In Search of a Language Textile and Text in Contemporary Women’S Art
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IN SEARCH OF A LANGUAGE TEXTILE AND TEXT IN CONTEMPORARY WOMEN’S ART Sarah Ann O’Mahony September 2011 Supervisor: Dr Gavin Murphy, Department of Art History and Critical Theory, Cluain Mhuire Campus, Galway Mayo Institute of Technology. Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosphy. Dedication Dedicated to the honoured memory of Sarah Walsh, Grandmother, and Ellen Gormley, Mother, creative textile artists, my gracious ‘St. Anne’ role models, who taught me to knit and to read and who envisioned for women and the work of their hands and hearts, an eloquent speaking part; for ‘no-woman’/everywoman, of all races, who, through the generations, in the most adverse of circumstances, kept the possibility of creative expression and futures alive for their daughters. I re-member thee. 2 Acknowledgements * The women artists whose work is referred to in this thesis, who wove innovative and magical webs of word and sign in a great work of cultural renewal, a veritable renaissance in our beleaguered age. • Dr. Gavin Murphy, an educator in the true sense, from the Latin educare/to lead out, who mentored my journey in critical theory from undergraduate days and who staunchly supported this research with insightful discussions, most generous sharing of his extensive knowledge of contemporary art practice and theory, timely words of encouragement and lovely lunches, always an aesthetic experience, food for body and soul. • Fred Bazler, Art Historian, whose inspiring lectures as an Access student in GMIT, led me into the enchantment of art historical discourse. • Dr. Suzanne O’Shea, for her enthusiasm and generous support of the research idea. • Mary MacCague, Head of Humanities, GMIT, and Phil Lydon, who negotiated the complexities of the HETAC Doctoral Register on my behalf and the staff of the Library at GMIT, whose enthusiasm, good will and skillful use of Interlibrary Loan facilities, (leaving no stone unturned in their efforts to meet my requests!) made gathering of source materials an exciting adventure. • Michael Browne, for his support of this project, his most generous sharing of word processing skills, advice on diagrams and figures included in the thesis, and his gallant reformatting of the entire thesis; but most especially for a memorable shared visit to the Venice Biennale, in 2007, when Tracey Emin’s exhibition illuminated the British Pavilion. • Eileen and Sarah McManus, my sister and niece, for our shared joy in the arts and their enthusiasm for this project. Sarah typed initial drafts from my illegible handwriting and Eileen traveled with me to share glorious visits to the Museums and Art Galleries of Europe. Sarah’s two delightful boys, Oisin and Daragh, and their little sister Saoirse, artists in the making, shared fun and creative energies! • Artists sisters- Mary Sheils, inspired weaver and educator, loyal friend whose own life path inspired me to seek an arts education in mid-life; Doreen Healy, weaver, potter and stain glass artist, my inspirational and courageous ‘Aunty Do’, who at the age of 93 is still working; Carmel Costello, for her friendship and strong belief in the transformative power of art; Anne Harkin Petersen, for shared 3 enthusiasm in research and ideas and for joyful journeys in art shared with her and Elaine Chmilar; Jane Dunne, painter and multi- media artist, for her keen interest in critical theory and my research, for stimulating discussions, loans of articles, warm hospitality and her friendship; Sally McKenna, sculptor and weaver, who shared friendship and tea in her delightful Glore Mill Studio and her precious memories and memorabilia of her encounters in person, during her art student days in Chicago, with the leading voices of second wave feminism; Monica McNamara, painter, for our deep connections and for her prayers; the lovely voices of Mahalia Jackson and Willie Mae Ford Smith, and the music of Hildegard of Bingen, soul sistahs, who sang me onwards as ‘madwoman in the attic’ through the three and a half years of working on the thesis. • Cotton Dog, my delightful, white furry companion, constant through the entire process! • The Fiery Comforter Spirit and the unseen ancestors whom I know walked with me on this journey. 4 ABSTRACT IN SEARCH OF A LANGUAGE: TEXTILE AND TEXT IN CONTEMPORARY WOMEN’S ART This research uses the textile/text axis concept as a conceptual tool to investigate the role of textile and text in contemporary women’s art practice and theorizing, investigating textile as a largely hitherto unacknowledged element in women’s art practice of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Textile and text share a common etymological root, from the Latin textere to weave, textus a fabric. The thesis illuminates the pathways whereby textile and text played an important role in women reclaiming a speaking voice as creators of culture and signification during a revolutionary period of renewal in women’s cultural contribution and positioning. The methodological approach used in the research