Category Archives: Performance

Nikki S. Lee and polyculture

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In Cathy Covell Waegner’s “Performing Postmodernist Passing”, the photographer Nikki S. Lee is highlighted as an example of ‘passing’ in visual media. By ‘passing’, Waegner means the ability of an individual to appear as a different race and integrate into that particular racial society. Waegner focuses on one work in particular, in which the Asian American Lee passes and poses as a black woman. Lee has other works in this series which Waegner does not discuss, but which I think are notable: she poses as a white woman in front of a confederate flag, a female stripper, a lesbian, an old white woman, a Hispanic woman, and a few others.
In her work, Nikki S. Lee truly exemplifies what Waegner explains as “polyculture”. Lee’s ability to change from one race to another so easily demonstrates that “the stereotypes used to determine socioethnic groups are encoded and foregrounded” (Waegner 225). The idea of separate and distinct ethnicities is inherent in multiculturalism, while polyculture suggests the porousness of ethnicity. As Lee demonstrates, the aesthetic (what someone looks like, where they are, how they dress, how they act) as interpreted by the viewer determines race.

Identity Negotiation Within the Hip Hop Community

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Pinder: Contemporary artists, such as Lorraine O’Grady, explore the issue of biraciality and its “good” and “bad” dichotomy within our society.

Waegner: Through the negotiation of ethnicity and identity, artists in “Performing Postmodernist Passing” depict the trope of yellowface/blackface in their work.

Hip-Hop Project (1), 2001
Hip-Hop Project (1), Nikki S. Lee, (2001)

I am intrigued by Nikki S. Lee’s yellowface/black face impersonation in the Hip-Hop Project (1) (2001), in which she immerses herself into the predominately African-American hip-hop community in the Bronx. Despite her negotiation of identity, and “playful postmodernist passing” (Waegner, 223), Lee is suggesting that in order to be accepted you have to become an insider which can play into the reality of social and cultural isolation if one is an outsider. I would argue that in this image Lee still appears to be of Asian identity, which questions the success of her passing. However, since hip-hop is a “cross-cultural portability” (Waegner, 225), having Lee pose as her true South Korean self would change the reception of this photo. I would then interpret this image as hip-hop crossing social and cultural barriers, as it does today, regardless of race and ethnicity. One does not have to identify with a certain type to appreciate a specific genre of music, which is not what I interpret this image to portray. What about the Latino/a community within in the Bronx that is a part of the hip-hop community? Lee’s impersonation of a woman of African descent rejects the diversity of such community, making it race-specific and stereotypical.

Nikki S. Lee and the “Hip-Hop Project”

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Within Cathy Waegner’s “Performing Postmodernist Passing,” I am struck by the ways in which Nikki S. Lee’s works use the impersonation of race as a project of “denigrating the Other.” (Waegner, 223) Lee gains access to various communities in order to document them and to give viewers an intimate look at the lives of other people. Within her “Hip-Hop Project,” Lee’s photos allow a “voyeuristic glimpse” into the world of hip hop. (Waegner, 224) In doing so, Lee uses her own body as a canvas inscribed with the iconography of the culture and in turn presents a revealing performance of race, identity and society. At once, she captures the experience and lives it as an active participant. Throughout the description of the details of this project, I return to the idea of authenticity. The willingness of the subjects, as well as the staged nature of the photographs seem to disrupt the documentary nature of the works and raise the question of how we define authenticity. While Waegner refers to this as the embodiment of “‘willed authenticity,’” I wonder how the subjects’ cognizance of the project determines what is revealed. (Waegner, 224) As Lee transforms her own body and lifestyle to experience and document various factions of society, she calls into question the static categories of identity. Authenticity—by no means a static term or concept—has been the topic of many of our discussions as we consider the medium of photography as a political and subjective tool, and Lee’s work seems to complicate the idea of authenticity by making race, identification and agency fluid terms as well.

Waegner: Citing various examples (like Nikki S. Lee or R. Kelly’s Thoia Thoing), Waegner highlights the “growing trend” toward yellowface/blackface impersonation. (Waegner, 223)

Pinder: By discussing the works of Lorraine O’Grady and the public perception of multiethnic icons like Tiger Woods, Pinder discusses biraciality in the modern world and the polyptych nature of our culture.

“Looking” Behind and Beyond the Image of Black Masculinity

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Thelma Golden brings together artists who challenge the fetishized and over-determined image of black masculinity.

