Ginger Issue 5 by Ginger

Ginger Networked feminism

Summer 2016

MISSION

LEIGH SUGAR LAUREN BANKA

JOEY BEHRENS

Ginger maps networks of creative people. In keeping with the logic of a network, all of the contributors to this issue were referred by an editor or contributor from a previous issue. As a feminist publication, we are committed to supporting the work of self-identified women and queer/trans/gender non-conforming individuals and strive to share the experiences and distinctive voices of those who identify as such. Our goal is to produce a zine with a diverse range of forms, content, and viewpoints.

KAITLIN McCARTHY

AMANDA LÓPEZKURTZ

JAN TRUMBAUER

• ISSUE 1 • ISSUE 2 • ISSUE 3 • ISSUE 4 • ISSUE 5

HAYLEE EBERSOLE

JESSICA LAW

JILLIAN JACOBS

MICHAELA RIFE KASIA HALL

JENNIFER WEISS

ALEXIS CANTU

JACQUELINE MELECIO

NATALIE EICHENGREEN

MIMI CHIAHEMEN

GRACIE BIALECKI

MARIA R. BAAB

MARISSA BLUESTONE LIANA IMAM

JESS WILLLA WHEATON

SONYA DERMAN

KATIE VIDA

WOLFGANG SCHAFFER

CARLA AVRUCH

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DELILAH JONES

RACHEL WALLACH

KATIE FORD ASHLEIGH DYE

HARRIS BAUER

YI-HSIN TZENG NANDI LOAF

RACHEL ZARETSKY IVY HALDEMAN

CLAUDIA GERBRACHT

ENA ´ SELIMOVIC SAM CROW

ELIZABETH SULTZER

SOFIA PONTÉN

HANNAH RAWE

LAURA COOPER

LAURA PORTWOODSTACER

FREDRIKA THELANDERSSON

MOLLY HAGAN

LEIGH RUPLE

MARKEE SPEYER

JACQUELINE CANTU

CAITLIN WRIGHT

LAUREN ARIAN

ALEX CHOWANIEC

DOROTEA MENDOZA

JESSICA PRUSA

KATHARINE PERKO

ANNIK HOSMANN

JOLENE LUPO

NATALIE GIRSBERGER LA JOHNSON

LAURA McMULLEN

MOLLY RAPP

EMILY ROSE LARSON

INDIA TREAT

RACHEL BRODY TIFFANY SMITH

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Artist Name Project name

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Artist Name Project name

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Issue NO 5 contributors India Treat .... PAGE 07 Kasia Hall .... PAGE 13 Natalie Eichengreen .... PAGE 15 Yi-Hsin Tzeng .... PAGE 23 Nandi Loaf .... PAGE 29 Tiffany Smith .... PAGE 39 Sam Crow .... PAGE 47

Co-founders E D I TOR

Markee Speyer D E SI G N E R

Jacqueline Cantu

On the cover: Study 1 from the series For Tropical Girls Who Have Considered Ethnogenesis When the Native Sun is Remote, 2013

A rG t iIsNt GNEaRm 5 e 5

India Treat I am an Eagle

Throughout art history, a tradition exists of the “reclining female nude.” In these images, be they paintings, sculptures or photographs, the portrayed woman is often young and seemingly helpless. Their submissive nature is implied in their reclined posture. These women are passive, and lack the agency or ability to escape the gaze confronting them. This alone would be enough to dominate the individual depicted, but the male gaze does more to monopolize his subject. The female is rarely engaging with her viewer while the viewer always looks directly at his subject. When the viewer is depicted in the image, the perspective is often warped so that he physically dominates his subject. When a third party is present, (i.e. cupid) they are depicted as small or undeveloped so as not to intimidate the male seekers. The “reclined female nude” is stripped of her agency, opinion, and perspective and exists entirely for male pleasure. This tradition has outrun its course and my photographs are an experiment in re-writing this history. My self-portraits purposely confront the camera and synonymously the viewer with a gaze of specific intent. It is my objective to call attention to what it means and how it feels to be looked at—in doing so I am confronting the male gaze. Women in images are most often the objects of fetishized male desire. To counter that notion of viewership, I portray myself as an individual who is hyper-aware of the camera, the implied male viewer, but most importantly, I am self-aware. In this way, my self-portraits exist as an assertion of my dominance and an understanding of myself and my power.

