Sexuality and Black Feminism in Jazz
While sexual innuendos and sexual themes have been existent in jazz music since post-slavery blues, when female singers came into the picture of urban blues (1920's-1930's), they put a new, subversive light on sexuality and the image of the women in song. Most of the blues sung by women (and were usually autobiographical) were about the topics of no-good, two-timing men, alcohol, empowering advice to other women, abandonment, failed love, infidelity, not giving in to men, not supporting a poor man, homosexuality, and promiscuity, which women hadn't really sang openly about in popular music before. These blues singers include Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Gladys Bentley. Many of these women were lesbian, bisexual, or pansexual, but also, most of them were married to men. However, this aspect of their private lives sometimes slipped into their music, lyrics, and reputations (many of them being called "bulldaggers", or "dykes"), but still they received much popularity and appreciation from male, female, straight, gay, black, and white listeners. It was perfect timing for these issues to be sung about, right as the image of the "modern woman" was changing in the early 20th century and many women were seeking liberation from Victorian gender roles.

These singers approached the topic individually, but what they all had in common was immense strength,  talent, wit, and fearlessness, as well as very tragic lives, which is reflected in their music. Ma Rainey was one of the first women to be recognized in jazz and was a lesbian who used sexual/ homosexual imagery in her songs, with her her raspy contralto voice. She also is said to have been a major influence on Bessie Smith, the "Empress of the Blues", who was married to a man, but was known for having sexual relationships with many of the women she worked with. She stood up for herself against her abusive husband, while being open about her love affairs in her music. Many of her songs revolve around the theme of the hardships of being a black woman.
 Gladys Bentley was also a very interesting figure in this era because she was a lesbian, male-impersonating performer who was very popular and well-received playing piano and singing in speakeasies in New York, until the McCarthy era, when she came back into the closet and left the New York scene. Gladys was the most outspoken about her sexuality and changing gender roles. She dressed as a man, had a deep voice when singing, would openly flirt with female audiences, and sang about love affairs with women. She was the most prominent "bulldagger" of them all.

For the show, I would like to have a room that plays selected recordings of the music of these women, with the lyrics projected onto a screen. The songs will be selected based on relevancy to the topic of speaking out about sexuality and oppression of women. There will also be photos, videos (if any), and biographies of these women and explanation of their contribution to the jazz world and the empowerment of women, specifically black women in America.

You've had your chance and proved unfaithful
So now I'm gonna be real mean and hateful
I used to be your sweet mama, sweet papa
But now I'm just as sour as can be.

--"I Used to Be Your Sweet Mama,"

I know women that don't like men The way they do is a crying sin. It's dirty but good, oh, yes, it's dirty but good There ain't much difference, it's just dirty but good. 

--"It's Dirty But Good" 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSOYDm8ftIY&feature=kp

Rebellion and Sexuality in Modernist Theatre

During the modernist and post-modernist era, a large variety of expressionist theatre came out and became popular or known among larger audiences. This changed the way many people saw theatre, and introduced many new issues and pieces about social change and growth. Conflicts that needed to be addressed were finally becoming voiced and introduced to the larger social community by being expressed through the theatre arts. Many plays about women's oppression, sexuality, and rebellion began to become popular. Some of these plays include A Doll's House, Machinal, Hedda Gabler, Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, Angels in America, Miss Julie, Top Girls, etc, by playwrights including Henrik Ibsen, Eugene O'Neill, August Strindberg, Carol Churchill, Bertolt Brecht, Arthur Miller, Tony Kushner, Sophie Treadwell, and many many more. 

For my performance piece, there will be a series of scenes in different gallery spaces that will address the themes of rebellion and sexuality from different plays. The focus of the pieces will be on the woman, and the woman's quest for freedom. One scene from each play will be performed at a different gallery space including art, or a performance space where a dance or musical piece is simultaneously happening. The actors will consist of a variety of people with different ethnic backgrounds to represent that the issues being addressed are universal. The actors have the freedom to improv within the scene whether it be interacting with the audience, repeating lines for emphasis, interacting with the other performers of other artistic abilities, or however else they might improv to put emphasis on a specific point in the scene. The scenes will be going on all day, so as the audience travels from space to space, not one audience member will receive the same experience as another. 