Kobena Mercer highlights photographer Rotimi Fani-Kayode’s interest in the ecstatic possibilities of shattering identity.

Looking for Langston defies narrative and temporal conventions in a queer historiographic intervention.

History is “the smiler with the knife” in Looking for Langston. Violence is foregrounded as a powerful force in the construction of historical narratives as well in the very act of looking.  If we agree with Thelma Golden’s assertion that representation is central to power and that “the real struggle is over the power to control images,” then Looking for Langston can be seen as an intervention speaking truth to power.  The formal experimentation with narrative structure, the nonlinear montage of poetry with archival images, for example, and the use of multiple voices supports the radical intervention undertaken by the film.  Isaac Julien undertakes an intersectional exploration of race, gender performance and sexuality that, in terms of both content and form, is multifaceted and fluid.  As Golden and Mercer point out in their analyses of the images circulating of black masculinity and sexuality, these images overwhelmingly confine black male identity to the fixed, singular vision of white patriarchy. The film self-reflexively displays the processes by which images of black gay men are consumed while attempting to reclaim a space for black voices to queer the dominant narrative about the Harlem Renaissance.  In a sequence about midway through the film the possessive white gentleman from the club sequences walks past a series of projected images of black male nudes, touching the screen as he passes.  Thus this film, like the photographers who reacted to Mapplethorpe’s Black Males series, for example, explores the troubled dynamics of voyeuristic pleasure and fetishism that operate in the images circulating of black masculinities.

Fraser: Bridging the Gaps

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The Museum Highlights selections really opened my eyes to the art world and its boundaries.  Many people, myself included, fail to realize how divisive the arts have become at the hand of professionalism and academia.  This is extremely important to note and I believe that groups like Kontext Kunst and artists like Andrea Fraser that dedicate themselves to bridging the gaps between writing, thinking, and making presented in the art world are admirable.  Fraser is able to do this through the interconnectedness of her writing, and performances.

One thing that stood out to me about Frasers project art is the way in which it critiques aspects of the culture of art oftentimes simply through representation.  Understanding these cultural tendencies is something that I came to learn through Fraser’s work.  For example, while reading chapter 9 of a performance where Jane Castleton leads a tour group through the Philadelphia Museum of Art, it became undoubtedly apparent to me who and what the Museum deemed important, as well as what type of people the Museum preferred and catered to.  Fraser sums up this notion beautifully in her description of Jane in the end notes where she states:

“as a volunteer, she expresses the possession of a quantity of the leisure and the economic and cultural capital that defines a museum’s patron class.  It is only a small quantity – indicating rather than bridging the class gap that compels her to volunteer her services in the absence of capital…yet it is enough to position her in identification with the museum’s board of trustees and as the museum’s exemplary viewer” (Fraser, 110)

Fraser:  Through the interconnectedness of her writing and performances, Fraser attempts to bridge the division between ‘writing’, ‘thinking’, and ‘making’ that the professionalization of the artist and intellectual created.

Taylor:  Taylor outlines the history of performance art and highlights artists significant to the genre including Abramovic, and Scheemann.

The Local Approach

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Summaries of Readings:

Taylor: Performance art acts as an active medium for the artist to experiment with the body and radical concepts.

Introduction: Albero introduces Fraser’s work as an unprecedented use of literary essays that complement and context her contemporary art work.

A Gallery Talk: Jane acts as an awkward museum guide to provide commentary on the city of Philadelphia and the museum’s structure.

A Letter to the Wadsworth: Fraser’s performances use candid language to criticize the ignorance of class conflict in Hartford and explain its reasoning.

A Sensation Chronicle: Addressing the Sensation controversy, Fraser emphasizes voices in the art world and the different autonomies that govern the field.

Andrea Fraser's 'Box Set'

Andrea Fraser’s ‘Box Set’

Response:

As a conceptual artist, Andrea Fraser mainly uses the active medium of performance for her work. She differentiates herself from other performance artists by using museums as the location to provide commentary on the local community. In Welcome to the Wadsworth (1991), Fraser acts as a tour guide of Wadsworth Atheneum who indirectly explains how the patronage history of Hartford leads to the city’s current ignorance of class conflict. The subject of Fraser’s Welcome to the Wadsworth continues to distinguish her method as she enters an artistic safe haven of Hartford as an outsider and critiques the community. On the surface, her approach seems like a rather rude, creative intrusion. Nevertheless, Fraser creates a tangible subject for her audience, unlike other artists who address more broad subjects. Certain artists decide to tackle overarching themes, such as racism and sexism in America. Such works inform and involve the audience in ignored topics but distance the viewers as they attempt to understand the broad themes which may appear unfeasible for them to influence. Whereas, Fraser’s performance addresses the ignored issue of class conflict on the local level of Hartford. Viewers who are moved by her Welcome to the Wadsworth are more likely to address the issue in the neighborhood than a viewer who feels that they do not have much influence on racism in America.

