Some thoughts on Power

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Some thoughts on

Power

Joannie Godwin

Assignment 2: Art History BMA 312, Peter Belton



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In this essay I will study power as an issue in art. I am interested in this topic

because of my third year project which reflects my struggle to find my self

identity as a female, (recently new) citizen of New Zealand, child of war,

domestic abuse victim, mental health patient. I feel stigmatised by being part of

each of these µlow status¶ groups and therefore experience feelings of

powerlessness which impede my repossession of my own power. In my study of

Feminism in my second year Art History paper, I realised that power, and who

holds it, is pivotal in most Feminist theory. Womyn¶s power has been far more

fully explored in art than it has been explicitly discussed by theorists (Allen,

2011). The objectives of essay are to look at power, what it is theorised to be

and how it functions. Then I want to examine who holds that power and what

the implications are for the people who do not have power. Then finally I want

to consider what theorists and practitioners believe can be done to redistribute

power or to create a new power base within society.



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Judith Butler states that power can only be abused by those who have it (Kirby,

2006). The consequence of the abuse of power is injustice, from whatever

stance one chooses to examine the situation. In fact it could be said that issues

pertaining to power lie at the base of every issue of fairness in society.

I have based this essay on the premise that:

1. power is distributed according to binary hierarchies in our society.

There are the haves and the have-nots in every discourse within the

social order. Statistically it is improbable that a binary system

would polarise so distinctly, all things being equal. Thus the

balance of power must have been implemented and maintained by

domination strategies that caused imbalances severely

disadvantaging huge sections of society,

and

2. for over 2000 years power has been vested in the hands of the male

sex. As a result language, culture and social structure have been

masculinised. The concomitant uneven positioning of power

between men and women has spread throughout society in a

complex hierarchy based not only on sex, but on culture, race,

gender and economies.

In support of the premise of unbalanced distribution of power and resultant

discrimination, I want to start by looking at what power is and how it works.

Power is can be defined and discussed from a variety of different angles.



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Linguistic Definition of Power

In linguistic terms µpower¶ is a noun. In signifies

1 the ability or capacity to do something or act in a particular way

2 the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behaviour of others or

the course of events

and

3 physical strength and force exerted by something or someone.

(The Oxford Online Dictionary, 2011)

In the much quoted ³Why Have There Been No Great Woman Artists?´ Linda

Nochlin (1971) describes the power that prevents womyn from acting or

influencing as "the entire romantic, elitist, individual-glorifying, and

monograph-producing substructure upon which the profession of art history is

based" (p. 153).

Philosophical Discussion of Power

Michel Foucault saw power, from a Marxist perspective, as a mobile and

constantly shifting ³multiplicity of force relations immanent in the sphere in

which they operate and which constitute their own organization; as the

processes which, through ceaseless struggles and confrontations, transforms,

strengthens, or reverses them;«thus forming a chain or system´ (Foucault

1979, in Allen, 2011, section 1, para 5). These relationships, compiled and

defined by each social interaction, pervade the social body.





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In addition, many minority groups comprise individuals with feelings of

powerlessness, searching for personal autonomy as an escape from cultural

power structures. Allen states that ³...much work in feminist theory is devoted

to the tasks of critiquing women's subordination, analyzing the intersections

between sexism and other forms of subordination such as racism,

heterosexism, and class oppression, and envisioning the possibilities for both

individual and collective resistance to such subordination´ (2011, section 4 ).

Womyn are Powerless

The fact that there has been no great production of womyn¶s art throughout thehistory of paternalism is proof that womyn do not hold the power and

conversely that men do have it (Nochlin, 1988).

According to Kirby, ³Foucoult¶s most valuable contribution to the

reconceptualization of power was to acknowledge its perverse productivity and

ubiquity´ (2006, p. 40). Foucault¶s insight into the nature of subjection shows

that, by becoming a subject, a person is vulnerable to power relations (Allen,

2011, section 3.5, para 1). Power is all knowledge, including self-knowledge.

Therefore, as self-knowledge is individually built within power structures that

preference one sex over the other, the male sex is enhanced in their functioning

and ability to act (power) while the female sex is undermined in their discovery

of who they are and what they can do.

