ARTH 53- First Year Seminar: Art and the Body MWF 11:15-12:05 Hanes Art Center 117

Dr Katherine Guinness Office Hours: Wednesdays 12:30-2:00 (134 E Franklin Street Room 210) (go through room 214) or by appointment [email protected]

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Course Description This course investigates the history of and theory from the 1960s to the present. It focuses primarily on conceptions of the gendered body, questioning why it has been a major theme within feminist art. Beginning with larger art historical questions of the canon and the gaze, then continuing through political presence of the female body and embodied performance within artwork from the 1970s, and moving to a variety of art movements and feminist waves, ending with what it means to challenge the presence and/or absence of the body in artwork today, the course covers issues of embodiment and art making as it relates to theories of gender, sexuality, race, and technology. Questions raised will include what a “female aesthetic” looks like and whether one truly exists within art history, what it means to have and create artwork with a gendered body, how female artists have both embraced and denied the body within their work, and how movements largely thought to ignore the body, such as minimalism, conceptualism, and postmodernism, can be seen as gendered. The course will rely heavily on theoretical texts and close- readings, but also familiarize students with major feminist artists and artworks from the past 50 years. Students will examine changing social conditions and their impact on women artists as well as the responses to the art of women, and will gain valuable skills in critical analysis, writing, and an important base in art historical theories and criticism.

Course Objectives and Outcomes By the end of this class students will have a grounding in:

- key movements, themes, artists, and works within contemporary feminist art

- critical and analytical frameworks for the analysis and evaluation of contemporary art

- the ability to critically analyse and discuss a range of contemporary art works in written and oral forms

- the development of independent learning and critical thinking

- research, writing, and inquiry skills (involving the ability to present evidence and argument in support of their own particular perspective)

2 Course Requirements / Grade Explanation

Short Essay: 20% Long Essay: 35% Reading Responses: 15% Provocation Reports: 15% Class Participation: 15%

Grades assigned will adhere to the designation authorized by The University:

A 90-100 Mastery of course content at the highest level, B 80-89 Strong performance C 70-79 Totally acceptable performance D 65-69 Marginal performance F below 65 Unacceptable performance

Attendance and Lateness Attendance is mandatory. Regular attendance and participation in class is mandatory. After two absences, your grade will be reduced by 1/3 of a grade (e.g., from a B to a B-) for each unexcused absence; more than five will result in an F. The same is true for lateness; repeated late arrivals will be treated as absences. In addition, the readings and assignments must be completed by the date scheduled. Late assignments will receive reduced grades or will not be accepted.

Required reading All students must access the course readings, which will be posted in the Resources section of our Sakai class site. All readings must be printed out and brought to class on discussion days. (We all want to be good to the environment and printing costs money, so bringing them digitally is an option, though not the preferred one.) The assigned readings are essential to this course and must be treated accordingly. Some are quite challenging and may require more time than expected. Do not worry if you don’t understand everything, that is what class time is for! As long as you do the reading, and are prepared to bring your questions to class and discuss the problems you may have had with it, you will be just fine. Do not attempt to read everything in one sitting. If there is a term you do not understand, look it up. If there is an artist or work of art with which you are not familiar, look it up. You will be required to participate in an informed discussion of these readings. You will be called upon in class.

Written Assignments There are three written assignments in this course: reading responses, a short essay in which you will formally analyze a work of art and a longer research paper.

3 Short Essay: In the short essay (2-4 pages in length / 1,000 words), you will be asked to formally analyse a work of art from a local art institution (such as the Ackland, the Nasher, or the North Carolina Museum of Art – I also encourage you to explore smaller local galleries and spaces). While this essay is not a research paper, you will be expected to incorporate some themes and citations from class. Due March 10th If you cannot find a work of art at a local institution please discuss an alternative option with me.

