Preposterous histories

Johnson, Clare

Abstract

This article explores maternal desire, loss, and control by reading Carolee Schneemann's performance Interior Scroll (1975) through Tracey Emin's photographic print I've Got It All (2000). More specifically, I consider Schneemann's work on the energy of female sexuality and maternal desire through Emin's recurrent visualizations of sexuality and maternal loss. The artists' refusal to disengage with the commodified (dis)pleasures of femininity leads me to consider the differently contextualized handling of these issues in each artwork. I explore the mediation of the body of each artist by positioning Emin's work as a "source" for my reading of Schneemann's performance. Invoking the notion of "preposterous history" (Bal 1999), I argue that the concepts of the "live" and the "mediated" are differently intensified by operating outside of the constraints of chronology. Hence the inter-generational dialogue between these particular female artists, whose work has been produced at different historical moments, is itself generative of thoughts and ideas that are irreducible to the individual works. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.

• Journal Article Type: Review
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2010
• Deposit Date: Jul 28, 2010
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 5, 2016
• Journal: Feminist Media Studies
• Print ISSN: 1468-0777
• Electronic ISSN: 1471-5902
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 269-284
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2010.493646
• Keywords: Carolee Schneemann, Tracey Emin, maternal loss, feminist art
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/982286
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2010.493646
• Contract Date: Mar 5, 2016