Theorists point out that the concepts male, self, familiar, yes, good,

technology, power, violence (among others) become linked while womyn

becomes associated with mysterious, bad, nature, partnership, gentleness etc.

Irigaray elaborates that improper, other, bodiliness, irrationality and animal

have also become accepted as µbelonging¶ to womyn and this establishes a



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disposition towards original inadequacy in every female child (Irigaray in

Kirby, 2006).

However, everyone, regardless of sex class race or gender, desires the power to

govern their own life. Buss (2008, para 1), discusses this need for personal

autonomy, saying how each individual desires to ³be a law to oneself .́ Buss

goes on to comment, ³Most of us want to be autonomous because we want to

be accountable for what we do, and because it seems that if we are not the ones

calling the shots, then we cannot be accountable. More importantly, perhaps,

the value of autonomy is tied to the value of self-integration. We don't want to

be alien to, or at war with, ourselves; and it seems that when our intentions are

not under our own control, we suffer from self-alienation´ (Buss, 2008, para1).

It is not possible for people who feel alienated, to feel powerful within the

current structures of dominator societies (Eisler, 1995). It is now commonly

accepted that modern civilization is built on patriarchal power systems 6000

years old, when land began to be violently appropriated accompanied by rape

and murder. As warring male raiding parties expanded their boundaries,womyn were taken as slaves while men were slaughtered. The foundation

relationship, in our culture, between men and womyn was one of violent

domination (Eisler, 1995). In fact, our culture is the child of rape.

Kristeva, in her book Powers of Abjection, (1982) explains that one of the

reasons womyn remain powerless in Western culture is that for centuries they

have been controlled by stringent religious, and corresponding sexual,

prohibitions regarding menstruation and childbirth. Within these structures the

blood of the womyn is constructed as abject and thus abhorrent. This system

of abjection works to separate male children from womyn¶s influence

(Kristeva, 1982).





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R osemary Betterton (1996) explains that womyn are faced with the fascinating

task of trying to transform metaphors such as µdistance¶, implicit in looking,

and µtouch¶, implicit in embodiment into a new visual system that subverts the

power of the ³phallic symbol system´. Does this mean the creation of a new

language? The emergence of a transformed culture? Allen (2011) suggests

that Irigaray's work on sexual difference suggests an alternative conception of

power as a transformative force. Could this transformative power result in a

new communication system to be understood both visually and auditorily?

Joseph Beuys believed so. He used obscure materials, like fat and felt, to

make a profound, visual, philosophical point. He believed that performing the

metaphor would change the world. Beuys is an example of an artist who has

tried to replace society¶s passive expectation of art by constructing rituals to

restore balance to society. Beuys ± as guru ± enacted ritualistic

communications in an attempt to shift society¶s perceptions and create new

avenues of discourse (Jones, 2006). Feminist performance has copied Beuys¶

model, transforming metaphor like Beuys transformed fat and felt, to invent

other ways of conceptualisation. Of this feminist attempt to redefine the

metaphor in language Jean Baker Miller writes, ³there is enormous validity in

women's not wanting to use power as it is presently conceived and used.

R ather, women may want to be powerful in ways that simultaneously enhance,

rather than diminish, the power of others´ (Miller 1992, in Allen, 2011, section

4, para 2).

Lucy Lippard (1983) commenting on the fact that performers and audiences

have enacted rituals for as long as there have been cultures, emphasises the

importance of these rituals by explaining how much mathematical, engineering

and astronomical knowledge was necessary for the detailed creation of the

ceremonial places associated with the rituals. Subjects throughout history have

needed to prove their existence through ritual in order to confirm their own

identity. In this way the subject attempts to authenticate its discourse with

society by re-living mythical or instinctual moments (Marsh, 1993).



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Lippard highlights this importance of societal intervention in the construction

of knowing who and what one is. For her it is through performance, µknowing

through doing´ (1983, p. 30), that one constructs identity nowadays. Marsh

remarks that the repeated use of similar actions by body artists of the 60s and

70s suggests that the subjects were trying to prove their own existence to

themselves and to society (1993).