Long Essay: In the long essay (5-7 pages / 2,000 words), I ask you to examine in detail an artist, art work, art movement, theorist, methodology, or conceptual issue related to the themes discussed throughout this course. It is up to you to formulate a relevant question or topic from which you can create a cohesive and well-argued essay. You may decide to discuss the work of a single artist or art collective, a single art work, a museum or gallery space, the studio, a number of works and/or artists read through a particular theoretical vein – the possibilities are vast. I highly encourage you to explore any aspect of this course that interests you, as what you find interesting will make for the most interesting paper and most exciting (and enjoyable) research. I urge you to visit me during my office hours to discuss your chosen topic, this way you can make sure you have a viable subject matter for the best possible research paper. In fact, you are required to schedule a meeting with me in week 12 in order to discuss your chosen topic and ideas for your essay. Your essay must develop an original argument, which means you should not simply rehash other people’s ideas. This is a university-level essay, not a high-school book report! That said, you are expected to research your topic thoroughly and cite all sources you consult in the correct format. Due MAY 1ST

All papers MUST be in 12 point, Times New Roman Font and double-spaced. Be consistent with your formatting, preferably using Chicago style (either author-date or notes-bibliography style).

Reading Responses: It is essential you read the assigned texts each week. Read the readings before the class. You don't have to understand everything in them, but you do need to read them. There will be three formal reading responses due. These will be collected on April 10 and April 28th (space them out, do not do them all at once at the last minute! – additionally it is up to you whether you would like to turn in one and two or two and one on these dates, but you cannot turn in zero and three!)) It is your choice which readings you respond to. The responses should be 1-2 pages typed, with the same formatting guidelines as the short and long essays.

Provocation Reports Provocations will be presented each Friday, and you will sign up for a specific date at the beginning of the course. A provocation is an action that instigates a reaction from other students to the concepts in the assigned reading. It syntheses and

4 translates the reading, with additional research on the topic, into a call to action in the class. Take a creative approach to trigger engagement with, and discussion of themes in the reading. The reading you will be responsible for presenting on is your choice from the optional readings of the week. Don't simply summarize the reading and themes. This is meant to introduce new information on the readings and themes from the week, and to provoke your fellow classmates into a discussion. Make sure the provocations relate directly to the key themes in the readings. One good was to go about your provocation is to prepare a main question, an example that relates to the themes (most likely a work of art), and a quotation from the reading you found especially engaging or challenging and wish to explore further. Participation Being involved is crucial for success in this class. Participation means attending class regularly, completing the assigned reading before each class, contributing to class discussions and provocations, and completing assignments on time. It is especially important to complete all of the assigned readings prior to each class even if you don’t completely understand them – some of the readings are difficult and having questions about them to bring to the discussion will help you understand them better. Failure to participate can irrevocably harm your grade. If you are uncomfortable speaking in class, you can supplement your participation grade by emailing comments and thoughts directly to me or meeting with me individually.

Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has had a student-administered honor system and judicial system for over 100 years. The system is the responsibility of students and is regulated and governed by them, but faculty share the responsibility. If you have questions about your responsibility under the honor code, please bring them to your instructor or consult with the office of the Dean of Students or the Instrument of Student Judicial Governance. This document, adopted by the Chancellor, the Faculty Council, and the Student Congress, contains all policies and procedures pertaining to the student honor system. Your full participation and observance of the honor code is expected.

At UNC, plagiarism is defined as “the deliberate or reckless representation of another’s words, thoughts, or ideas as one’s own without attribution in connection with submission of academic work, whether graded or otherwise.” (Instrument of Student Judicial Governance, Section II.B.1.). Because it is considered a form of cheating, the Office of the Dean of Students can punish students who plagiarize with course failure and suspension. Full information can be found on the UNC Honor System page.

5 Resources Writing Center — provides workshops that will help you at all stages of the writing process. (Keep in mind the Writers Workshop is not a proofreading forum.) Further details are available by calling the Writing Center at 919.962.7710 or visiting their website writingcenter.unc.edu. (You can even submit drafts online.)

Course Schedule

Week 1: Introduction W JAN 11 - Introduction to the Course F JAN 13 – What is a body? What is Art? be sure to sign up for provocation reports!

