Archive for January, 2009

Shirley Chisholm

Friday, January 30th, 2009

“I was the first American citizen to be elected to Congress in spite of the double drawbacks of being female and having skin darkened by melanin. When you put it that way, it sounds like a foolish reason for fame. In a just and free society it would be foolish. That I am a national figure because I was the first person in 192 years to be at once a congressman, black and a woman proves, I think, that our society is not yet either just or free.” – Shirley Chisholm

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It frustrates me that it is not integral that we learn about Shirley Chisholm and her part in history. And what an amazing speaker!! She’s truly breathtaking and inspiring. I feel naive that I was shocked not to have known of her given her oratory.

I just finished watching the documentary about her historic run for the presidency in 1972, Chisholm ’72: Unbought and Unbossed. It was discouraging to see the same old bullshit maneuvering by the media and the political establishment to keep someone who talks straight out of the mix. And an African American woman? Forget about it. I wish I had been more diligent while watching the documentary about grabbing quotes, but the two clips below showcase some amazing stuff. I might add some more stuff later.

Chisholm’s Speech on the Equal Rights Amendment

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Yoko Ono: Play it by Trust

Saturday, January 17th, 2009

I just think this so cool that I have to share it, despite the fact that I still consider myself “on break.” I have pretty low tolerance for art world speak and analysis and there are many, many times when I just look at something and go … “wow…. I could do that myself…… that’s… dumb.” You know, the white sheet of paper on the wall or the scribble that an art critic could write an analytical paper on.

Cara at The Curvature did a feminist analysis of Yoko Ono that was pretty good. I had never known much about her other than she’s blamed for The Beatles having broken up and that I didn’t really like her music, but it prompted me to read all I could about her.

One of the things she’s known for is her conceptual art. I was not aware there was such a thing until I read about her, to be honest. I guess part of it is that a lot of her art is very much about engaging the audience and the way they contribute to a piece. An example of this is Cut Piece, in which she sits on the stage in her best clothing and invites the audience to come up and cut off a piece for themselves. She says one of the purposes of the piece is in part to promote peace and to challenge racism and sexism. I haven’t really been able to find much analysis on it, but it was fascinating to me to hear that audiences reacted differently around the world.

But I created this post to showcase the white chess set. It is called “Play it by Trust” and people viewing the exhibition can actually play chess with it. I’ll admit that with my cynical attitude towards certain types of art the implications of a white chess set took a bit of time to sink in. I am putting Yoko’s explanation of it under the cut as I think it’s better to think about it on your own first.

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