Laurel Lee Manifesto

Manifesto Drawing:

My manifesto drawing is a recontextualized recipe from The Joy of Cooking. I have taken this recipe and changed the ingredients to create my own “art pie.”

In contemporary art world, so many questions are raised about the definition of art. Many people view some contemporary works and do not believe them to be what they define as artwork. If you take an object, a sound, or even a piece of writing, and put it in a different context, many people do not consider it art. Others would view it as just that, because of the process of creating, and making something your own. Everyone has their own definition for what constitutes a piece of artwork, and they add their own ingredients to create what they define as art. This recipe shows what I tend to keep in my kitchen.

Humor and feminist theories are important concepts that appear in my own work. This drawing is an example that uses both. This piece touches on some of my ideas on the woman’s role in the art world, as well as in society, in a lighthearted and humorous way. The process of creating this piece, subtracting and adding ingredients to make the recipe my own, reflects my somewhat cynical view of “women’s work.” Using a recipe as the base of my concept illustrates the idea of women working in the kitchen, adding and subtracting ingredients to make a recipe their own. In the past, women have not been taken seriously in the art world. Many women would make pieces such as quilts, or textiles, things that they were in charge of making for their families, and they would make it their own. They would add their own stories and ideas to the pieces to give them context outside of just a necessary item. I am taking this recipe and adding my own ideas on what makes my own artwork, and in that way I am putting it into a new context, and making it my own. I believe the process of creating this piece is metaphorical and is even more important than the finished drawing itself.

"Laurel Lee selects"

This selection is from a response written about an artist lecture at the IMA featuring Kate Gilmore and Lily Malalroy. The two artist discussed feminism and their intentions in their artwork. A classmate and I later discussed the role of feminism in their artwork and how it relates to my own role as a feminist both in the art world and in society.

Classmate: I don’t know, I guess I never really got into feminist work, I don’t really understand feminism and there is always so much negative attention drawn to it, in some mindsets I guess, not everyone’s.

It is such a shame that people really do not understand what it is to be a feminist. Feminism has such a simple definition. If everyone understood, many more people would be supportive of the idea. A feminist is a man or woman who simply believes women are equal. The actual dictionary definition is the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men. It is not expecting special treatment, or being a man-hater, it is simply the desire to have the same rights and opportunities as men.

Feminism is an important part of my life, not quite as much in my artwork as in my role in society. Informing people about feminism and helping to dismiss false and negative ideas about it is part of my contribution. Like these two feminist artists, I try to use humor to speak about feminism in my artwork, to make it easier to understand and more enjoyable to digest. As Kate Gilmore says, “it is about respect.” The artists and feminists in the past who have worked so hard to make a point and create change are largely influential in my life, and it is my desire, through conversation or through art, to pass on these important ideas and continue to expand the movement.

Selected work from the IMA:

Kate Gilmore, Break of Day, 2010 Indianapolis Museum of Art

Kate Gilmore is a feminist artist who uses her body as a tool in her work. She creates sculpture and video by building and creating and often times then destroying. In doing various tasks, sometimes violent or strenuous, she shows us how powerful women can be, both physically capable, and metaphorically strong. She is heavily influenced by feminists in the past, especially female performance artists. By using her body in her work, she is commenting on feminist topics and the female form. She often wears dresses while performing these acts, to exaggerate femininity. The piece Break of Day is about time, and how it wears at the body. Her work is often about the female experience.

I feel as though Kate Gilmore’s concepts do somewhat influence my own approach to feminist art. She and I do not necessarily speak about the same things in our work, but for me, the idea of the female experience, and showing capability of women are important ideas. Along with other feminist artists from the past, I feel as though Gilmore’s process is incredibly important to her concepts. The aspect of performance is what makes her work. Performance art and process art are powerful ways to show feminist ideas. Being able to use one’s own body, looking for the reactions of others while showing one's power or independence, or making a sarcastic commentary on female inability in public, being able to show others the process behind what you are creating, showing time and cycles, are only some of the examples of how performance and process art are the perfect mediums for feminist concepts.