DESTROY LA!

There’s this great tool called Zotero, if you’re anything like me and you suck at bibliographies, this is a great way to organize.  Here’s an  example of a resource I pulled up using USC Library Catalog.

Butler, Cornelia. WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2007. 10 Mar 2008.

This book chronicles the uprise of feminist art in the 70s. It accompanied an important exhibition at LACMA, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. I first came in contact with this reading in a gender studies course. The books holds significance in this world as a marker for the presence of females in the art world.

WACK! explores how feminism wand the struggles women faced in the second half of the 20th century was reflected in the art that was produced in that era. It presents the work of important and influential artists from the period, artists such as: Chantal Akerman, Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Judy Chicago, Mary Heilmann, Sanja Ivekovič, Valie Export, Lucy Lippard, Ana Mendieta, Annette Messager, Alice Neel, and Yoko Ono.

The art that is covered in WACK! ranges from painting photography, sculpture, film, video to installation. The collection features some of the Untitled Film Stills of Cindy Sherman, an artist that has be profoundly influential in my work, as well as that of countless of artists all over the world.

The art that is covered in this book is relevant to my subject because it invokes the fire of revolution. It is a testament to the women who pushed the boundaries of the art world, a field dominated by white men. This is actually a very topical issue even today. The opening of the BCAM building for LACMA was greeted with open criticism from feminist artists due to their over representation of white, male artists.

I feel like one of the great things about Los Angeles is the diversity that exists within this city and that exists in the art and music world. I believe that it is important that in my work I help promote this aspect of Los Angeles. It is disturbing how many of the worlds most recognized contemporary artists come from a same fraction of our population.

Peace Out

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