your gender?
How do you feel your gender affects you?
How do you think would your life be different if you had a different gender?
Have you ever felt disadvantaged because of your gender?
Have you ever had an advantage because of your gender?
Have you ever been treated differently because of your gender?
How do you feel your gender will affect your future?
Great idea Justin! And additional question I have is if there are things they feel like they can't share/talk about because of their gender.
DeleteI think this is great, and it could really shed some light on how the various generations think about gender. I grew up in the "Girl Power!" era, and I thought I could do anything - and I will be honest, I try to keep that mindset, even when I know the glass ceiling exists for many people, but many are breaking them! We all have the capacity to make change, and to call out when change is needed. I try to be optimistic, but there are definitely days I am not that.
DeleteI was in part encouraged in the girl power idea by my own mother, she had grown up not doing sports because it wasn't what girls did (or at least that was what she was told, but it was also because she went to a all girl school taught by nuns so their gym class was swimming) as a result my sister and I did tons of sports! She always wanted us to learn how to do things like ski and such because she hadn't. I have faced sexist remarks and such, but I feel like things are changing - and they need to continue to change for the better. Anywho, I love that you are asking these kinds of questions!
Justin -
DeleteGreat idea! One question that came to me when I read your list was "Have you ever treated anyone differently because of their gender"?
I think that many kids are completely overwhelmed, There are so many "choices" now that they feel compelled to align themselves with one of those boxes that you check. gay, straight, bi-sexual, tri-sexual, transgendered, non-associative - oh man! I don't think that they need to figure it out right now. I remember never thinking about who I liked or what I was or who I identified with. I feel bad for these up and comers. Justin - I think that your survey may reveal some intersting perspectives from our youth.
DeleteHolley, I added your question. I just made the survey and posted it on Facebook. We'll see what happens.
DeleteHow do you think would your life be different if you had a different gender?
Deletethats a good question...
@katharine what a great POINT specially right now with so much going on in the gender community.
Candice, I would never want to be a boy. Within traditional gender roles I would never want to be incharge of my family. Constantly worrying about finances, my family, their safety, my wifes orgasms. No thank you. I do not envy my husband.
Deletelol see I provide a lot for my family finacial wise and do everything else I also worry constantly about my family their safety and well I want to keep my partner happy too ;o) I think the only thing that would be different for me being a man would be peeing standing up and no boobs ha ha ha ;o) to be honest I grew up in a family where both were equal workers, worriers and warriors ha ha thats all I know yes my gma cooked dinner but gpa washed dishes they were a great team and yeah gpa did have that scare man factor the FINAL disacpline but gma could scare ya good too
DeleteJustin - I would like to know if their attitudes on gender affects their subject matter or does their gender affect (dictate) what they choose as subject matter as an artist. This quote on I pg 349 made me ask: Charlotte Mooreman wasn't a feminist. Her life and work didn't conform to any acceptable standards of behavior for a woman. Social conservatives found her vulgar, Feminists recoiled at the way her work perpetuated old-fashioned gender codes. I kind of got the impression Charlotte just enjoyed being a woman and this showed in her work - she brought the feminine "thought" to the research.
ReplyDeleteCatch Up Week 8:
ReplyDeleteTo be honest and transparent, this continues to be such a hard book for me. I find Charlotte interesting but frustrating. Her writing, “there is no connection between hardworking, serious, responsible artists [and] drug-taking people with no homes or work!” (pg211) I think is the characteristic that frustrates me most. She seems to spend so much time trying to justify her art and keep this separation of artists and non-artists. But in her public, avante-garde festivals seem to want art and the “common” person to collide… as long as the audience doesn’t become artists.
But I do find it interesting--and brave--that she treats her whole self as art. Although, it frustrates me that so many of her pieces are written/created for her by men. She seems to happily offer herself, her body, as a tool for men to use. It makes me wonder if there are decisions I make about my body that were actually a man’s idea…. And how important is that to me?
I have been having a similar problem in trying to finding an entry point for this book. Obviously on this topic I am going to be a little bit of an outsider, but I am trying to find a way to make this information relevant to my practice. I don't know where the disconnect is. I can't tell if it's with Moorman herself, or with my desire to always find the larger picture. This book seems to not fit into the context of any larger narrative, or at least, I have not found a way yet to place it there.