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I am an Eagle #1, 2015, Archival Inkjet Print

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I am an Eagle #3, 2015, Archival Inkjet Print

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I am an Eagle #9, 2015, Archival Inkjet Print

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I am an Eagle #5, 2015, Archival Inkjet Print

India Treat is a photographer living and working in Austin, Texas. She graduated with honors from School of Visual Arts. As a child she was raised to question all authority and her work is greatly influenced by this upbringing. Her images question, deconstruct, and reassemble the narrow standards of femininity. Through self-portraiture and photographs of other women, Treat writes a new history, told from the womanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s point of view. Her aim is to hinder the patriarchy through means of artistic expression. If she wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t making art, she would start a violent, armed, revolution. indiatreatphoto.com

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Kasia Hall Ogun’s Bride

Ogun’s Bride, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches, 2008

Kasia graduated from Hunter College with degrees in Art and Anthropology. She is pursuing a Masters degree in Museum Studies at Columbia University. The culture, art and symbolism of Haiti as well as the folk art and customs of rural Poland are underlying themes in the artist’s choice of subject, style and imagery. Kasia works in oil on wood and pastel on paper.

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Natalie Eichengreen Untitled project

Perception cultivates our sense of reality. Images tend to influence the way we think about reality; we can learn about different ways of life, cultures and heritages through photographs mainly, if we have no option of experiencing the culture first hand, ourselves. I want to tell an untold story about a form of traditional life, this story might seem truthful and honest. Disguised as a photography documentary project about a religious woman and man, I chose myself as the subject matter. I pass through cities in the world, from Brooklyn, New York to Zfat in Israel, creating self-portraits that make up pieces to the different stories one can put together through the photographs. Through blending reality with made up characters, as well as changing my appearance to a Jewish orthodox one, I explore notions and questions behind identity, how fine is the line between what we choose to believe in, and what is actual fact or truth; do our eyes and minds translate what we see clearly. Perhaps bringing one to confront our own unconscious stereotyping. Do we attach meaning to outside appearances in religious contexts; I am interested in our belief systems and our thought process when it comes to societies we do not know from within. As a young girl every time I went to visit my father, it was important for me to dress in a manner that honors him. Usually I wore a long skirt and modest long shirts that donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t expose too much skin, although my mother raised me in a secular home. I felt the need to honor my father and his religious beliefs. Years

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after my childhood I visited my dad and I noticed a new photograph framed on one of his shelves, it was a “family portrait” my friend took, of me, my father and a young kid that he was holding up in one arm and hugging me with the other. The boy was the son of my father’s friend that we had visited his farm at the time. I call this photo “Family Portrait” Because through photography the situation was in fact reversed compared to the way it is perceived in reality - my father was not so present in my life, and the only little boy I knew at that time the picture was taken. The next thing I saw was a blue piece of plastic, oval-shaped cut, glued to my chest, as to cover up a piece of skin that was showing. There was no way I had my cleavage showing, but still that little piece of skin from my upper chest to my neck line was enough to cover me up. I was so shocked, hurt and appalled by this action of covering up my skin without my permission or my knowing. I believe that my personal background, and the way I was brought up, is an important foundation for my project and the stage for evolution in my work. The repressed point of view that my father carries in his beliefs, and the representation of the religious extremes that I grew up around, mixed with a completely free environment growing up with my mother had and still have great influence on me and how I perceive very basic social behaviors. It is the base which is tied so deeply with strong threads of my childhood experiences, and in which I try to undo the knots, and show where the strings connect to the base.

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This Is Not Home, Akko Israel, 2014, Digital C-print

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Chiaro Oscuro, Haifa Israel, 2015, Digital C-print

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Above: Door number 3, Brooklyn New York, 2013, Digital C-print Left: White on White, Brooklyn New York, 2013, Digital C-print

Natalie Eichengreen was born in Israel in 1986. At the age 18 she joined the Israeli Army and served as a photographer in the Navy as well as in the Israeli Defense Force Spokes Unit. She moved to New York and has graduated with honors from the BFA program of photography at Parsons. She has presented work in New York, the Czech Republic, Berlin and Israel. Natalie has received the Hearst Foundation Scholarship 1st place for her body of work Woman X, and has been chosen to receive the Photography Meitar Prize and presented work at the International Photography Festival. natalieichengreen.com

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Yi-Hsin Tzeng Hyper Girl

Michelin Girl, acrylic on photo paper, 11 x 13 inches, 2010

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Camera Girl, acrylic on photo paper, 11 x 13 inches, 2010

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Hang Over Girl, acrylic on photo paper, 11 x 13 inches, 2010

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Call Girl, acrylic on photo paper, 11 x 13 inches, 2010

