Issue 1 March 2016
ESCAPE
Autumn/ Winter 16/17 Alycia Harrison
ESCAPE
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WHENFASHION MEETSART During a visit to the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester I was completely indulged by the Powerful work of 3 artists. The exhibition explores the work of different complementary textile artists, including the renowned artists Grayson Perry and Tracey Emin. The exhibit really opened up my eye to the endless opportunities open to textiles artists and I was most attracted to the vibrant, outgoing atmosphere in the gallery rooms. Art textiles explores textiles place in art, proving that the techniques used by textile artists have a place outside of domestic crafting. One artist that really struck to my attention was Helga Sophia Goetze and her piece of work ‘Gottinnen’. Gottinnen is a piece of work expressing the empowerment and evolution of women. Using embroidery techniques she has expressed how the women are free to be themselves, pleasure themselves, and do as they please. This piece of art sums up the meaning of sexual liberation through an image. The use of vibrant colours gives me a feeling of how Goetze felt at the time of making this, is shows emotions of happiness, freedom love and expressing her sexuality. Helga Goetze was born in Magdeburg, Germany in 1992.
She was married and had 7 children. During a visit to Sicily Goetze met a woman named Giovanni and with the consent of her partner, Giovanni soon became her lover. This experience led to a huge change in her life; she broke with her ‘protected housewife life’ to investigate, Through open sexuality. She divorced her Husband and moved to a WG (a flat shared by people who have decided to live together) based on sexual liberty. For more than 20 years she has demonstrated in front of churches showing her message “fucking makes people peaceful” and “fucking makes peace”. Goetze never considered herself as an artist in her living days, but was a “housewife who has tried to understand the plot of life.
“fucking makes peace”
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I find this piece of artwork relates to a lot of political problems within society today. Sexual Liberation is one that has been the debate of many for years. The social construction of sexuality as a historical process has received relatively little attention from feminists. This discussion of the role of sexology in the construction of male sexuality and heterosexual relations is intended as a contribution to understanding the maintenance and reproduction of male power. It is argued that early 20th century sexology, exemplified in the work of Havelock Ellis, undermined the feminist challenge to male supremacy in general, and male sexuality in particular; that, in the guise of scientific objectivity, it constituted a powerful ideology, legitimating male sexual domination, and conscripting women into heterosexuality by means of a doctrine of sexual pleasure. The function of both ‘science’ and liberal sexual ideology, in reinforcing the social control of women in the interests of male supremacy, raises wider questions about the relationship between sexual liberation and women's liberation. Not only is Sexual liberation a subject within politics and religion, it has also been shown in the media. ‘Dreamers’ a film that appeared on screens in 2003 was one of the top ten sexually liberating movies.
It features three youngsters, serious moviebuffs with an intellectual frame of mind who's love and emotions for each other somehow get entangled. Eva Green is a pretty psycho in this movie; Louis Garrel is her mysterious brother, while the lonely Michael Pitt has just come to Paris to study. The Dreamers is about freedom, love, lust and intimacy. Artists such as Missy Elliot, Nicki Minaj, Salt ‘n’ Pepa have all been known to have songs which have featured Sexual freedom, ‘ free your mind’ by En vogue, basically sums up women’s freedom and how no one is to control you, they go out and spend their money they worked hard for and dress how they feel. All about woman power! Knowing that people have mixed views on this my favourite line is “before you can read me you gotta learn how to see me” telling people not to judge.
“fucking makes people peaceful” My visit to the Whitworth opened my eyes to the different aspects of art. Before my visit to the gallery, my views on art were not as positive as they are now. I have since started to look at how artists can help influence my collection, the work of Goetze and artist Naomi Ryder has inspired me to create different accessories for my collection for the use of their illustrations and techniques used. I will take a deeper look into the work of Ryder and combine it with the traditional work or Helga Goetze.
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Linder Sterling A radical feminist and a well-known figure of the Manchester punk and postpunk scene, Sterling was known for her montages, which often combined images taken from pornographic magazines with images from women's fashion and domestic magazines, particularly those of domestic appliances, making a point about the cultural expectations of women and the treatment of female body as a commodity. Many of her works were published in the punk collage fanzine Secret Public, which she cofounded with Jon Savage. One of her best-known pieces of visual art is the single cover for Orgasm Addict by the Buzzcocks (1977), showing a naked woman with an iron for a head and grinning mouths instead of nipples. "At this point, men's magazines were either DIY, cars or porn. Women's magazines were fashion or domestic stuff. So, guess the common denominator – the female body.
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I took the female form from both sets of magazines and made these peculiar jigsaws highlighting these various cultural monstrosities that I felt there were at the time." Linder was also a partner of Howard Devoto, a founding member of Buzzcocks, who left the group to form Magazine. She also designed the cover for Magazine's debut album Real Life (1978) and was known for her 'menstrual jewellery' (beads and ear-rings made of broken coat hangers with absorbent lint dipped in translucent glue and painted red, in order to resemble bloodied tampons) and the mythical 'menstrual egg-timer' (a series of beads with different colours – red, white and purple – devised to chronicle the cycle from ovulation to menstruation) that she designed for Tony Wilson's Factory Records, which never entered production. She also collaborated on a short film called Red Dress, a rare Factory/New Hormones project.
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