In the weeks entry, ill be discussing my research into feminist literature and beginning to dissect my plans and practice.
The class
Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it to my classes the week. So, I did the activity at home, I found part 3 “Ideas Factory” quite interesting. Firstly, thinking about what my relationship to time is? I was born two weeks late, sometime around midnight on the 23rd of May 2001, which makes me a Gemini and weirdly consistent as I’ve managed to be late to a lot. Which leads on to the next segment ‘measuring time’, I’m very reliant on alarms to measure time for me. However, I wish my body was better tuned into natures ability to register time, like that of flowers which bloom at night or the swallows the dance around the pier every evening. I found the one-minute challenge difficult at first after choosing “free time”, however toward the end of the Minuit I began to visual the idea of an alarm in a cage that no-one can turn off. Simple and maybe too literal, I found this concept to be quite fun and very different from my usual projects. The ‘multi-minute’ challenge however was a different experience, I chose the phrase ‘Hell of a time’ and found myself overthinking details and debating the pretentiousness of my ideas. This class I feel had benefited my practice by challenging my evolution and reflection skills, I think it is fair to say I could talk myself out of doing literally anything if I dwell on it long enough.
Research-The Yellow Wallpaper.
First publish in January 1892, the short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman challenged the ideas of Women’s mental health.
The story curates itself directly into the mind of the unnamed narrator, as she spirals into a psychosis. Neglected by her husband/doctor, she begins to see patterns in the wallpaper, patterns that develop into a woman trapped behind bars. The narrator then manically rips and chews away the paper to free the woman from her prison. It’s clear that the wallpaper reflects the narrator’s psyche, being trapped in her own prison of a marriage and society. Another aspect I found interesting was the speculation surrounding the name of the narrator. Towards the end of the story the narrator says, “I’ve got out at last, in spite of you and Jane.” Who is this Jane? It could be believed that this was a misprint of the sister-in-law’s name “Jennie”. However, I believe this is to show the disconnection the narrator feels from herself and escaping from own efforts to repress her mind.
How does this link to our theme of Time? Well in a wider context the story is showcasing patriarchal history as well creating a dialogue surrounding mental health, which focuses on the feelings and experiences of the unwell person, rather than ‘about’ them. Moving forward through time to the present, do I feel that things have progressed? Yes! overall society worldwide(ish) has driven itself to create more equal space as well as protect the needs of the vulnerable. But despite this, there is an unforgiving, universal, restlessness. I know from both my experiences and others that patriarchal ideals are still very much alive, and that women’s experiences with mental health services are questionable. Moving forwards to how my research into “The Yellow Wallpaper” had benefitted my project progression, I think it’s helped me reach deeper insight into the experience of being a woman and reinforced my concepts so far. Furthermore, as reader it brings out a desire to be unleashed, I’ve always composed myself to put everyone’s else first, it would be nice to be unapologetically unhinged. Though I’m unsure how I will be able to express all these thoughts and feelings into my art.
Experiments
This week I started by getting myself some canvas and, in the spirit of last semester, just simply painted. The point of this exercise was to establish some sort of flow, and kick start my thoughts. I feel that in some ways I was successful, there were points during my process where I was like, “wow this could actually be going somewhere” only to change my mind the next.
I like this painting below so far; I like the texture of the brushes and I think I should continue to experiment with and explore texture. My experiments have made me think more realistically about my concept, one way which might help me to express myself is to plan out my canvas. I’m aware this may sound contradictory but I think it would help me to curate and explore feminist imagery, so that I can then focus more being expressive as the work develops.
is there a way of recording your thoughts as you paint, much like Opalka and the way he spoke the number as he painted it and then photographed himself if he lost his concentration. Make sure you are documenting the classes and don’t forget the 2 artists from the lecture and some reflection on the lecture, great you’ve started painting.