Yi-Hsin was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan. She received her MFA from Savannah College of Art and Design with an Artistic Honors Full Tuition Fellowship. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including Taiwan, USA, France, Colombia, Australia, and New Zealand. Her works were also featured in New York Times, New American Paintings magazine (USA), The Outlook Magazine (China), AUREUS Contemporary Gallery, and Pierogi gallery (NYC). tzengyihsin.weebly.com

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Artist Name Project name

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Nandi Loaf Interview by Elizabeth Sultzer

Nandi Loaf is the most important artist to the 21st century, making physical work in a digital world. Her work can be found @nandi_loaf on Instagram, Youtube, Tumblr, and other social media sites, coming soon to a gallery near you. Elizabeth Sultzer is an artist, witch, and writer based in Salem, MA, and can be reached @lizsultzer on Twitter. Here they talk about Nandi Loaf, and are as honest as possible.

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Elizabeth Sultzer: In your work, which feels ultimately to be the digital persona of @nandi_loaf, you assert authority and power using repetition. Is this meant to be an undermining or mockery of those structures of power? Or even a leapfrogging of “art world” accreditation? Nandi Loaf: A leapfrogging, yes, maybe. ES: Could you elaborate on that? Do you think those structures (such as gallery representation or art world canonization) are outdated or restricting? NL: Social media has just allowed me to do everything for myself. Right now, I’m very okay with being in complete control of my work and career. ES: How was your work received in a competitive art school environment such as Cooper Union? I’m curious about what you feel is encouraged there and how your work evolved either as a result or backlash from that? NL: Cooper Union isn’t a competitive environment at all, it’s very family oriented. But besides that I don’t think I’ve ever competed with anybody. Competition is unhealthy and it’s never crossed my mind. A lot of people assume that but Cooper is such a supportive environment. The professors and the students are there to help you understand what you want and how to make it happen. Whether they like your work or not they are there to help you make it function exactly how you want it to. My work has always been labeled as “anti-institution” but in school I was always thinking about how I would exist after I graduate. I don’t know, I don’t really even think about it enough for it to be a “backlash,” I just don’t like following rules or at least I’ll follow the rules but I’m going to do it my way. ES: Who do you consider to be your most important influence, and how have they shaped your process? NL: I’m influenced by so many DIY cultures and practices. From drag, to graffiti, to tattooing, special effects, horror movies, music. I mean, I’d be here for days really if I listed everything. It’s really the designing and building of a self that I’m influenced by, and there are so many cultures and practices that are about that. ES: Your older videos, such as the “waddup” playlist from 2014, have been described as confrontational, but to me they seem to have a strong sense of humor. What kind of reaction do you ideally want people to have to your work, specifically your videos? NL: I actually had no idea what playlist you were talking about until I just looked it up. I didn’t know that was public. That was like my video class final. The videos exist as themselves by

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themselves, they were grouped in that playlist only because they were what I made that semester. I don’t really expect any type of reaction to my work. A reaction is great, sure, but my only concern is that I, Nandi Loaf, have successfully expressed myself and that my work is functioning. Whether someone likes my work or not, eh whatever, but they definitely know that Nandi Loaf is here. The artist is present and she’s not going anywhere. ES: I’m interested in what you mean by “functioning”—that it is on a public forum and can be accessed? NL: Here’s a Rick Baker quote; “a make-up artist is not concerned with being noticed. A make-up artist’s concern is to be accepted as real.” Special Effects are very much about “functioning.” Special effects and make-up artists spend so much time studying the human anatomy and how it functions. Their job is to create things that don’t exist in real life and to plug them back in the real world naturally. Their main goal is plausibility. I’ve dealt with a lot of practices that are not always seen as “fine art.” If I present these things as “art” and they don’t function as “art,” I’ve failed. It’s all about fitting one discourse into another discourse. Chris Burden’s TV commercials, for example, functioned as TV commercials, if they didn’t the piece wouldn’t have worked. You have to participate and exist in the space before you can flip it on its head. ES: Your work insists on presence and impenetrable identity of Nandi Loaf. Do you live and breathe that identity every day, or do you compartmentalize your art self from your personal life, even if the art is centered on the self?

