M/E/A/N/I/N/G : an anthology of artists' writings, theory, and criticism

492 Pages·2000·2.19 MB·English

by  Bee

M / E / A / N / I / N / G
Edited by Susan Bee & Mira Schor
M/E/A/N/I/N/G

M / E / A / N / I / N / G
An Anthology of Artists’ Writings, Theory,
and Criticism Edited by Susan Bee & Mira Schor
D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S Durham & London 2000
∫ 2000 Duke University Press
All chapters reprinted from the journal M/E/A/N/I/N/G, nos. 1–20
(1986–96), are ∫ M/E/A/N/I/N/G
All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper $
Designed by C. H. Westmoreland Typeset in Minion with Monotype Twentieth
Century display by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear on the last printed
page of this book.
Frontispiece: Photos by Sarah Wells
Contents
M/E/A/N/I/N/G: Feminism, Theory, and Art Practice
Johanna Drucker ix
Introduction Susan Bee & Mira Schor 1
I / FEMINISM AND ART 5
‘‘Post-Feminism’’—A Remasculinization of Culture? Amelia Jones 7
Appropriated Sexuality Mira Schor 24
Why We Need ‘‘Bad Girls’’ Rather Than ‘‘Good’’ Ones!
Corinne Robins 37
Letter on Good Girls, Bad Girls, and Bad Boys Barbara Pollack 46
A Conversation on Censorship with Carolee Schneemann
Aviva Rahmani 51
Aesthetic and Postmenopausal Pleasures Joanna Frueh 59
just a sketch . . . Laura Cottingham 68
A Conversation on Lesbian Subjectivity and Painting with Deborah Kass
Patricia Cronin 79
Monstrous Domesticity Faith Wilding 87
II / THE POLITICS OF MEANING AND REPRESENTATION 105
For M/E/A/N/I/N/G Charles Bernstein 107
Figure/Ground Mira Schor 113
The Critic Is (?) Artist Marcia Hafif 127
vi
12 Questions of Art Lucio Pozzi 131
Some Remarks on Racism in the American Arts Daryl Chin 145
The Success of Failure Joel Fisher 155
Visual Pleasure: A Feminist Perspective Johanna Drucker 163
‘‘I Don’t Take Voice Mail’’ Charles Bernstein 175
III / SELECTIONS FROM THE FORUMS 185
On Authenticity and Meaning Arakawa & Madeline Gins, Susan Bee,
Robert Berlind, Jake Berthot, Collins & Milazzo, Maureen Connor,
Rackstraw Downes, David Humphrey, Komar & Melamid, Medrie
MacPhee, Elizabeth Murray, Yvonne Rainer, Miriam Schapiro, Ann
Schoenfeld, Pat Steir, Robert Storr, Lawrence Weiner 187
Contemporary Views on Racism in the Arts Emma Amos, Josely
Carvalho, Daryl Chin, Tom Finkelpearl, Madeline Gins, Renée Green,
Hung Liu, Fern Logan, Juan Sanchez, Robert Storr 204
Over Time: A Forum on Art Making Rudolf Baranik, Arthur Cohen,
Hermine Ford, Nancy Fried, Leon Golub, John Goodyear, Nancy Grossman,
Yvonne Jacquette, Ellen Lanyon, Ann McCoy, Melissa Meyer, Howardena
Pindell, Lucio Pozzi, Jacques Roch, Miriam Schapiro, Carolee Schneemann,
Richard Tuttle, David von Schlegell, Lawrence Weiner, Faith Wilding 233
On Motherhood, Art, and Apple Pie Emma Amos, Suzanne Anker,
Susan Bee, Emily Cheng, Stephanie DeManuelle, Jane Dickson, Bailey
Doogan, Hermine Ford, Mimi Gross, Freya Hansell, Yvonne Jacquette,
Joyce Kozlo√, Ellen Lanyon, Betty Lee, Lenore Malen, Ann Messner, Diane
Neumaier, Nancy Pierson, Barbara Pollack, Erika Rothenberg, Miriam
Schapiro, Arlene Shechet, Dena Shottenkirk, Joan Snyder, Elke Solomon,
Nancy Spero, May Stevens, Martha Wilson, Barbara Zucker 252
Working Conditions: A Forum on Art and Everyday Life by Younger
Artists Lisa Hoke, Julia Jacquette, Rebecca Quaytman, Christian Schumann,
Amy Sillman, Hugh Steers, Nicola Tyson, Anthony Viti, Karen Yasinsky 303
On Creativity and Community Jackie Brookner, David Humphrey,
William Pope. L, Robert C. Morgan, Barbara Pollack, Jerry Saltz,
Mira Schor 317
IV / ARTISTS’ MUSINGS 339
Mother Baseball Vanalyne Green 341
Bats Tom Knechtel 347
The Discovered Uncovered Nancy Spero 350
vii
Running on Empty: An Artist’s Life in New York Susan Bee 352
Reorganized Meditations on Mnemonic Threshold
Joseph Nechvatal 355
The Critic and the Hare: Meditations on the Death of My Rabbit
Ann McCoy 357
September 21, 1989 Richard Tuttle 360
Alison Knowles: An Interview Aviva Rahmani 362
Media Baptisms David Reed 369
V / ARTISTS IN PERSPECTIVE 373
Florine Stettheimer: Eccentric Power, Invisible Tradition
Pamela Wye 375
Cartoons of the Self: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Murderer—Art
Spiegelman’s Maus Nancy K. Miller 388
Nancy Spero: Speaking in Tongues Pamela Wye 405
Muse Begets Crone: On Leonora Carrington Whitney Chadwick 418
Painting after Painting: The Paintings of Susan Bee
Misko Suvakovic 423
When the Stars Threw Down Their Spears: An Interview with Thomas
McEvilley Dominique Nahas 434
Appendix: Contents of M/E/A/N/I/N/G 447
Contributors 451
Index 461
This Page Intentionally Left Blank
M/E/A/N/I/N/G
Feminism, Theory, and Art Practice
Johanna Drucker
In 1986, Mira Schor and Susan Bee founded M/E/A/N/I/N/G as a
forum for discussions in contemporary art. For the next decade, the
biannual journal sustained critical insights and observations that had
di≈culty finding a platform anywhere else in the current scene. As a
noncommercial, artist-initiated and produced publication, M/E/A/N/-
I/N/G took advantage of this identity to circumvent some of the con-
straints that usually hamstring a journal’s editorial purview (loyalty to
a board of advisors, advertisers’ interests, or a predefined editorial
program).
M/E/A/N/I/N/G succeeded in an intellectual enterprise that was
feminist in its foundational impulses and implementation: it largely
escaped the controlling determination of market forces and enabled a
nonformulaic, heterogeneous discussion. M/E/A/N/I/N/G was icono-
clastic, nonaligned, and nonprogrammatic in a way that makes it di≈-
cult to characterize in any single attribute or descriptive term. This was
the strength of its character—it put feminist theory into practice by
sustaining a discussion that resolutely refused to congeal into any uni-
fied, singular point of view. The journal remained aloof from any or-