Feminist Art
During the 1960s, there was an emergence of the Feminist art movement amid the intensity of anti-violence campaigns and queer as well as civil rights movements. Feminist art was used to change a wrongly male-dominated art industry and modify the world through their artworks. They focused on being part of the developed art industry and the heritage of art canon, and in day-to-day social connections. According to one feminist artist, Suzanne Lacy proclaimed that Feminist art aimed at influencing cultural perspective and transforming patterns. Feminist art brought about chances and slots that never existed before for women and minorities (Frobes-Cross, 2016). It also paved the way for Activist art as well as Identity art in the 1980s. One of the Feminist artists that I find influential and interesting is Martha Rosler. This paper analyzes one of her works as a feminist artist.
Martha Rosler and her Works
The most significant contribution by Martha Rosler in the art industry is her capability to exhibit imagery that publicizes the disguise between the real world and facade, comfort and discomfort, as well as the various way we maintain our eyes wide open or shut. During the 1970s feminist art movement, Rosler surveyed the exposed against the imposed unfair treatment of women (Deutsche, Volpato & Rosler, 2018). Her works mostly focus on issues related to politics, including discrimination or war. She does so in a manner that provokes us to view these matters using a more personal way, not just putting them down on the magazine pages or primetime news reports. She calls on people to remain keen on all happenings, despite if they do not occur in their own spaces and to consider the media’s role in managing how we view world happenings. Being a Pop-art movement member, she spotlighted the targeted seduction of individuals by the media into a highly consumerist-inspired lifestyle.
Cold Meat I: (c.1966 – 72)
From: http://www.hallartfoundation.org/exhibition/fur-barbara/artworks/thumbnails
In Cold Meat I art, Rosler advances her utilization of appropriated imagery. She depicts an image of a refrigerator on a naked female’s torso. The top refrigerator door is wide open and reveals a freezer full of foodstuffs. At the front, four long strips looking like flesh lie flat on the bluish background. This piece of art represents one of her works that show a perfect naked woman form, mostly utilized and embodied in popular culture. It is realigned into the systems of daily kitchen objects, including oven, refrigerator, and dishwasher.
The piece is a crucial example of the way Rosler used Pop art in making powerful feminist statements regarding female objectification in society. This set up the foundation for the vital contribution she eventually played within the Feminist art movement. She connects the woman body, mostly found in pornographic materials, to food-related products such as meat, a mere item for male contentment and utilization. Additionally, the linkage of the woman body to the kitchen acts as a reinforcement to the narrow perspective that existed in the 1960s. A woman was only seen as a housekeeper, solely defined by the roles of a mother, home provider, and nurturer (Frobes-Cross, 2016). This artwork expands my understanding of the inequalities that affect women in terms of their role in society. I now understand that feminist issues are more in-depth than we think, and a lot of progress has been made since the days of the Feminist art movement. Through their works, Feminist artists like Rosler have played a significant role in eliminating most of the injustices against women.
References
Deutsche, R., Volpato, E., & Rosler, M. (2018). Martha Rosler: Irrespective. Yale University Press.
Frobes-Cross, N. (2016). Various Representational Tasks: Art and activism in the early work of Martha Rosler, Allan Sekula, and Fred Lonidier, 1967-1976. Columbia University.
https://www.theartstory.org/artist-rosler-martha.htm
https://www.theartstory.org/movement-feminist-art.htm