Task 9- Philosophy, Theory and Politics
Carolee Schneemann Interior Scroll
Below is a print of two photographs documented from a performance piece at an exhibition called âWomen Here and Nowâ in New York, 1975. In front of a largely female audience Schneemann undressed and brushed her limbs with dark paint. As part of the performance aspect, she would take âaction posesâ as though she was a life class model. She then read aloud a scroll she pulled from her vagina. This was argued by Robert C. Morgan to be âa feminist exploration her own bodyâ. The scrollâs content is written on the two sides of the print in columns. The text itself is powerful, addressing how men traditionally are ordered and rational, whereas women tend to work from intuition. Amy Newman writes in the New York Times âthe art world wasn’t shocked, it was confused and embarrassedâ in the 1960s about art that was purely of a sexual nature.
I admire Shneemannâs outrageous performance piece âInterior Scrollâ. When looking inward, over my first year I hope to grasp and tackle poignant current issues. She writes that âin some sense [she] made a gift of [her] body to other women; giving our bodies back to ourselvesâ. With such an ambitious belief, conceptually and visually in her work, included in other pieces of her work also, itâs hard not to notice Schneemann as a hugely important feminist artist, offering guidance to women who may struggle with their own bodies.
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/schneemann-interior-scroll-p13282