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FiftyFive ~ # 51
A friend of mine was talking about "post-feminism" recently and she said, "I still haven't quite figured out what post-feminism is - unless it's what happens when complacency begins to set in." And to be truthful that is how I feel on the whole "post" idea, postmodernity, end of history (The End of History and the Last Man is a 1992 book by Francis Fukiyama). It was the right wing commentator, George Will, who proclaimed 9/11 as the end of the American "holiday from history" and its an idea that Slavoj Žižek plays with in Welcome To The Desert of the Real. And though Will will be no fan of the feminists (happy international wimin's day btw - I know I was late in saying it but hey, I was multi-tasking somewhere else at the time) his idea of an end to the "holiday of history" rather than Fukiyama's end of history is surely more persuasive. And surely this is a totem for the feminist idea. Its not so much a case that history merely repeats but that the project, the story is ongoing. In my inaugural address I mentioned there is a current debate in art circles that asks the question: is Picasso’s Les Femmes d'Alger a pastiche or parody of Delacroix’s painting of the same name, or indeed something other? Indeed, he painted fifteen variations of Les Femmes d'Alger – and forty-four variations of Las Meninas by Velazquez, so it wasn’t just a whim on Picasso’s part. John Berger has said, “…the majority of Picasso’s important late works are variations on themes borrowed from other painters… no more than exercises in painting…” Is this really the case, are they so postmodern? And if so, then are history and feminism too in this post faze and just mimicking their own past, or is there a future agenda? I am not an art historian but Berger’s analysis worries me. Because are Picasso’s paintings not a re-interpretation – a variation on a theme rather than mimicry – as Picasso himself said: “I am a Spaniard, just like a torero takes his bull through all kinds of passes, I like to take my pictures through all kinds of variations.” Of course, critical analysis can be very subjective, but it seems to me that Picasso’s “variations” and an increasing obsession with art history in his late years was not an exercise nor was it about honouring the past masters through parody, pastiche or plain imitation but is a textual intervention - it was an attempt to understand what art is. Indeed they not only reveal Picasso the artist, but Picasso making connections and a critically creative and creatively critical engagement with a rich artistic past which he can be entitled to be called part of. Should feminism not be engaged in the same kind of debate as it continues to confront its future, from the present, by carrying the trace of its past along with it? 
Well, its just a notion but surely the textual intervention is still required, surely all fights against all oppressions are ongoing and ever presently engaged in intervening on the empirical narratives that come to dominate. Fight on, sister, fight on! Though as another friend reminds me, occasionally we have to take a break and shout, "fuck art, let's dance" - the picture is by John Brack, Latin American Grand Final, 1989 - I will be doing a Tennessee Waltz, join me?
A friend of mine was talking about "post-feminism" recently and she said, "I still haven't quite figured out what post-feminism is - unless it's what happens when complacency begins to set in." And to be truthful that is how I feel on the whole "post" idea, postmodernity, end of history (The End of History and the Last Man is a 1992 book by Francis Fukiyama). It was the right wing commentator, George Will, who proclaimed 9/11 as the end of the American "holiday from history" and its an idea that Slavoj Žižek plays with in Welcome To The Desert of the Real. And though Will will be no fan of the feminists (happy international wimin's day btw - I know I was late in saying it but hey, I was multi-tasking somewhere else at the time) his idea of an end to the "holiday of history" rather than Fukiyama's end of history is surely more persuasive. And surely this is a totem for the feminist idea. Its not so much a case that history merely repeats but that the project, the story is ongoing. In my inaugural address I mentioned there is a current debate in art circles that asks the question: is Picasso’s Les Femmes d'Alger a pastiche or parody of Delacroix’s painting of the same name, or indeed something other? Indeed, he painted fifteen variations of Les Femmes d'Alger – and forty-four variations of Las Meninas by Velazquez, so it wasn’t just a whim on Picasso’s part. John Berger has said, “…the majority of Picasso’s important late works are variations on themes borrowed from other painters… no more than exercises in painting…” Is this really the case, are they so postmodern? And if so, then are history and feminism too in this post faze and just mimicking their own past, or is there a future agenda? I am not an art historian but Berger’s analysis worries me. Because are Picasso’s paintings not a re-interpretation – a variation on a theme rather than mimicry – as Picasso himself said: “I am a Spaniard, just like a torero takes his bull through all kinds of passes, I like to take my pictures through all kinds of variations.” Of course, critical analysis can be very subjective, but it seems to me that Picasso’s “variations” and an increasing obsession with art history in his late years was not an exercise nor was it about honouring the past masters through parody, pastiche or plain imitation but is a textual intervention - it was an attempt to understand what art is. Indeed they not only reveal Picasso the artist, but Picasso making connections and a critically creative and creatively critical engagement with a rich artistic past which he can be entitled to be called part of. Should feminism not be engaged in the same kind of debate as it continues to confront its future, from the present, by carrying the trace of its past along with it? 
Well, its just a notion but surely the textual intervention is still required, surely all fights against all oppressions are ongoing and ever presently engaged in intervening on the empirical narratives that come to dominate. Fight on, sister, fight on! Though as another friend reminds me, occasionally we have to take a break and shout, "fuck art, let's dance" - the picture is by John Brack, Latin American Grand Final, 1989 - I will be doing a Tennessee Waltz, join me?
