Feminist Theory Unit

Feminist Arts Unit

Teachers: Morgan Black and Danie Fairbanks

Grade: 5

Objective: Help students to understand the impact art can have on social movements and how social movements can lead to significant changes in the American Government.  Students will make connections between the women’s suffrage movement and the feminist arts movement of the 1970s culminating in an art project that deconstructs traditional notions of clothing and teaches a traditionally feminine skill in the context of art.

National Arts Standards:

Content Standard #1: Understanding and applying media, techniques, and processes

Content Standard #6: Making connections between visual arts and other disciplines

State Standards:

5th grade: Standard 3: Students will understand the rights and responsibilities guaranteed in the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights. Objective 2 :Assess how the US Constitution has been amended and interpreted over time, and the impact these amendments have had on the rights and responsibilities of citizens of the United States.

5th grade: Standard 5: Students will address the causes, consequences and implications of the emergence of the United States as a world power. Objective 2: Assess the impact of social and political movements in recent United States history.

1) Introduce the Women’s Suffrage movment, outlining the major events and motivations

1. Define Suffrage
2. Provide a brief history of the movement and its result (the process of amending the constitution will be discussed in the next lesson)
3. Brief History:In the 1890s, women began pushing for the right to vote (Suffrage). A woman named, Millicent Fawcett founded the National Union of Women's Suffrage and encouraged peaceful, non-violent efforts to obtain women's rights.  It took a great deal of time to gather supporters and followers, and unfortunately men were not willing to give women any power. Emmeline Pankhurst became impatient and started her own group called The Women's Social and Political Union.  This group became known as the suffragettes.  They started out peacefully but grew more and more violent as they fought for the right to vote. Eventually, in 1914, when world war one hit, they turned all of their efforts to the war and helping their country.  The Representation of the People Act was passed shortly there after.n politics.  
4. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/suffragettes.html
5. Discuss other groups that had similar rights withheld
6. Discuss groups who might still be struggling today
7. Talk about what gender means today (Social mini lesson)

• How do we look at men and women differently?

• Did the suffrage movement lead to women being viewed differently?

• This movement resulted in a change in our country’s most important document: the constitution, but did it really change the way things are for women in other aspects?

• Do men ever find themselves struggling because of the way they are portrayed?

2) Integrate art into the lesson plan by showing how these women used art to further their movement towards social change

• in 1910, the National American Woman Suffrage Association distilled their best arguments into one-paragraph gems printed on postcards. Their “Think It Over” series proved to be not only an excellent consciousness-raiser but fundraiser as well, since NAWSA received a commission on each card sold.

• Images retrieved from: http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/04/13/guest-post-how-suffragist-postcards-got-out-the-vote/

• Many artists of suffrage postcards remained anonymous therefore we have little information on the origin of each particular work

 

3) Discuss the process of Amending the Constitution so that students have an understanding of the governmental process behind the 19th Amendment.  

• Discuss the two ways the constitution can be amended

1. 2/3 of both houses of Congress vote to propose and amendment
2. 2/3 of the state legislatures ask Congress to call a national convention

• http://americanhistory.about.com/od/usconstitution/f/methodsamend.htm

• Help students understand why we have this process and why it is important

1. How can we amend the constitution?
2. Why was this important in the case of Women’s suffrage?
3. Can you connect how the citizens were able to move the government officials to action? How can a non-government official help incite change?

• Define vocabulary:

1. Amendment
2. Ratification
3. Convention
4. House of Representatives
5. Legislative branch
6. Majority
7. Propose
8. Senate
9. State Legislature

• 19th amendment:

1. Passed by Congress June 4, 1919.
2. Ratified August 18, 1920.
3. Section 1: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
4. Section 2: Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.  
5. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/nineteentham.htm

4. For more info on the social studies side of this see this Lesson plan on amending the constitution  

4) Help students further their knowledge of social movements by connecting the suffrage movement with the feminist arts movement

 Learn about 3 Major contemporary female artists

Jana Sterbak

Important Works

• Meat Dress

1. The work also addresses issues concerning women, fashion, consumption, and the body. The equation of women with meat and the notion that “you are what you wear” are common ideas in Western society. In the United States, statistics have pointed to a growing number of young women with eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia nervosa (referred to in the title), because their body types do not match the prevailing fashion or “look” sported by the tall, thin models populating the media.
2. The dress was stitched together from 60 pounds of raw flank steak and must be constructed anew each time it is shown. Following a centuries-old method of food preservation, the meat is heavily salted and allowed to air-dry. Over the span of the exhibition, the aging process drastically changes the appearance of the work.

• Information and images retrieved from: http://collections.walkerart.org/item/enlarge_fs.html?type=object&id=957&image_num=1

• Remote Control 1

1. Remote Control I is a large, motorized crinoline that the viewer or the wearer can operate via a remote control device. Reflecting the artist’s interest in control and technology, the work renders the wearer helpless, suspending her several inches above the floor.