DeleteCourtney and Justin - Do you think its a generational thing? - I was born in 68, child in the 70's, teenager in the 80's, raising kids in the late 90's/2000's - Are you questioning her methods or her character?
DeleteMaybe its the fact that you don't like the way she organized herself, her lack of authenticity in her work (performance created by others). My Aunt T is very much like Charlotte - she marches to her own drum and many of the choices she makes in life lead to destructive outcomes". Financially she is just like Charlotte - but she created a way to make lace using her Bernina sewing machine that caused the company to take notice - but she didn't follow through on collaborating with them. As I read Charlotte's biography I am reminded of those students like her - she is EGR - extra grace required - so that as my life bumps up to hers in a student/teacher relationship I think all I can do is teach them what I know, encourage for a better community through art. One of my art professors told me of a similar type student that was drug infested and angry but was quite gifted in drawing. She always tried to give him extra responsibilities in setting up exhibits or in the classroom. Years later he came back to visit and she didn't recognize him. He went from being a gothic dresser , long hair very angry young man (drug user) to very clean persona (preppy type clothes) clean of his addiction, working for a movie studio as a set designer and teaching at the jr. college in LA. Ya just never know the impressions we make on others... (Sorry if it seems like I'm judging gothic dressers - or putting them in a bad light - I'm just describing this young man - I could care less how people choose to dress!)
This is a meandering pondering stemming from Courtney's "She (Moorman) seems to spend so much time trying to justify her art" and through the lens of my own research.
DeleteAs I look at defining what being a seminal visual artist in order to study the correlations with the writing practices of these same artists, I have bumped into the notion of stance taking!
I have been defining seminal artist as one who is prolific in production, persistent in practice (life longer), and known in the art world. Yet I have sense something lacking in this definition and the lack currently revolves around the "known artists". So I have been narrowing the scope of this term by defining seminal as specific to artists that stand at a turn in convention in a way that leads to or substantiates a paradigm shift, subtle or drastic.There are great and important artists that work as maestro of convention. Yet important and seminal are not the same for seminal connotes an association with consequential change.
And with this refined definition I have begun looking at performativity theories relative to gender. Is doing gender similar to doing artist as it relates to what judith butler calls troubling. And if these are the same does the act of writing correlate with as a stylized act in identity constitution, in STANCE taking? I think it does.
Visual artists who are seminal seem to be masters of insistence, certainty (even if in the form of bravito) and STANCE taking. I think pushing up against convention, bending convention, as Moorman did, requires a hell of a lot of energy and backbone. So I agree with you Courtney that Moorman spends a lot of time "justifying her art" but think it is a necessary mechanism used by seminal artists that bolsters their praxis. This can be seen in a series of artists writings that ultimately bolster their praxis and constitution as artist--Donald Judd, Robert Smithson, Robert Morris, Robert Motherwell Sol Le Witt, Adrian Piper. In many ways all these artists give off some kind of air of arrogance in the way they justify their art (and apparently having the name Robert is also helpful).
When Einstien first introduced his notions that resulted in paradigm shifts of scientific believe, did he have to "justify his notions"? I am going to guess he certainly did. But, fortunately for him this was simply proposing and proving various mathematical formulas. That seems far easier than trying to justify convention busting moves in art. Art is muddy, shifty cultural terrain that cannot be fixed or proofed within a clear equation. Culture has far to many variable that move with context (ha...relativity) to prescribe a fixed formula to justify change.
ha. this is a long ramble courtney spurred on with your contention of moor mans "justifying her art." I totally agree that she does, but think it is part of the terrain of being avant garde (convention bender).
ramble ramble without proofing :0
Thank you for the other viewpoints! I do think my struggle to find entry points with this book are solely on my end--not Moorman's. I think I just have a very different worldview that changes the way we (Charlotte and I) see and do things in relation to art and people and follow-through.
DeleteJust sharing an article about creative thinking attributes; http://howlround.com/are-theatre-artists-hardwired
ReplyDeleteThat was interesting read Gail. Thanks. I bet it highly correlates to visual artist with only a few differences. Cool.
