While visiting the Brooklyn Museum it brought a
different perspective to my thoughts by actually seeing the art work in person. While learning
about different artist from a text book it educational, but doesn't provide the appreciation for
the actual visual perspective. One of the main focus of visiting the museum was
to be introduced to the works of Judy Chicago “The Dinner
Party". While touring the museum the class had the opportunity to
meet an artist by the name of Chitra Ganesh which her art work is displayed directly
outside of the dinner party. Her inspiration for her work came from the Hindu
Goddess Kali. The piece that she talks about is called Eyes of Time which
speaks about exploring the "ideas of femininity, empowerment, and multiplicity".
She draws her inspiration from Kali because of the "destruction and the rebirth".
The art work that's displayed at the museum represents the past, present and future.
Kali was one of the 39 plate setting at the dinner party who was a Hindu Goddess. She
has roots in the East Indian belief system dating as far back as first
millennium. The say that her name first appears in a holy Hindu text “Rg Veda"
(1700-1100 B.C). The name itself represents the fierce manifestation of the
Hindu goddess. It’s described as a complicated symbol, and simultaneously
feared and adored. “As she is associated with the opposing forces of
destruction and death, as well as creation and salvation, she has been
characterized as both vicious and nurturing". Kali is also served as a
reminder of death's inevitability, which encourages acceptance and dispels
fear. She is also the goddess of fertility and time; and is often called during
a time of protection during disasters and epidemics. The place setting at the dinner party is painted with a "central core
imagery, which is filled with seed forms symbolizing fecundity and referencing
Kali's association with cycles of nature".
The main conception to the dinner party symbolized is shaped in an open
triangle which represents equality. The total dimension measures forty-eight
feet on each side with a total of thirty-nine plates. The first
wing of the table represents the
pre-history of the Primordial
Goddess and then continue chronologically with the development of Judaism, then
to the early Greek societies and the Roman Empire. The other half of the
triangle declines to woman's power with signifies by "
Hypatia's". The
second wing represents the early Christianity through the reformation, and
depicting woman who signifies early expression of the fight of equal rights.
The third wing addresses the American Revolution, woman's suffrage, and the
movement toward woman's increased individual creative expression, which is
symbolic to the last plate Georgia O'Keeffe.
Georgia O'Keeffe was one of the most well-known American painters, and is
considered by some to be the “foremother of the feminist art
movement". O'Keeffe work in the discipline dominated by male artist,
critics, gallery owners and curators which were critical of women artist. Even
though she faced many challenges she continued to launched her career and become successful,
with developing a distinctive painting style that showed organic
vulvar
forms and floral imagery. Her plate at the dinner party is the last of the
triangle, which symbolizes the most in height, and signifies her artistic
liberation and her success as a female artist. The plate incorporates the
forms that she used in her own flower paintings. The plate also symbolizes
"Black Iris 1926" within the central core. It was said by Judy
Chicago that Georgia O'Keeffe has influenced feminist artist by claiming her
work as a “pivotal in the development of an authentically female
iconography"(Chicago, The Dinner Party, 155).
Judy Chicago is an artist, author, feminist, educator and intellectual who
career has spans across four decades. Her influences are within and beyond the
community and over many publication throughout the world. One of her focuses
was providing tribute to famous woman throughout history. The Elizabeth
Sackler
Center for Feminist Art open up in 2007, which signifies a chapter in history.
It provides a home for The Dinner Party to represent great woman throughout
centuries. Beyond the plate, on the tile under the table has many woman names
during that era who also contributed to many causes.
Virginia Woolf is
a British novelist associated with the modernist movement in
literature, and her writing is characterized by experiments in language,
narratives and the treatment of time. She has been considered to be one of the
most innovative writers in the 20th century. Woolf is best known for her writing
in a ”stream of consciousness prose style" in which characters are
depicted through their interior" monologue"and her psychological
novels. Woolf also speaks surrounding prejudices in reference to women's
writing in the Western World. Her plate at the Dinner Party was in a three
dimensionality of a blooming flower. It was meant to symbolize her advocacy for
“unrestricted expression". The imagery that was used in Woolf plate
included a seed form in the center, “harkens back to the powerful fertility
imagery of the goddess plates which referencing in this case, creative
fecundity". Chicago intended for the flower form to serve as a
metaphor for fruitfulness of her creative genius.
Citation
Brooklyn Museum. Elizabeth Sackler Center for Feminist Art: The Dinner Party. Brooklyn, NY
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/place_settings/georgia_o_keeffe.php
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/place_settings/kali.php
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/place_settings/virgina_woolf.php
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/place_settings/judy_chicago.php
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/chitra_ganesh
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