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NL: I go to sleep Nandi Loaf and I wake up Nandi Loaf, I never turn Nandi Loaf off. I believe life is about creating a persona. We are all not born who we are, we become who we are. We live to create our selves. Some people live in multiple personas, I live in one. I am Nandi Loaf. ES: In your videos you use a lot of copyrighted content, even to the point that your Drake “Hotline Bling” video was removed by Youtube. Do you mean to invite these kind of copyright issues, perhaps to blur the lines of ownership of culture? Or is it more a side effect of pulling so directly from your sources? NL: “I do not own the rights to the music in this video.” —Nandi Loaf, 2012 ES: In your 2015 show with Amanda Horowitz, “I <3 My Emergency” there was a Slipknot drawing that was assumed by Rebekah Kirkman in City Paper to be from when you were in middle school. Why Slipknot? And have they always been a constant source for you? NL: I have no idea where Kirkman got that information. I did not make that drawing in middle school, it says “rich gang” & “skrillex” all over it. It’s very recent but it’s definitely the first Slipknot drawing I ever made. I didn’t start listening to Slipknot until like 2 or 3 years ago maybe. I was going through a lot of stuff and this was the first time I listened to music and actually felt it. Slipknot was a crutch, it was medicine, they helped me with a lot and I will forever be connected to them because of that. They spoke to me and they spoke for me, reinforced my backbone. “Wait & Bleed” will always be in my iTunes whenever I need it. They’re my best friends. ES: So do you consider your admiration of Slipknot to be authentic, even though your videos could be considered an exaggeration of their fan base? NL: Yes. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration at all. My participation in this subculture is very real. Nandi Loaf and maggots (Slipknot fans) come from two different places. I’ve been in art school since I was four years old, I went to an art college where I was trained to think and I am accustom to conceptualizing work. Maggots don’t think, they just do. They feel and they express it (whether they have artistic skills or not). Maggots can express something without it going through some type of mental art historical, conceptual, political filter that’s already embedded in all art students. I am so envious of that. I’ve been trying to strip myself of all my art school training just to see

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what the purest form of my expression is, but it’s going to take some time. My Slipknot work has been very true to who I am, a fine artist who is also a fan of Slipknot. A lot of maggots don’t agree with some of the decisions I make in my Slipknot work but who cares, it’s my work. ES: You said that you’ve been in art school since you were four years old. Can you talk about that experience of an art-centered education? What schools did you attend? NL: My dad is actually an artist and an art teacher—I’ve been involved with art for as long as I can remember. I’ve been attending art classes since I was four. I went to an art junior high, an art high school and an art college. I remember presenting this really elaborate drawing that I considered a self-portrait in a portfolio prep class in high school and my instructor told me it was “too illustrative”. I’ve been trying to define the difference between “fine art” and “illustration” ever since then. I guess an art-centered education just brings on a lot of theory and history and as art students we’re trained to make work with that stuff in mind and to be critical of the world around us. ES: Given that, the Slipknot masks you make and wear in your videos seem to be how you get in a “maggot” mindset, almost like an id. Do you think a pure form of expression exists, such as outsider art? NL: I’ve never really agreed with the term, “outsider art” but yeah, of course. I don’t think the masks put me in a maggot mindset; I’m just a fan of Slipknot. A fan that likes to collect and make masks worn by the members of her favorite band. After doing my Drake cover I stopped wearing the Slipknot mask that I make. I’m less interested in their function and more interested in the masks as objects. I hate labels and I’ve always had a problem identifying as anything besides “Nandi Loaf”,

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my identity is stripped away anytime I wear a mask. I become a body in a mask, the person in the mask isn’t important anymore. Nandi Loaf is no longer present and I am transformed into something else, I don’t like that. All of this work is very new to me and I am trying to understand the work and myself as I make more and more. ES: Your work across media seems to explore the concept, malleability, and even falsehood of identity. Are identity politics at play for you, and in what way? NL: I have no idea what identity politics are, I’m just Nandi Loaf. ES: Some of the video titles seem to lure users looking for popular songs, such as Drake or DMX tracks, which feature you reciting them almost in monotone, line by line. Who have you found to be the audience for your work? Do you have a target demographic or type of person in mind? NL: I upload a lot of my favorite songs on Youtube and I always make sure to insert an image of myself in some way because ultimately the video is a documentation of my experience. All the songs on my Youtube channel mean something to me, that’s why they’re there. Just like the videos of my favorite parts in movies, they are all very autobiographical. The first CD I ever bought with my own money was “Stone Cold Metal” which is a collection of Stone Cold Steve Austin’s favorite rock songs. Although he didn’t make any of the music the compilation is his. This CD is all about him, the case is covered with his name, logos and pictures of him–the cover is even a lenticular photo of his face turning into a skull. My music videos are made in the same vain. I have used a lot of spamming and virus techniques in my work. I hadn’t used these techniques much on my Youtube channel until I started my Slipknot videos and this was because I was entering a new world. I needed to carve out my space to exist in. I pretty much mashed up the most searched Slipknot videos titles and repeated the same title on every video I uploaded. At the beginning it worked, my Slipknot videos got a decent amount of views and thumbs down. It’s just my way of squeezing myself into wherever I want to be, taking control of what I want and making it happen. ES: The relentless branding in all of your work of your social media