DeleteCatch Up for last week:
ReplyDeletePart 1: I really found the reading and what Moorman was doing to be fascinating. I think she did indeed follow what the male artists were telling her to do, but she also as noted in the text, had a lot of input and interpretation. As noted on page 267, “while Moorman’s flesh-and-blood corpus accomplished the liberation Paik had predicted: her skin became a projection screen and her eyes both received images and transmitted them.” On this level Moorman’s own reaction and interpretation during the performance itself is acknowledged blatantly rather than simply assumed. I think there is something about her involvement here that is somewhat more pronounced, more so than what we had seen previously, because it was now being shown and altered through a newer medium of television. There is something more of Moorman herself within the work, because it layers this sense of looking, seeing, manipulating images, etc. Her nudity connects her to the work certainly, but here with the televisions as seen in figure 23.2 she is almost hidden by the televisions making us look for her more. We find her behind the TVs and see that even her eyewear has TVs, making us look for her, looking at us, watching her and the TVs. So many layers, that again I think make us look at Moorman. We make look at Moorman’s nude performances but in a sense there is detachment there, we don’t seek her, she is already there, but behind the TV cello we search for her. Needless to say…I like this work (wish I could have seen it in person!).
Catch up for last week:
ReplyDeletePart 2: I was also really interested in the quote by Yoko Ono on page 259, “Anyone can be an artist. It doesn’t involve having a talent. It involves only having a certain frame of mind, an attitude, determination, and imagination.” From this we could certainly say Moorman herself was an artist. She was determined, had imagination (look at what she organized, contributed, etc.), and was dedicated, as has been mentioned by others. I think Moorman became an artist because she liked the relationships (as mentioned in a previous post, and by the author) from her relationship with Paik to the audience – she fed on it. She may have said she was following orders, but I still think there was a lot there that was her, all her. When she later performed solo, why didn’t she take that ownership? Maybe it was like I thought before, easier not to, more freeing for her not to.
Kimberly - I kind of agree, I think she had two thoughts: one of freedom of what others thought (the viewers) and belief in herself and action music - otherwise why would she document so much... thats a lot of work to carry around with you from apartment to apartment. I was amazed to read that Frank died 3 years after her and that her last words to him were, "don't throw anything away!"
DeleteYeah, like I said in my other comment, I think she kept all the stuff to keep her own memory and legacy - justify those actions, aims, and the work itself. Moorman's collecting and maintaining was in part a way for her to visualize and see what she had accomplished. And in a sense I think it also helped to reinforce and remind her of those relationships she made. But I agree, that was A LOT of stuff.
DeleteI wonder if it wasn't motivated by fear. Performance art doesn't often create a product. But all the left over stuff are the artifacts recording the event.
DeleteRelated and unrelated... In reading the paper this morning there was an interesting quote in reference to the incident where an interview was filmed in the Cincinnati Bengals locker room with nude men in the background. One of the players broadcast naked said, "If I was a woman, this would be a completely different subject, and it would be a complete firestorm." What an interesting thought. Is he correct? Do we dismiss body violations of men easier than we do those of women, and if so why? Would we have responded differently if this was a woman's basketball team? I just thought it was an interesting situation to ponder in our discussions of nudity and power.
ReplyDeleteWow yes I tell my husband that all the time when we are swapping stories from our "dorm-life" experiences. Nudity was/is treated so differently in groups of men and women. It makes me think about how I am raising my son and would I teach him about "bodily violations" and nudity differently than if I had a daughter? And why would I?
Deleteha. this is a fun notion to consider justin. my first thought is men pee communally and women enjoy separate stalls. :)
Deletebut in general I think it is based on the history of woman as object, as possession and male as possessor, owner, subject. My guess is someday if we as humans can move toward Katharine's utopia of a violin for everyone and we know longer use body as a means of classification for exclusion and pecking order hierarchies, then, woot-woot, nakedness without shame or exploitation or double standards :)
i like utopian thinking!
Yeah, I think male nudity is treated very differently from female nudity. There are a lot of contradictions, like women are often nude (or show much more skin) than men in films, when a man is nude in a film it is either considered something new, pushing the boundaries in a film, or villain-ized. When a woman does people don't really think anything of it (generally), even if it has nothing to do with the plot. But when a woman is breastfeeding in public people sometimes freak out (this has been brought up in previous weeks), but a man without a shirt is thought of as not a big deal. I agree with Kathy, this deals with the history of women as object, and totally an issue of power.
