Art as Feminism

Outside Reading

Art as Feminism: Carolyn Korsmeyer

The article starts with the disclaimer that many established art experts (meaning historians, curators, critics, etc.) have a hard time defining what art is.  Many art experts don't even want to begin to define art for fear of creating categories that possible art expressions cannot fit into.  However, there is an agreement on what traditional fine art is.  Traditional fine art, according to the article, makes a clear distinction between art and craft, does not have a political significance and is usually the product of a lone genius.  Korsmeyer then goes to explain how feminist artists "main agenda" is to challenge the standards.  One of the more favored examples in the article is the use of craft materials in feminist art.

Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party

The picture above is an installment by Judy Chicago made almost entirely out of crafts (the plates, tables, cups, quilts) but it was also a collaborative project done by over one hundred women and contains a political message.  Each place setting is for a female figure from history or myth and uses the craft of quilting to personalize each setting.

Disinterested Interest

Disinterested Interest 

Other Readings: Roger Scruton/Beauty

October 12, 2015

One of the most intriguing parts of Immanuel Kant’s aesthetic theory is the concept of disinterested interest. Kant begins by distinguishing between interest and disinterest. Humans, he says, take on an interested attitude towards something when it serves as a means to their end. Interested objects are instruments designed at achieving some sort of aim or end goal. Our interaction with such objects is driven by appetites, needs, and desires. However, there is a second type of interest that treats objects as ends in themselves. Our interest toward such objects is wholly devoted to the object itself, not the objects purpose. This, Kant calls disinterested interest. We express such interest when we spend time with a close friend. We do not treat time spent with a loved one as a fulfillment of any desire or satisfaction of any goal since the interest is fully placed in the person to whom you stand in relation to. In moments of disinterested interest, no substitute for the object or person that holds our complete admiration will do. You cannot substitute a stranger for your friend. Only the specific object toward which our full attention is geared will do. Disinterested interest is a pure judgement of beauty that is not interested in the use or practicality of an object. Such interest takes on a curious attitude toward it’s object, attempting to understand, value, and delight in the object.

Beautiful Motion

Beautiful Motion

Gerardus Van Der Leeuw/Sacred and Profane Beauty

October 2015

“Before man learned how to use any instruments at all, he moved the most perfect instrument of all, his body.”(p.13) The beauty of motion begins and ends with the human body. There is beauty in the ritualistic repetition of running and feeling the ache of your legs. Engaging the body in physical activity and play is one of the best ways to release pent up desire and longing. The intimate relationship between soul and body is greatly underestimated today. Van Der Leeuw comments on this breakup of unity, lamenting how dance has become entertainment rather than religious and sports have become secularized rather than sacred. But despite this, the power of this divinely ordained connection between the body and soul remains. The body and soul are not dualistic entities. They work together to create beautiful motion. The bodily movements we make are an expression of ourselves. The body is the outlet for the cultivation of the soul. Bodily motion has the reciprocal ability to shape the posture of one’s soul. Assuming the position of prostration during prayer, for example, is a posture of the body that usher’s the soul into quiet reverence. Out of the overflow of what we feed our souls, we act. Lashing out in violence, making a degrading comment, and acting selfishly are all symptoms of an unhealthy soul. The soul thirsts for constant exposure to beauty. We were made to taste, touch, smell, see, and hear beautiful things and express the joy received from these things through our bodies. Bodily movement is the consummation of experienced beauty.