consisted of a comprehensive literature review, the compilation of an inventory of relevant women artists, developing a classificatory system differentiating types of approaches, concerns and concepts underpinning women’s art practice vis a vis the textile/text axis and a series of three in-depth case studies of artists Tracey Emin, Louise Bourgeois and Faith Ringgold. The thesis points to the fact that contemporary women artists and theorists have grounded their art practice and aesthetic discourse in textile as prime visual metaphor and signifier, turning towards the ancient language of textile not merely to reclaim a speaking voice but to occupy a ground breaking locus of signification and representation in contemporary culture. The textile/text axis facilitated women artists in powerfully countering a culturally inscribed status of Lacanian ‘no-woman’ (a position of abjection, absence and lack in the phallocentric symbolic). Turning towards a language of aeons, textile as fertile wellspring, the thesis identifies the methodologies and strategies whereby women artists have inserted their webs of subjectivities and deepest concerns into the records and discourses of contemporary culture. Presenting an anatomy of the textile/text axis, the thesis identifies nine component elements manifesting in contemporary women’s aesthetic practice and discourse. In this cultural renaissance, the textile/text axis, the thesis suggests, served as a complex lexicon, a system of labyrinthine references and signification, a site of layered meanings and ambiguities, a body proxy and a corporeal cartography, facilitating a revolution in women’s aesthetic praxis. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Swatches and Swaithes: Introduction 7 Section One A Double Weave: Textile and Text Chapter 1 18 Chapter 2 23 Chapter 3 34 Section Two Rethreading the Loom: Feminist Challenges to the Dominant Discourse Chapter 4 46 Chapter 5 66 Section Three A Weave of Theory and Practice: The Textile/Text Axis Chapter 6 83 Chapter 7 90 Section Four Four Ply Praxis Chapter 8 104 Section Five The Voice of the Shuttle: Arachne Reborn Chapter 9 146 Chapter 10 174 Chapter 11 213 Section Six Spin-Off: Outcomes and Conclusions Chapter 12 262 References 273 Appendix One List of Images (1-77) 283 6 Swatches and Swaithes: Introduction The focus of my research for this thesis is textile and text as major components (although largely unacknowledged) in women's art making in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The central proposition of the research is that the textile/text axis acted as fertile wellspring, fuelling the creativity, inventiveness and aesthetic discourse of women artists, during an unprecedented period of renewal and development in women’s cultural contribution. My initial interest in the topic arose no doubt from my own background as a weaver and practicing artist with strong familial associations with craft and textile traditions in both my maternal and paternal lines. As an undergraduate student of Art and Design, with a strong interest in feminist art, the use of textile in innovative ways to express women’s deepest concerns struck me forcefully. I became intrigued by the turning towards women’s ancient textile crafts of weaving and patchwork as part of the lexicon of contemporary women artists such as Judy Chicago, Miriam Schapiro, Mary Kelly, Hannah Wilke, Faith Ringgold, Tracey Emin, Louise Bourgeois. In addition, many of the artists who used textile in their aesthetic practice also used text. A seminal moment occurred when I happened upon the etymological roots of the words, textile and text, from the Latin textere, to weave, textus, a fabric. This led to the formulation of the idea of the textile/text axis as a conceptual tool to investigate the role of textile and text in contemporary women’s art making and in the collective reawakening of a feminist consciousness from the 1970s onwards. As noted above, in art historical discourse, the role of textile is barely referred to. Textile as important signifier, materiality and carrier of meaning is frequently not noted, the recipient of a taken for grantedness, a blindness, an unconsciousness. In effect, a materiality, a language is thereby consigned to forgetfulness. As the 7 modernist treated women’s bodies as ground for the projection of their existential concerns, oblivious to the subjectivity of its ground objects, similarly the language and meanings of textile has been overlooked, perhaps for the very reason that textile has deep and long associations with women’s work and aeons of women’s creative expression. In what are otherwise insightful critiques of contemporary women artists’ oeuvre, the metaphor and aesthetic practices of textile as powerful signifier are not adverted to. The ongoing significance of textile and text in womens art practice is ignored in contemporary critical discourse. The contribution of this research effort is that it begins a process of redress of the oversights of an art historical discourse that fails to advert to the deeper meanings of textile and text in contemporary women’s art practice.