DeleteAn interesting bit on male nudity and film... and Kevin Bacon's 'Free the Bacon PSA':
http://www.bustle.com/articles/102265-kevin-bacon-gives-mock-psa-on-male-nudity-in-hollywood-its-a-feminist-message-in
hmmm.... I wonder if it just happens to be the person doing the viewing. I think as artist we all kind of see the body different well I do I guess I see us all as subject all different sizes shapes so on.
DeleteAs I was reading the quote from Norman Seaman (pg 284) "It was kind of an approach she had, never to accept a denial."
ReplyDeleteI laughed for if avant garde means bending cultural citations AND never accepting a denial, it excludes me from its ranks. When denial comes in the form of something in which I feel I am already "imposing" on another, I hit the road the second I smell denial. And to boot that, I experience immense shame for even assuming that I could ask for this thing that infringes or burdens another.
Of course the necessity of not accepting denial, flagrantly justifying oneself, all the while pressing up against conventions, is inherent to the notion of being avant grade. This does not burst any of my self inflated bubbles of my identity as artist for I have no illusions that my work is avant garde. I may bend microconventions that won't rock another's boat, I may punch holes in my own boat, but usually above the waterline. I risk but within "safe" parameters (whatever the heck that means).
Like Moorman I jump of cliffs, but I choose conventional cliffs with an elevational shift that will only result in a turned ankle. I do not risk shattering of who I think I am, where my next meal will come from, nor my own bed with fresh sheets.
DeleteAnother quote that catches my intention is that of Art historian Abigail Solomon-Godeau (pg 296)
ReplyDeleteWhether a woman artist personally describes herself as a feminist is now somewhat beside the point. What is far more important is what the work is doing, how it operates, whether it exceeds, disturbs, destablizeds, or puts in question its commodity status as trophy, decoration or fetish.
I find this true of most things in life--it does not matter how you label yourself, what defines you are actions and inactions. Ha...Hymn..."they will know we are Christians by our love, by our love" and not by dogma that bubbles off lips or fish icons on cars or t-shirts. Action not symbols leaves the most reliable traces of who we are versus who we believe we are...
and so it is with art practices and it is why also we only understand practices that bend convention in retrospect for it is hard to read traces as they are laid down. retrospect has the traces glistening in our hindsight.
When I was reading this week and thinking about modern feminism, I think I have to agree with Rothfuss. Her quote on page 298, “Moorman herself was not a feminist. But her work proposes models for women’s artistic authorship and expression that could, and perhaps should, be understood as feminist.” And yeah this stems from the idea of 'actions speak louder than words'. Moorman may not have declared herself a feminist, because she avoided labeling, but her work in some respect is feminist (or at least can be discussed within a feminist framework). She may have used Paik as a shield, but she also co-created with Paik, made her own interpretations to Paik's initial ideas, and these actions are what make her more her own author. I agree with you Kathy, "what defines you are actions and inactions" what we do and not do can really impact our view of the world, and world's view of us.
DeleteUnlike Moorman's earlier enactment of Yoko Ono's Cut Piece performed (in Germany?), the later reenactment of it with Mend Piece on her rooftop event, I found highly moving. And in terms of performing another's performance, I found the context added a new layer that recast Ono's piece as something new versus mimicked.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was first exposed to Hanna Wilkes work, images, I leaned toward her practice as exploiting her body because of her beauty. In other words my initial reaction was that she used spectacle and the male gaze to secure her audience and rise in the art world. Perhaps this remains partially true. Yet, I felt Hannah Wilke's photographic documentation of her mother and her own battle with breast cancer right up to her death weaves her entire body of work together in a way that substantiates her early work as linked with an artistic praxis that was conceptually driven versus predominately driven by her sexuality and appeal to the male gaze.
ReplyDeleteI a like manner and in concurrence with RothFuss analysis, the way Moorman performed her physical demise and death fit within the frame of Moorman's entire artistic praxis--the good and bad.
From a familial perspective I am glad that my own mother did not have to navigate the performances required to counterbalance the unraveling of ones life. I am thankful my mom had an evening of laughter with my dad and no foreknowledge that the next day would be her last. My mom lived with MS for four decades and "performed" with laughter and without complaint other than a few fist shakes at the heavens when her body was more rebellious than usual. And I was grateful that as MS had her way with my mom's mind through the build up of plaque on the brain's surface, my mom only laughed more.