Week 2: The Body of Art History (Searching the Canon) M JAN 16 NO CLASS

W JAN 18 - Jones, “Survey, The Artist’s Body” F JAN 20 – Linda Nochlin, “Why have there been no great women artists?” Art and Sexual Politics, New York, NY: Baker and Hess, 1973 Primary Artworks: Artemisia Gentileschi, Susanna and the Elders (1610) and Judith Slaying Holofernes (1614-20); , Interior Scroll (1975); Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party (1979); Guerilla Girls, Do Women Have to Be Naked...?, The Advantages of Being a Woman Artist (1989) Optional Readings: selections from The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir, Vintage, 2011; Selection from (p. 23-29 only)

Week 3: The Gaze M JAN 23 - John Berger, Ways of Seeing, Section 2 & 3

W JAN 25 - discussion F JAN 27 – Provocation Reports

Optional Reading: Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”; Griselda Pollock, Differencing the Canon: Feminist Desire and the Writing of Art’s Histories, New York, NY: Routledge, 1999

6 Primary Artworks: Titian, The Venus of Urbino (1538); Edouard Manet, Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (1863), Olympia (1865); Alfred Hitchcock, Vertigo (1958); Yasumasa Morimura, Portrait (Futago) (1988); Barbara Kruger, (Your Gaze Hits the Side of My Face) (1981); Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Stills (1977-1980) and Centerfold Series; Jenny Saville, Plan (1993) and Matrix (1999); Anna Biller, The Love Witch (2016) Week 4: The Second Wave: 1960s and 1970s Feminist Artists

M JAN 30 - selections from The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan

W FEB 1 - discussion F FEB 3 – Provocation Reports Optional Readings / Viewings: Shulamith Firestone, The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for a Feminist Revolution; Gloria Steinem, “I Was a Playboy Bunny”; selections from Pornography: Men Possessing Women, Andrea Dworkin; “She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry”

Primary Artworks: Eva Hesse, Repetition 19 III (1968); Margaret Harrison, He’s Only A Bunny Boy... (1971); Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro, (1972); , Carving: a Traditional Sculpture (1972); , Rape Scene, (1973); , Semiotics of the Kitchen (1975); , Leslie Labowitz, et al. In Mourning and In Rage (1977); Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Your body is a battleground) (1989)

Week 5: Feeling the Body: Affect Theory and Aesthetics

M FEB 6 - Gregory J. Seigworth and Melissa Gregg, “An Inventory of Shimmers,” in The Affect Theory Reader, Durham: Duke University Press, 2010

W FEB 8 - Julia Kristeva, “Approaching Abjection,” in Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, New York: Columbia University Press, 1982

F FEB 10 – Provocation Reports

Optional Readings: Sianne Ngai, “The Cuteness of the Avant-Garde,” in Our Aesthetic Categories, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2012; Brian Massumi, “Autonomy of Affect,” in Parables of the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation, Durham: Duke University Press, 2002; Ivan Vartanian, Drop Dead Cute, Chronicle Books, 2005; Selections from Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the origin of our ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful

Primary Artworks: Hermann Nitsch, Theatre of Orgies and Mysteries or The Orgiastic Mystery Theater (1962-1998); Marina Abramovic, Lips of Thomas (1975); Cindy Sherman, Disaster Series (1980); Kiki Smith, Pee Body (1992); Takashi Murakami, And then and then and then and then (1996); Chiho Aoshima, The Birth of the Giant

7 Zombie (2001); Wim Delvoye, Cloaca Professional (2010); Rachel Maclean, Feed Me (2015)

Week 6:

M FEB 13 - Arthur C. Danto, “Sitting With Marina,” The New York Times; (link here: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/sitting-with-marina/ ) – if this does not work a poorly formatted PDF is available on the course site ) ; Rosalind Krauss, “Video: The Aesthetics of Narcissism”

W FEB 15 – No Class, use this time to go to one of the chosen art institutions (if you haven’t already!) and decide on what work you will analyze for your short essay

F FEB 17- No Class

Optional Reading: Roselee Goldberg, Performance Art: from Futurism to the Present; Carl E. Loeffler, et al., Performance Anthology: Source Book for a Decade of California Performance Art; Guinness, Katherine and Grant Bollmer, “Marina Abramovic Doesn’t Feel Like You,” Feral Feminisms, Issue 3