Nevertheless, Fraser still creates distance between her performance and her audience. In Welcome to the Wadsworth, she makes her tour attendees feel rather uncomfortable as she blatantly expresses disgust for the urban poor and migrants who are changing the scene of Hartford. Her harsh words are meant to articulate the unexpressed thoughts of the middle class and above who are disturbed by the changes. Although Fraser’s statements contain truth, their abruptness catches the tour attendees off guard which can prevent them from understanding her performance. Like the work of other artists’ who tackle broad themes, Fraser criticizes her subject and fails to provide a way for the community to tackle the issue. Hence, viewers of her performance may still feel isolated from the topic of her work, although it addresses more tangible and local issues.

Andrea Frazer’s Embodiment of the Art Institution

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Taylor: Taylor’s historical chronicle of performance art illustrates the genre as one that mimics life’s (un)scripted, (un)predictable, and ephemeral nature.

Fraser: Andrea Fraser’s Museum Highlights is a sobering treatise that begs us to strategically deconstruct an art institution that has historically been the recipient of our unquestioning admiration and allegiance.

Andrea Fraser’s scripted performances in Museum Highlights legitimizes many of my own experiences of feeling inferior during my visits to art institutions throughout my childhood and young adult life.  Her impersonation of distinguished representatives of the museum quickly brought to light the specific mannerisms that were at the source of my discomfort. It was the way the curators, docents, guards and guides were dressed in either an official uniform or a particular high-class style of dress… It was also the way they moved about the art space, their knowledge of the “right” order in which to view the art works, the “best” viewing distance in which to interact with the piece, and their control over the amount of time an individual is given to take in a masterpiece. And it was the discriminatory and almost cryptic dialect which they employed in an effort to distinguish the prestigious and tasteful works of art exhibited in the museum from the lower-class creations existing outside of the museum walls…

In Frazer’s concluding quote of Chapter 9, she sums up the function of the museum not only as a site of socialization for the lower-class public, but as a discriminatory body that produces value and meaning in the art world: “distinguishing between a coat room and a rest room, between a painting and a telephone, a guard and a guide…”

In Chapter 11, Frazer continues to demystify the naturalized rhetoric about the characteristics of a museum as ordained. When considering the names of museums, lobbies or wings of an art institution, Frazer brings attention to the fact that many were named after historically wealthy-class individuals.  What’s more, she makes note of the fact that many buildings were given names “in memory of loved ones who sometimes had no interest in art themselves,” which served to discredit my assumption that all the patrons of that time had a taste for art. Learning the details behind a museum’s formation helped me as a consumer of art to humanize an art institution that is commonly seen as impenetrable. It also disrupts the belief that museums are naturally exclusive entities. Frazer makes it easier for art critics and the general public alike to see the institution’s systematic maintenance of disproportionate power relations between museum “insiders” and “outsiders.”

Questioning the philosophy of the museum

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Sentences

Fraser: In Museum Highlights: The Writings of Andrea Fraser, the artist explores the dichotomies of art and politics, economics and popular culture, specifically in the context of museums such as The Brooklyn Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Wadsworth Atheneum, and The Philadelphia Institute of the Arts.

Taylor: The history of performance art and its evolution from artists movements such as DADA and Alan Kaprow’s “happenings” in the 1960s is examined in order create further understanding about fleeting works of art.

