HELEN GøRRILL - VISITING ARTIST LECTURE

Gorrill has opened speaking about some 'WTF' statements, the one that caught my mind,

The power of masculinity is such that when men sign their work, it goes up in value, yet when women sign their work it goes down.

EVIL EVIL QUOTE I DID NOT KNOW PEOPLE HAD THIS OPINION 'What's the biggest problem with women artists? None of them can actually paint' Georg Baselitz.

i really like that a lot of what she's talking about is hate motivating her. The first lecture that an artist has opened with what they hate. I am the exact same!

She was sort of cancelled by the Tate so she got her book pulled from their shelves and was accused of being 'racist against men'. This of course is not possible, because men are not a race.

OKAY SO I LOVE HER!

she knows of politics, speaks of queer rights and human rights in general.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/aug/02/painting-gender-pay-gap-recalculating-art 

Griselda Pollock believes men and women's artwork cannot be viewed side by side.

Linda Nochlin believes men and women's artwork has no difference.

Judith Butler believes all her amazing thoughts on gender being presentational so fundamentally it is both irrelevant and performative. Performative in the sense that believing something and saying something makes it so.

All these feminist thoughts are fundamentally contradictory to each others. This makes women's art rather inaccessible, as you've to understand and wade through a whole lot of feminist literature and gender theory before fully understanding a women's work. 

She seems to be a big fan of Germaine Greer. Hmmmm... maybe i don't know how I feel about her yet.

The Beauty Myth; How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women - Naomi Wolf 

Chapter 6 titled, Sexism and ageism in visual art values: 'But men are allowed to be old and ugly'

Guerilla Girls; They did a residency with the Tate recently. Never have they mentioned how the Tate is majorly misogynistic. This means, over that 40,000 pound residency, they were told not to comment on the Tate, and so essentially were paid off. "They didn't have a choice". 

Catherine McCormack - Women in the picture women art and the power of looking

Gorrill seems to say a lot of things are problematic and, while I think I do agree fundamentally with what she deems problematic, I do think ironically, it is rather problematic that she presents her thoughts as the sort of end all be all of what gender and art can look like. She is telling us what women can and cant do and while i agree with her that women shouldnt have to sexualise themselves to be successful, I worry she is being very harsh with whether a woman should want to do that themselves. Almost saying as if a woman is bringing the feminist movement down for her actions, which in of itself feels oddly misogynistic. Women are often critiqued at a higher rate than men, this she knows, but I wonder if she may be unintentionally adding to this notion.

When you're paid well, i think you are at more liberty to critique your oppression.

She has some interesting thoughts on the 'middle east' and why perhaps women are earning an equal amount to men when they are from and live in north africa and west asia.

The Blazing World - Siri Hustvedt