The plays will include (Play- Scene): 

A Doll's House (Scene 8: Nora leaves Torvald)

Machinal (Episode 6: Young has extra-marital affair)

Miss Julie (Part II- Miss Julie and Jean have an affair and Jean confesses his love to her; this happens soon after Julie has had a broken-off engagement. Julie is known as "sado-masochistic" towards men)

Hedda Gabler (Act 4, Part 2: Hedda Gabler learns that the police will most likely trace her crime and realize that she has killed her husband, and so she shoots herself)

Man Ray Representing the New Man/New Woman through Sexuality and Rebellion in the 1920s

As Dadaism came to an end and surrealism was at the forefront of art world, many of these new “Surrealists” explored the idea of joining the subconscious with the conscious realms of reality in relation to human nature and sexuality. Man Ray’s icon, Marquis de Sade, explored these taboos despite the consequences (and was later imprisoned for publishing obsessive sexual exploits involving women, go figure.) These writings gave Man Ray inspiration to explore eroticism and female imagery at the end of Dadaism, bringing women’s sexuality and the “new woman” to the public eye. “The new man” and queer repression was an idea also explored by Man Ray and is communicated through a few sets of “rayographs.”

Man Ray had to work against the conventions of the masculinist movement by examining the long repressed queer dimensions of the unconscious that even surrealism feared to unleash. This feminine man, proud and strong, with clearly still masculine features is a representation of “the new man.” of the 1920s, when queer is no longer a matter not to be discussed. Jean Cocteau hired Man Ray to take a set of photos of him as a female figure known as “Barbette.” Jean is in a stage transforming between average man and adding pieces to become the show girl  that completed Barbette as a character. Barbette’s wig is on and his face is made up, but his chest is bare and very obviously a man’s. Barbette becomes a metaphor of the new masculinity not only in being bisexual, but in giving the impression of being emasculated. The erotic spectacle enacted by Barbette cannot be separated from the physical traumas engendered by World War I.

This situation happens once again when Marcel Duchamps asks Man Ray of the same thing, to take a set of photos of him dressed as a female figure. Marcel’s photos defy the violence or subjugation of the female body common to surrealism and presents femininity’s agency over the desires of the viewer. Man Ray achieves the vision of making the desire of the unconscious that knows nothing of the social prohibitions that would forbid this fusion of the male and female. Once again, these camp aesthetics still show masculine qualities beneath the wig.  Rrose Sélavy, like Barbette, plays with the notion of uncannily hiding one’s self beneath a “veil” of another gender. The exploration of “new” sexualities within men of the 1920s is a common topic for Man Ray in 1920s rayographs/photographs.

Man Ray was also inspired by his obsession with women and also began to explore female eroticism, evident in many of his photographs. Man Ray seeked certain docile women as a fetish for photographing, but bringing women’s sexuality into the mainstream photography eye and media brought about advancement in feminism through sexuality. This sexual woman, bare, with emphasis on natural curves and romantic lighting represented the “new woman.” In some of the photos, there are women in vulnerable positions or engaging in sexual activity, and this is rumored to cater to Man Ray’s sexual desires, but this documented sexual activity was revolutionary in early photography and feminism.

Man Ray’s lover, Lee Miller, was often photographed by Man Ray. Miller represented something new to Man Ray. "She was," according to Carolyn Burke, "the incarnation of that provocative French figure, the garconne, an independent young woman who plans to enjoy her freedom." She brought to the role a New World self-assurance. This was her appeal to Man Ray. She embodied the present woman. In one photo, Miller covers herself below the waist with a tightly draped cloth, an gesture of dignified protest against her objectification. Her mainly nude body is made androgynous by her pose. Androgyny is another quality of the “new woman” that Man Ray represents through some of his photos. Miller’s arms in this photo are behind her head in angular points to keep a distance. Miller’s gaze avoids  her spectators, like confrontation would melt her independence.

Man Ray’s photographs of Kiki, another lover, often use the outline of her body to represent other objects. A notable photo of Kiki is the one of her painted as a violin. The natural curves of a woman are compared to a useful playing instrument, and that’s how Man Ray saw women, but the way Kiki sits upright and proud doesn’t seem discouraging to women.