Reflection

I found Andrea Fraser’s writing fascinating and look forward to hearing her speak about her performance art pieces and conception of  “museum politics” on Tuesday. The beginning of the introduction to Museum Highlights, Alexander Alberro, who wrote the introduction hit the nail on the head about the importance of artists’ writings in Fraser’s art including essays, tracts, statements and interviews when he says “[writings] are and inherent part of her artistic practice.” Which in turn implicates artists as intellectuals, despite the rigid divide traditionally drawn by the art world. I was particularly moved by Fraser’s letter to the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut, as Hartford is the closest major city to my hometown. Interestingly, the history of the Wadsworth Atheneum is one that has been a part of system of oppression for the poor and people of color for many decades up until the 1970s, as it was the first museum in the United States opening in 1842, founded by white New England elites. What intrigued me about Fraser’s writing about Hartford is that it is so clearly academic, indicting that a great amount of research was required to have and understanding the museums history, specifically donors, history of backlash, and educational programs. I am interested in the discussions of funding of museums, such as backlash against the Brooklyn Museum by then mayor of New York, Rudy Guilani, about the exhibition Sensation in 1999. The case of the Wadsworth Atheneum is interesting in the context of the history of Hartford, and the white flight to the suburbs in the 1960 because of militant Black Power groups as Fraser describes them. I am curious to know about the current educational and community initiatives in Hartford due to the poverty-stricken exteriors of the city today.

In reading Taylor’s chapter on performance art as well as selections from Fraser’s book, I reflected on a trip I took to the Museum of Modern Art yesterday afternoon. At first it seemed unlike any other trip I would have taken to this museum a trip to fifth floor to see The Migration Series (1940-1) by Jacob Lawrence and a slow meandering down to the second floor. I was however, greeted with masses of people staring into a glass box in the entrance to galleries where tickets are scanned. As I got closer, I realized it was woman was sleeping in the box, a pair of glasses and water jug accompanied her. I looked at the label on wall behind the box and came to find out that the woman in the box was, Tilda Swinton, an actress and artist, there was however no information about the purpose of the performance. While standing before the box I struggled to understand the significance of Swinton’s performance entitled The Maybe. I was completely disturbed by the voyeuristic nature of this piece, as in; it felt like viewers were becoming part of a highly private and personal moment. Additionally, I considered the performance pieces of Fraser, which were completely different as Fraser interacts with her audiences during most of her performance pieces. Of course, I took to Twitter to understand more about my strange experience at the MoMA and learned that Swinton will be performing The Maybe half a dozen more times (unannounced until the day of) throughout the year. This is pertinent to Fraser’s writing specifically in Chapter 17: A Sensation Chronicle, when talking about the motives of commercial museums, like the MoMA, in having specific sponsors and art which may or may not garner controversy and publicity. In this instance, Swinton, an important actress turned artist has done just that.

Marina Abramovic: Yes, It Is Art

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In “Conceptual Art and Feminism”, Jayne Wark explores the ways in which the works of four artists (Martha Rosler, Adrian Piper, Eleanor Antin, and Martha Wilson) have challenged the limitations and values of Conceptualism.

In “Why Have There Been No Great Artists?”, art historian Linda Nochlin illustrates that historically the process of creating art depended not on innate talent, but on the social conditions in which the artist lived.

The HBO documentary “Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present” follows the compilation and execution of Abramovic’s exhibit “The Artist is Present” at the MoMA; simultaneously, the film explores the controversial and emotional world of performance art and the performance artist.

In the documentary “Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present”, Marina speaks with an interviewer about her artwork. She has always been asked about her performances: “Why is this art?” In thinking about performance, conceptualism, and feminism, the link between contemporary conceptual art and feminism must first be explored.
To begin, what is feminist art? Marina Abramovic is generally considered a feminist artist; she is even called “the grandmother of performance art.” Female identifying artists have largely been absent from art history, as discussed by Linda Nochlin in “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?”. Nochlin concludes, and I agree, that art history as a profession is from the white, Western male viewpoint, and that social conditions rather than lack of talent prevented women from becoming artists throughout history. When considered in this way, feminist art is any art created by a woman.
But in addressing contemporary art specifically, why is conceptual art feminist art? Jayne Wark discusses how artists Martha Rosler, Adrian Piper, Eleanor Antin, and Martha Wilson used conceptualism to critically address the social and political movements of the 1970’s, especially the feminist movements. Their art carried political clout: they were not only creating art for aesthetic value, they were engaging with audiences to make people think. In order to do this, they moved outside the bounds of conceptual art, a move made necessary by the patriarchal nature of the art world.
In the same way, Marina Abramovic’s work is contemporary, conceptual, feminist art. She is a female artist who has gained international recognition (and notoriety) for her performance art. In her performance art, she criticizes: the conceptions of women, the body, society, love, relationships, family, and the individual. Thus her work has political and cultural resonance. So, returning to the original question “Why is this art?”: Abramovic uses performance to engage her audience and evoke thought. Like the women of the conceptual feminist art movement, she must step outside the ‘normal’ and ‘accepted’ views of art (the white Western male view) to gain recognition and acceptance as an artist.