Performing

Performative feminist politics had no emphasis on any one, single, definition

of ³womyn´ or any other political identity. Instead, as any identity is

constructed performatively, any identity can also be created and shaped as it is

lived. Therefore identity becomes something entirely within the control of the

individual (Butler, 2009). In Gender Trouble, Butler theorises that resistance to

power is the re-articulation of power. She believes that the shift in power will

come about as a result of new gender identities incorporating a sense of

personal power, which are created by performing gender norms (Allen, 2011).

By anticipating and creating alternative identities, a different and better

political future is created. Differing conceptualizations will begin to be

performed and created, and therefore the general understanding of what power

is will be drastically shifted within the common understanding of society

(Allen, 2011).

Marsh talks about how body and performance art was aimed specifically in

these reconceptualizations in that they were all about breaking taboos in the

70s (1993). Describing Serlac¶s performances, involving multiple incisions,

insertion of hooks into the skin and being suspended, she explains that the pain

and stamina needed to overcome it, proves the limits of the body, both



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physically and psychically thereby defining it. Nevertheless Marsh points out

the deep intricate male bias of culture prevailed and man was seen as ³master

of discourse, master of ceremonies and further, master of pain´ (1993, p. 99)

However, new language was formed and metaphor was created. The numerous

wounds caused in these performances communicate at the non verbal level to

reveal the aggressive tension of the subject.

Gina Pane, however, did not just want to explore her own identity. She used

self-inflicted injuries as a tool to bring real experience (through empathy with

her discomfort) into the viewer's appreciation of her art. In her early

performances she contributed heavily to the creation of the new metaphor

language in bringing complex visualizations of psychological states and

conflicts to the audience¶s attention (Oxford Grove Art, 2002).

In New Zealand, Allie Eagle raised awareness of rape and other sexual

violence done to womyn. Her most famous work E mpathy for a Rape Trial

Victim (1978) was one of the most poignant installations of the New Zealand

art world. Abortion was also a really important issue for Eagle as she believed

that womyn should have the power to define what was happening to their

bodies. In her painting This Woman Died I Care, attempts to get others to think about the risks womyn take when they are not empowered to control their own

body. She used her influence as a curator to try and change womyn¶s situation

and to identify the inequities faced by female artists.

Carolee Schneemann was one of the first artists to explore the goddess cult

(Lippard, 1983). In her performance E ye-Body she appeared naked with live

snakes referencing the goddess¶ dominion over the snake, symbolizing fertility

and rebirth. Schneemann brought these highly feminised signifiers to the

attention of the public. In addition, her tactic of performing naked was an

attempt to transform herself from object, in the eyes of male society, to image

maker, creating her own self image. Schneemann is quoted by Lippard as



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saying µIn some sense I made a gift of my body to other women: giving our

bodies back to ourselves´ (1983, p. 77).

Betterton says that in paternalist culture the body represents all that is

³degrading in the erotic tradition of Western art and yet - a means of

articulating a specifically female experience´ (1996, p. 9). Schneeman¶s work

reveals this attempt to express the female experience. Her stated purpose was

to release all womyn from the constraints of a sex negative society into one of

connection with each other (Lippard, 1983, p. 77). Therefore her intent can be

articulated as an attempt to shift the balance of power. Instead of fuelling the

war between the male and female factions, her work was supposed to reinforce

connection and concomitant power, between womyn themselves. Jones (1998)

summarises Schneemann¶s intent an attempt to take the focus of power away

from the individual and empower womyn as a whole by giving womyn her

own eroticism. This is the transformative power that Irigaray speaks of.

Concluding thoughts

The task seems unattainable. To change the entire power structure of the

whole of patriarchal civilization. And yet it is being attempted. R esearch is

happening into existing intersectional analyses of power. All new information

is being brought into the open and is being rethought in light of recent

discussions of globalization, cosmopolitanism, and transnational justice. The

relationships between action-theoretical, systemic, and constitutive dimensions

of power are being analysed. (Allen, 2011, Section 3.4 para 1).

In the past most enquiry was directed at defining what power is and who holds

it. Presently though, artists and performance artists in particular, have out-

stripped the theorists in investigating the practical implementation of a new

power base in society. It seems idealistic, but many serious theorists believe it



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to be possible. Eisler¶s hope is that as we shift the powerbase in society ³(t)he

most dramatic change ..... will be that we, and our children and grandchildren,

will again know what it means to live free of the fear of war.´ (1995, p. 198)



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Some thoughts on Power