Jean Cocteau as "Barbette"

Le Violin De Ingres

(Kiki de Montparnasse)

Kiki de Montparnasse portrait

"Prayer"

(Meret Oppenheim)

Meret Oppenheim

Rose Selavy (Marcel Duchamps) portrait

(Self-portrait), dressed as female

Lee Miller and a painting of her lips

Lee Miller

Lee Miller

Identity Through Self Portraiture: Modernism Retrospective (EVAN)

Many modernists came to realize that their existence was merely the result of happenstance. They considered that they could be merely an amalgamation of earthly particles smaller than anything perceivable only several decades ago. In hopes of finding significance for their identity artists studied themselves through self portraiture.

This gallery will offer a look at how early modernists began to express personal identity before the expanse into a greater societal view. The space will be divided into the two categories of painting and photography mounted cleanly on white walls. The art work will be displayed chronologically within the two timelines of self portraiture in painting and self portraiture in photography. The two categories will be prefaced with text providing historical relevance and general introduction to the work.

Each piece of art will be accompanied by discourse written in the modernist stream of consciousness style based on the technical, conceptual, and historical qualities and context of the artwork. This discourse would exist in the zine pamphlet that will be dispensed near the entrance. This will incorporate a link between the study of one's self  in contemporary society as it relates to the artwork of the century past.

Preliminary choices of featured art work:
 Pablo Picasso self portrait 1901
Paul Gauguin self portrait 1888
 Man Ray self portrait 1942
Walker Evans self portrait 1927

Art Deco – Eduardo Garcia Benito (Sexuality and Rebellion Proposal) Erida

My proposal for this project is to incorporate art deco elements onto posters from Eduardo Garcia Benito that symbolize and really emphasis the basis of sexuality and rebellion. Art Deco is a visual arts design style that first appeared in France after World War I, it was popular throughout the world  in the 1920s- 1940s but after World War II it lost its spark. I would like to use the Art Deco stylization because it’s a vibrate style that combines traditional craft motifs with Machine Age imagery and materials. I researched Art deco to find a better description of Art Deco for all of you to understand. "The style is often characterized by rich colors, bold geometric shapes, and lavish ornamentation." I feel that this sort of style was different during the Modern Era and maybe not as accepted because it was an unusual combination of elements onto one, but of course it was popular during the dates I mentioned earlier.

Eduardo Garcia Benito was a portrait artist turned into the lead illustrator for Vogues elite team known as the “Beaux Brummel’s of the Brush.” I believe that his Vogue covers are reverent to the topic of “sexuality and rebellion” because Eduardo always tried to empower the woman figure with his interpretation of the feminine beauty, it was not any sort of photography it was his solemn work of art. And of course his art deco stylized art work made the Vogue covers a the entire meaning of cubism an upper class feel that originally was not considered to be the tradition esthetic beauty everyone was commonly used to, which I think was a rebellious movement for Eduardo to do.

Ultimately I’d like to gather his most popular and talked about Vogue magazine covers that best describe sexuality and rebellion, display them in a gallery space in a timeline format. I’d like to basically talk about the deeper meaning of the way he used art deco, his colors, and the usage of space for each element he placed on paper and what events were occurring during the same time that may have inspired him to create his art work.

Vogue, 1926

-Erida

Retrospective Project II Sexuality and Rebellion...Welcome to Theatre of Cruelty

     

Leather, chains,handcuffs, ball gags, nudity, hot wax and zippers. If you do not think any of that is considered sexual or rebellious then you could have a problem, but if you do.Well let me introduce you to my proposal. I propose that Cornish celebrate its inner dark side, with a Theater of Cruelty one-act play festival preformed at different locations across the campus, allowing the performers to experiment with what is around them.

What is Theater of Cruelty well it all started when Antonin Artaud wanted to “abolish the stage and auditorium,” and to do away with sets and props. He envisioned the performance space as an empty room with the audience seated in the center and the actors performing all around them. The stage effects included overwhelming sounds and bright lights in order to stun the audience's sensibilities and completely immerse them in the theatrical experience. In his lifetime, Artaud only produced one play that put the theories of the Theater of Cruelty into practice. The play Les Censi was neither a commercial or critical success and ran for only 17 performances. Artaud, however, believed that, while he was forced to limit the scope of his vision due to financial constraints, Les Censi succeeded in exemplifying the tenants of the Theater of Cruelty.

 

 

Interview Schedule

Interviews:
Kathleen
Kim
John W.
John O.
Jarrad
Pat

Hal
Roger