Twenty Questions (A Sampler)
What does it mean to be a woman in the world? What is a woman? Simpson's work encapsulates the complexity of such questions by addressing the details and quirks of one girl. The viewer is left to decide. Who she is and what she is and how she sees the world and her own femininity. To be a woman in the world means lending our fresh eyes to the world. Below, you will see slivers of what my eyes see about women in the world.
Venus of Willendorf,
The miniature Venus of Willendorf is a figurine carved from limestone and is one of the earliest examples of artistic expression in human history.It is remarkable, then, that the subject is a woman. The Venus dates from the European Paleolithic or "Old Stone Age" and is believed to be a fertility goddess. The tiny Venus stands as a testament to the sheer and sensual power of the female body and the ancient captivation that it has held over human beings.
“A beauty neither of fine colour nor long eyelash, nor pencilled brow, but of meaning, of movement, of radiance.”
What makes a woman thus? What informs the world that she is such a force? There are those who become beautiful to us not because of their most qualitative details. There are those who speak with meaning. There are those who inspire movement with the thrill of their purpose. And these above pearly white teeth or a fine figure declare radiance to me.
Devendra Banhart "Für Hildegard von Bingen" from Isaiah Seret on Vimeo.
Hildegard von Bingen was an 11th-century abbess, writer, philosopher, and one of the first female composers in Western musical history. I have always felt an admiration for Hildegard and the recognition she held for her own talent, as does modern musician Devendra Banhart. His music video for the song entitled "Für Hildegard von Bingen" is a cheeky rendition of Hildegard's life, and the role that she played for the music industry.
“She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.”
Toni Morrisson has penned words that slice straight to the heart of something. This quote, from a male character in her novel Beloved, recognizes women as equals in their mental faculties to their counterparts. Women have unique and lovely perspectives to lend and interesting things to think about.
What does it mean to be a woman in the world? What is a woman? Simpson's work encapsulates the complexity of such questions by addressing the details and quirks of one girl. The viewer is left to decide. Who she is and what she is and how she sees the world and her own femininity. To be a woman in the world means lending our fresh eyes to the world. Below, you will see slivers of what my eyes see about women in the world.
c.2800 and 2500 BCE
Guerrilla Girls,(no name), 2012
The human body is a fascinating subject for artistic expression. However, if the only sure way women can get work into major museums is to appear in the nude as a model, the body becomes a vehicle for exploitation rather than appreciation. This work is the third in a series of the same piece, altered only to change the statistics. With each reproduction, the percentages have altered some to reveal that the numbers are almost imperceptibly shifting in favor of more female artists.
“A beauty neither of fine colour nor long eyelash, nor pencilled brow, but of meaning, of movement, of radiance.”
--Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
Devendra Banhart "Für Hildegard von Bingen" from Isaiah Seret on Vimeo.
Hildegard von Bingen was an 11th-century abbess, writer, philosopher, and one of the first female composers in Western musical history. I have always felt an admiration for Hildegard and the recognition she held for her own talent, as does modern musician Devendra Banhart. His music video for the song entitled "Für Hildegard von Bingen" is a cheeky rendition of Hildegard's life, and the role that she played for the music industry.
“She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.”
--Toni Morrisson, Beloved
Toni Morrisson has penned words that slice straight to the heart of something. This quote, from a male character in her novel Beloved, recognizes women as equals in their mental faculties to their counterparts. Women have unique and lovely perspectives to lend and interesting things to think about.
Portrait of Gertrude Stein
Picasso's portrait of Stein renders her in the cubist style. Her face and pose are distorted to allow a highly emotive and expressive portrait. Picasso uses this style to express several facets of Stein at once, indicating that she is important for more than her appearance.
Pablo Picasso,
Les Demoiselles de Avignon
The "Ladies of Avignon" is a work that evokes the primitive power and allure of women. The angles of their bodies and Picasso's use of African tribal masks as inspiration creates a strong sense of unity; a "girl gang" of sorts. The painting is based from poses of French prostitutes, but their bodies are not objectified. Rather, they are brought together by color and angle to give the viewer the sense that they are almost intruding upon the
--Danielle Dutton, Margaret the First
This excerpt from an imaginative memoir of Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (a delightful read),is one that depicts the dynamism of women with whimsy. The Duchess was extravagant in all. As a "Renaissance woman" of sorts, she was an aristocratic philosopher, novelist, poet, and play-wright in the 17th century. And she was a woman. A woman who wore pearl-studded finery and also desired to transcend the boundaries of intelligence and acquire the knowledge of the ages.
the lemony love of mother
we call her friend
and she loves us louder
louder, perhaps than
anyone ought
and we made a secret
handshake
a soft tug on the ear
and a thousand other
shared tastes and secrets
we call her night
for the tear-soaked times
she spent
healing our hearts
all is right with the
world
and she typed out a love
note
and sent it to me every
night for the first year I lived away
we call her home
for she shores our spirits
she glitters and she
glides
she colors her corner of
the world
and she never forgets a
birthday
or neglects one in need
we call her art
because we have discovered
that she is something to
behold
and I study her
handwriting
as it speaks to
sophistication itself
we call her brilliant
and our faces turn to find
her
as sunflowers seeking the
light
we call her love lemony
it is that taste upon our
tongues and hearts that beat for and
because of mother
This is a poem I wrote about my mother. She is undoubtedly my hero. One year ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer. I have never seen one endure such an ugly experience with the grace that she mustered during the past year. I wrote this just a month prior to her diagnosis, but it became all the more important to me to read the things I had written about her during a time of uncertainty. I think the feelings expressed illustrate the tenderness that women exhibit in the role of motherhood and the impact that this mothering has on those they nurture and protect.
We need to stop shrinking ourselves and dumbing down. We are meant to breathe and move and take up space. We are meant to be women, however we see fit.
Dove "My Beauty My Say" Video,
via Youtube
To be a woman in the world is to be yourself. There is no right way. See the world through your eyes. And say important things about important things. Celebrate the questions, the curves, the heart, the hurt, the chaos, the divinity!
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