Primary Artworks: , Cut Piece (1964); , Seedbed (1972); Marina Abramovic, Rhythm Series (1973-1974), Seven Easy Pieces (2005), and The Artist is Present (2010); Ana Mendieta, Silueta Series (1973-1977); , Seven Years of Living Art (1984-1991); Andrea Fraser, Official Welcome (2001); Vanessa Beecroft, VB61, Still Death! Darfur Still Deaf? (2007), Yeezy Season 4 Runway Show (2016)

Week 7: Performing Gender

M FEB 20 - selections from Gender Trouble, Judith Butler,1990

W FEB 22 - discussion

F FEB 24 - Provocation Reports

Optional Reading: Monique Wittig, “One is Not Born a Woman”; G. Roger Denson, “Did Men Invent Art to Become Women? Must Women Become Men to Make Great Art?,” 2012; Kaori Chino, “A Man Pretending to Be a Woman: On Yasumasa Morimura’s Actresses,” Beauty Matters, Indiana University Press, 2000; Joan Riviere, “Womanliness as Masquerade”

Primary Artworks: Adrian Piper, Mythic Being, (1973); Cindy Sherman, Untitled (Male/Female Artist) (1980); Yasumsaa Morimura, Daughter of Art History (1990); Jenny Saville, Passage (2004)

Week 8: Sexuality

M FEB 27 – Selections from Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1

8 W MAR 1 - discussion

F MAR 3 – Provocation Reports

Optional Readings: Gayle S. Rubin, “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality”; Monique Wittig, The Lesbian Body (this is an entire book, while you do not have to read all of it, I urge to look over it and get a feel for the text and style of prose.)

Primary Artworks: Claude Cahun, Self Portrait (1920); Zoe Leonard, Strange Fruit (1995); Collier Schorr, Forest Bed Blanket (Black Velvet) (2001); Julie Mehretu, Renegade Delirium (2002)

Week 9: The Body and Race

M MAR 6 – Linda Martin Alcoff, “Towards a phenomenology of racial embodiment”

W MAR 8 - discussion

F MAR 10 - Short Essay Due; Provocation Reports

Optional Readings: Fusco, "The Other History of Intercultural Performance”; Lisa Collins, “Economies of the Flesh”; Audre Lorde, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House”; Nicole R. Fleetwood, “Excess Flesh: Black Women Performing Hypervisibility,” in Troubling Vision: Performance, Sensuality, and Blackness

Primary Artworks: Adrian Piper, Catalysis Series (1970); Faith Ringgold, Tar Beach (1988); Renee Cox, Yo Mama’s Last Supper (1999); Kara Walker, Slavery, Slavery (1997), A Subtlety or the Marvelous Sugar Baby (2014); Wangechi Mutu, Untitled (2003); Kenya Robinson, Hairpolitic: The Pursuit of Nappiness (2008); Donelle Woolford/Joe Scanlan, Dick’s Last Stand, Dick Jokes (2014)

BREAK: March 11-19

Week 10: The Body and Race (Cont.)

M MAR 20 - Maurice Berger, “The Critique of Pure Racism, an Interview with Adrian Piper”

W MAR 22 – discussion

F MAR 24 – Provocation Reports

Optional Readings: Jose Estaban Munoz, “The White to be Angry: Vaginal Davis’s Terrorist Drag,” Social Text; Michele Wallace, “Black Women in Popular Culture: From Stereotype to Heroine,” in Dark Designs and Visual Culture, Durham, NC: Duke

9 University Press, 2004; Mercer, “Reading Racial Fetishism: The Photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe”

Week 11: Conceptual Art

M MAR 27 - selections from Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972, Lucy R. Lippard, Berkley: University of California Press, 1997

W MAR 29 - discussion

F MAR 31 – Provocation Reports

Optional Readings: Yoko Ono, Grapefruit: A Book of Instructions and Drawings, Simon and Schuster, 2000; Sianne Ngai, “Merely Interesting,” in Our Aesthetic Categories, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2012; Anna Chave, “Minimalism and the Rhetoric of Power”

Primary Artworks: , Narcissus Garden (1966); Anne Truitt, A Wall for Apricots (1968); Mary Kelley, Postpartum Document (1973-79); Yoko Ono, Wish Tree; Rosemarie Trockel, Untitled (Pennsylvania Station) (1987); Rachel Whiteread, House (1993);

Week 12: Writing Workshop / Individual Meetings

M APR 3 – Writing Workshop

W APR 5 – Individual Meetings, have yours scheduled!!!