Even when my mom was experiencing a series of TIAs and had no clue as to who she was or who I was or my dad, she would smile and laugh. When I came to her bedside in the ER she was spewing words I link with a graduate level textbooks but hilariously they were linked in to particular order. Yet, her diction and cadence suggested that of complete and thoughtful sentences. In my need to comfort or assure her, I repeatedly told her where she was, why and that I was her daughter. And each time I stated that I was her daughter, she would compose and speak her only comprehensible sentence--"You're Funny." Then she would smile, lightly laugh and look to my dad for confirmation.
When I die, I want it to be quick like my mom, and as my body decays, I also hope that I will be like my mom. Of course having spent much time in the retirement and nursing home with my mom and dad, I know that slow or quick will not be according to my whims and chemistry and mind alterations may skew my disposition in uncontrollable ways.
Kathryn,thanks for your comments.You have to find humor in all of this otherwise,as in the words of my mom "you will go nuts!"As my mother's tumor progressed she lost motor control but was in little pain.How ironic! She had written a letter to her deceased mother saying that the food was bad and that she wanted to go home, just like a little girl! Luckily, the person who had lived in the house I had grown up in ,kindly forwarded the letter to me.No matter what our families go through,illness and death, what is important is that we knew these people, our loved ones ,our memories which are beyond words!
DeleteCancer has hit close to home a few times in my family. The two that really broke my heart was my cousin Percilla which I lost when I was around 6 she died in her mid 20's of ovarian cancer losing her was the hardest thing I had ever seen my family go through. Later on in life my other cousin Victoria (who looks a lot like me and is my mother's brother's daughter) was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at 13. I am a year younger than her. I saw her go through so much chimo, losing her hair (which we have always had long curly hair the both of us). Even though Victoria went through this she was still my best friend and we still stayed close. I used to pray for constantly I was so scared to lose her. I now thank God for her that she was able to beat cancer and now has two beautiful boys.
ReplyDeleteReading the last few chapters of this book I was almost waiting for it waiting to hear this heart wrenching story of how Moorman dies, but for her to go out doing what she loved I can only hope I am that way if ever faced with death. However much to your response about dying when you have children that makes it a whole different story. I could not imagine passing and leaving my daughter behind or the one I am going to have in December. I feel that if Moorman did have kids she may not have waited so long to go back to the doctor that final time, but who knows. Her last words to Frank did crack me up I mean instead of saying I love you or anything else she says "Dont throw my stuff away" ha
I had found on page 347 a moving statement of her fear of death, when she touched her companion Frank to see if she was still alive.Her haunting words: " I just don't want to die,I want to live" moved me.10 years ago, my father-in -law Buddy Nusbaum, a research enfgineer at IIT -Chicago, passed also from cancer.In between injections of morphine he stated hauntingly :"am I dead yet?" Whew! How do you process this?We eventually have to face our own mortality.Moorman's "Syringe Cello" on page 352,made with hypodermic needles, belied her acceptance of her inevitable death; as the author puts it: her past,her present,her body and her disease!I had also found it interesting that Charlotte had almost branded the cello metaphor in terms of several sculptural projects including a neon version.
ReplyDeleteIt is scary to think about when we die.... I know this sounds silly to some and the chances are low but I fear evening having another c-section and what if something happens. I could not imagine what my family or children would do without me. I am scared sometimes but just pray God will keep me around for a while. My grandmother and I used to talk about dying but she was always one of those "well if I die put me in a box and bury me." I used to be scared as a young girl what life would be like without them. I lost them in 2012 my grandfather who raised me in april then my grandmother in december week of my undergrad graduation. My world was turned upside down that year. I still miss them everyday. When I read that part in the book about Moorman being afraid of dying and reaching for Frank that did touch me as well.
DeleteThe Sky Kiss was an apt finale for Moorman's life and work.The author's word's on page 354 were a fitting testament to Charlotte: allowed her to transcend earth and float gently into the firmament..the piece became a visual metaphor for her passing.Going back a bit to page 325 and WTT ,the sky theme was attractive to her.It is interesting that the current movie The Walk refers to Philippe Petit's walk (as mentioned) between the two towers which would topple 27 years later! The world's tallest towers would become a beacon for many.Moorman was always looking to top her previous act.This was the sensationalist part of her being,a thrill seeker!
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