In an unusual attempt at self-preservation I've tried to avoid the current revival of feminist furor in the art world being stirred up by Roberta Smith and her consort, (buddy boy) Jerry Saltz, but my curiosity was sparked by this Artforum Diary posting on a recent panel on "Feminism" by Rhonda Lieberman.
(I'll give you time to read it. Trust me, it's funny).
Schmoozebeasts? Have I been sleeping or am I behind in my Yiddish? Will this replace the increasingly tiresome "hipster"? Please? It rolls off the tongue like a boiled pierogi. And I'll take anything over the repulsive "art fag"; it wasn't funny the first time around and it's not ironic now. It's just sad. Really really sad.
About the panel: I thought Joan Snyder drank herself to death in France years ago. Oh, right, that was Joan Mitchell. Sorry, my mistake. And, yes Joan, men are to blame for everything bad in the world but can we also take some credit for the good things? We're not all Julian Schnabel, you know. Some of us are sensitive pussycats like, say, Richard Serra? Why is it that a bonehead like Schnabel is always the target. Too afraid to take on the real tough guy, hey?
When Collier Shorr first appeared everyone always referred to her as Richard Prince's boyfriend so I'm not sure how much sincerity is behind her statements of admiration for Snyder, or anyone.
Barbara Kruger is, of course, always right (just ask her!) and though "direct address" is out of style right now in favor of all that relational stuff I hope she'll dump academia and be back on the bullhorn soon. Kruger designed commercial book covers early on in her career -- I had an Aldous Huxley paperback with a cover by her at one point -- and she definitely knows what she's talking about in terms of media. Po-Mo princess Cindy Sherman, on the other hand, watched movies. She's right: Victim/Aggressor are absolutely two sides to the same coin. I guess you could say I'm a Kruger butch rather than a Cindy Sherman femme.
Tamy Ben-Tor's work I don't know so it's hard to decide whether she or Joan Snyder made the dumber statement.
My question is: Why did four intelligent and respected artists let Roberta Smith set them up like that?
A more considered and thorough (but much less funny) account of the panel by Mira Shor is here along with a piece on an earlier panel with Vanessa Beecroft.
As it happens this weekend I read some of Johanna Drucker's Sweet Dreams: Contemporary Art and Complicity that Joy has been plugging on Newsgrist. What I read of the book was interesting because Drucker asks a lot of the same questions as Relational Aesthetics but with a broader view and, as far as I read, with less of the retrospective necrophelia about Felix Gonzales-Torres work that bothers me so much about RA. Unfortunately the book is kind of a mess in need of editing, which is probably why she hasn't been given the attention Bourriaud has. Give the guy credit, he is succinct, especially for a Frenchman.
I was happily surprised by the second chapter where Drucker compares Beecroft's work to Jerelyn Hanrahan's Gesture as Value which I helped Jerelyn with at artnetweb. It's nice when the right people get their due.