SillySkirtTalk

Sillyskirttalk

Within the sphere of our collaboration, how the history of the project has created a mutually occupied sphere of knowledge which allows us to draw on the same sources.

Spontaneity of Elizabeth’s writing the poem and Eleanor’s interpretation of it.

Elizabeth talks about how she visualized the content as she wrote vs how Eleanor interpreted it. Elizabeth’s fascination with how Eleanor’s interpretation broadened the meaning (women in the cell [the suppressed mother] vs men in the cell; focus on fertility etc.) leading to…

Significance of the cell – doubling as the small space within which women often find themselves imprisoned/confined – especially when addressing the issues of reproduction (issues surrounding pregnancy, motherhood and shame)

The skirt was wide…women’s potential; a magical/potent moment happens with the arrival of the figure, but they are frozen by internalized suspicions of female power – cloven hoof…men beg. Issue of what is female sexuality; can we recover what it was before it became rigidly defined by social constructs that favored men. Internalized self-loathing and social constraints

Enigmatic smile/wondering eye/time flying by – how art seeks to maintain the existence of a mysterious feminine through history

No tears/ no pleas/ only smoke and ash – the intent to recover other meaning in the feminine historically receives at best a tenuous reception and worst a murderous one. Lest we think we are passed these judgments the recent American election, the rise of domestic abuse; the rise in many areas of the world of gendercide, and prominently gynocide prove that we are not.

The shame no one could claim – women censoring women; the women in the cell miss their potential transitional moment because of unworthiness and limitation (self-definitions that revolve around sexual availability to men) felt through internalization of societal values – not the least of which are expressions of beauty; all these things causing a disconnect between the potential power they have and opportunities to actually express or engage it, importance of shame to Eleanor as part of the visual language of the piece.

They could not tell ……. her name ……. unacknowledged accomplishment of women throughout history and its relevance today.
Working toward a recovery of something that was lost does not provide answers so much as opens up possibilities by opening up a discussion of the relationship between art and culture – what stories are told and why they are told; the power of word and art in determining who we think we are and/or could be. An opportunity that should not be passed by.

Every unanswered question, every conscripted answer (such as that of female inferiority) provides a chance – like the appearance and disappearance of the woman – for redress.