F APR 7 – Individual Meetings, have yours scheduled!!!!

Week 13: Disembodied Art: What Creates Work?

M APR 10 –Georges Didi-Hubermann, “The Index of the Absent Wound: Monograph on a Stain” First Reading Response Due

W APR 12 – discussion

FRI APR 14 – No Class

Optional Reading: Mary Anne Doane, “The Indexical and the Concept of Medium Specificity”; Andrew Benjamin, Object Painting, Wiley, 1994; Jacques Derrida, “Signature Event Context”; Judith Butler, “Bodies That Matter,” Feminist Theory and the Body: A Reader, eds. Janet Price and Margrit Schildrick, New York: Routledge, 1999

Primary Artworks: Eleanor Agnes Martin, Tremolo (1962); Eleanor Antin, Blood of a Poet Box (1965-68); Jenny Holzer, Protect Me From What I Want (1983-85); Rosemarie Trockel, Painting Machine and 56 Brushstrokes (1990); Doris Salcedo,

10 Atrabiliarios (1992); , Lick and Lather (1993); Cecile B. Evans, Trilogy

Week 14: Third-Wave Feminism, Post-Feminism, and the Legacy of the Body and Gender in Contemporary Art

M APR 17 - Jackie Brookner, “Feminism and Students of the 80s and 90s: The Lady and the Raging Bitch; or, How Feminism Got a Bad Name,” Art Journal, 50:2 (Summer 1991)

W APR 19 – discussion

F APR 21 – Provocation Reports

Optional Readings: Kathleen Hanna “Riot Grrrl Manifesto”; Jennifer Gilley, “Writings of the Third Wave: Young Feminists in Conversation”; Angela McRobbie, “Post- Feminism and Popular Culture”

Primary Artworks: Mona Hatoum, Hair Necklace (1995) and Prayer Mat (1995); Tracy Emin, Everyone I have Ever Slept With (1963-1995) and My Bed (1998); Andrea Fraser, Untitled (2003); Cao Fei, RMB City (2008); Barbara Kruger, Kim Kardashian Cover for W Magazine (2010); Wangechi Mutu, Exhuming Gluttony (2011); Ghada Amer, Le champ de marguerites (2011); Kate Gilmore, Love ‘em, Leave ‘em (2013)

Week 15: The Technological Body

M APR 24 – “An Oral History of the First Cyberfeminists” Motherboard, Vice Magazine, Claire L. Evans http://motherboard.vice.com/read/an-oral-history-of- the-first-cyberfeminists-vns-matrix

W APR 26 – discussion

F APR 28 – Final Two Reading Responses Due Class Wrap Up!

Optional Readings: Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto”; selections from Sherry Turkle, Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet; Mark Hansen “Digitizing the Racialized Body, or the Politics of Common Impropriety”; Jennifer Gonzalez, “The face and the Public: Race, Secrecy, and Digital Art Practice”; Aaron Souppouris, “Virtual Reality Made Me Believe I was Someone Else,” The Verge; Ben Kuchera, “Being Someone Else: How Virtual Reality is Allowing Men and Women to Swap Bodies,” Polygon

Primary Artworks: Laura Cinti, The Cactus Project (2001); Julie Rrap, OverStepping (2001); Jordan Wolfson, Female Figure (2014); Cecile B. Evans, Hyperlinks or it Didn’t Happen, (2014), AGNES; Richard Prince, New Portraits, (2015); beanotherlab, Gender Swap, Machine to Be Another (2016); Rachel Maclean, Over the Rainbow (2013), We Want Data (2016); Amalia Ulman, Excellences and Perfections, (2016)

11 FINAL ESSAY DUE WEDNESDAY MAY 1ST

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