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handle (@nandi_loaf) seems to undermine the touted importance of self-branding for an artist taught in schools nowadays. Have you seen an upshot of followers, and how much of a goal is that for you? NL: It’s just my signature, I put my name on everything that’s mine. My social media profiles are a representation of myself, but I barely use social media anymore. I currently follow absolutely no one on Instagram and I could care less if I lose followers, it’s not going to stop me from being Nandi Loaf. ES: With that in mind, how much does the physical aspect of your work (masks, drawings, even t-shirts) hold importance for you, or do you mean for it all to lead back to this digital persona of @nandi_loaf? NL: I am not a digital persona. I am Nandi Loaf, the most important artist of the 21st century and I have an Instagram. I’m Nandi Loaf, an artist living in the 21st century and my signature is linked to my Instagram. I exist in the physical world and I make physical work so of course it’s very important to me. Nothing I put on social media is “work” really, I don’t think I’ve ever uploaded any actual pieces, it’s all just a reflection of what I do in real life. My practice is very DIY, I don’t have gallery representation and I do not have an artist’s website. I post all the flyers to the shows I’m in and provide all the links to the sites where you can buy some of my work, the participation of my audience is not really my responsibility but everything is there. ES: That seems to be an insistence on the local in the face of a globalized world. Is that out of necessity or a political choice–a refusal to plug in, given that you barely use social media anymore? NL: Well social media has always been a tool and a platform for me. When I first started using social media I was the only artist I knew of really using it as an artist or at least flattening the difference between my life as an artist and as a regular person. Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Tumblr these

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were all places where I would think, they were my sketchbooks and I was there by myself, all of my followers were people that knew nothing about art and had no idea what I was talking about. I had an audience, of course, but for a long time I wasn’t addressing them. It wasn’t until I realized that I was being watched that I took advantage of social media’s accessibility of an audience. Social media let me build myself, build my audience and see my thoughts. I’m not anti- social media, it’s just not where I want to be right now. Social media is completely different than what it was in 2011. Social media has always been about display but my audience is aware of that now more than they’ve ever been. Being that social media was always a place for me to think and not so much a place for me to show, I’d rather not think publicly right now. I’m not in a display mode at the moment, I’m still exploring and figuring out my practice and I need some space, some time to myself. ES: Why is @nandi_loaf the most important artist of the twenty first century? NL: How is she not??

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Tiffany Smith For Tropical Girls Who Have Considered Ethnogenesis When the Native Sun is Remote

Study 5B, 2013

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Perpetual Tourist, 2013

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A Woman Phenomenally

Alien Woman, Indonesian By Birth, 2015, 24 x 30 inches

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Haitian Woman From Miami With Veil, 2015, 24 x 30 inches

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Woman From The Philippines By Way of Wayne, New Jersey, 2015, 24 x 30 inches

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Haitian Woman From Miami With Machete, 2015, 24 x 30 inches

Tiffany Smith is a visual artist who uses photography, video, design, and installation to create conceptually based work focused on identity, cultural ambiguity, and representation; particularly within minority communities. Smith received a BA in Photography from Savannah College of Art and Design and an MFA in Photo, Video and Related Media from School of Visual Arts, NY. Smithâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work has been exhibited internationally and throughout the United States including shows at The National Gallery of Jamaica during the 2014 Jamaica Biennial, Photoville 2015, New York, International Photo Festival, Leiden, Netherlands, Photo NOLA, New Orleans, and most recently at Flux Art Fair, Harlem. www.tiffanysmithphoto.com

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Sam Crow Patches

Vain Girl, 2016, wool and embroidery thread

Shy Clown Girl, 2016, wool and embroidery thread

Star Butt, 2016, wool, mohair and embroidery thread.

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Talk To The Hand, 2016, wool and embroidery thread

Mood, 2016, wool and embroidery thread

Indecisive Girls, 2016, wool and embroidery thread.

Blood Bath, 2016, wool, silk chiffon, and embroidery thread

Sam Crow is a hand embroidery artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. While earning her degree in fashion design in Cincinnati, OH, she took a semester to earn a certificate of Professional Haute Couture Embroidery from Ecole Lesage in Paris, France. Following this she held various jobs designing embroidery for designers, but is taking time away from that to explore her own artistic vision. This was the beginning of her transition into new mediums, including patches and hand embroidered clothing. Her work focuses on the acceptance of the emotional woman and all things femme.

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