2. http://www.janasterbak.com/imagesofworks/remote-control-i/remote-control.jpg.php

• “I want you to feel the way I do”

• Information and images retrieved from http://www.learn.columbia.edu/courses/fa/htm/fa_ck_sterbak_1.htm

• The work, as initially acquired by the National Gallery of Canada, is a dress made of wire mesh, displayed in a darkened room. When a viewer enters the room, a motion detector activates the slide projection of a text on the wall behind the dress, and also activates a heating element in the dress,causing it to glow. The text reads as follows:

• I want you to feel the way I do. There’s barbed wire wrapped all around my head and my skin grates on my flesh from the inside. How can you be so comfortable only 5” to the left of me? I don’t want to hear myself think, feel myself move. It’s not that I want to be numb, I want to slip under your skin: I will listen for the sound you hear, feed on your thought, wear your clothes. Now I have your attitude and you’re not comfortable anymore. Making them yours you relieved me of my opinions, habits, impulses. I should be grateful but instead … you’re beginning to irritate me: I am not going to live with myself inside your body, and I would rather practice being new on someone else.

Sharon Kallis

Important Works

• Barraca de Vinya

 

1. Coil basketry techniques taught to various community members using invasive Vitalba (wild clematis) as binding twine, with local fennel, rosemary, and verbena.                 
2. CACIS Residency (Centre for Contemporary Art and Dialogue in Sustainability), Calders, Spain.
3. Barraca de vinya is the Catalan name for the rock dry-stack tool huts that stud the landscape in Catalunya as evidence of the land’s past ties to wine production - the sheds were built with rocks from clearing the land and stored farmers tools.
4. Information and picture retrieved from: http://brandford-elliott-award.com/BEA_SharonKallis.html 

• The Ivy Boat

1. Sharon Kallis, The Ivy Boat, 2009, English ivy, assorted park maintenance branch waste. Collaborative project in a Vancouver park; a total of 200 volunteers over four days participated in pulling ivy, building a structure, and weaving the ivy boat.
2. Sharon Kallis’ Ivy Project at Stanley Park. The park was being over-run by English ivy, so volunteers from the Stanley Park Ecology Society removed almost five hectares of invasive material. Under Kallas’ direction, the vines were dried and then netted, crocheted, or spool knitted into "nurse logs" and "bio netting" to hold eroding soil in place long enough for new native growth to return. As these elements gradually decay and allow for a succession of growth, the environment will become a collaborator as well, bringing the cycle full circle.
3. Information and image retrieved from: http://brandford-elliott-award.com/BEA_SharonKallis.html

Ann Hamilton

Major Works: Most of Ann Hamilton’s artwork is installation based but she has several beautiful objects as well.  Watch the following video to get a feel for her artwork and share at least minutes 0:20 - 1:30 and 6:24 - 6:44 with the class.

Ann Hamilton Video

• Object art: carriage

 

1. Slices of paperback books, cheese cloth, string, bookbinders glue, binders board, museum board, bookbinding cloth, acrylic panels
2. Edition of 15 with 3 Artist's Proofs (#14 pictured above; #10 below)
3. Outside circumference 13 3/4 inches, inside circumference 5 1/2 inches, depth 2 1/2 inches 16 3/4 inches length if laid straight)
4. Box dimensions: 18 7/8 inches square, 4 1/2 inches high
5. Archival box produced by Culpeck & Clark Limited, Rhinebeck, New York
6. "The circle of the hand making is the first eye. It is the empty center in the tower, the clearing in the forest, where with the fundaments of cloth and paper and line we weave and re-weave unending relations." — Ann Hamilton
7. Information and image retrieved from: http://www.annhamiltonstudio.com/objects/carriage.html 

5) Help students connect the modern feminist arts movement to the suffragette movement of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s by discussing similarities and differences.

• What connections can you see between this arts movement and the suffrage movement over 40 years before?

• How does this art send a message the way the postcards did? Is it different? How?

• What are your thoughts on feminism? Is it time for women to have the power over men, or should we be seeking for equality? Why is this your opinion?

• Turn students’ attention to the art aspect of each movement specifically- why were postcards so useful then but now we use so many other forms to express similar ideas?

6) Introduce the art project and discuss the importance of media and process in art in conjunction with the last question.

1. Why is it important that we use torn up clothing rather than regular fabric from a fabric store?
2. Does that change the meaning behind the artwork we have created? If so, why?
3. Could you use another type of media to share the same message? If so, how?

Finger Weaving Art Project

As students choose their colors and decide how thick or thin to make their bracelet each artwork will be individualized.  

Although jewelry is traditionally feminine, the freedom to choose the texture and color of the fabric and the generally ambiguous form of the finished product produce a sense of equality.  We aren't trying to break down men in order to build up women, but rather break down societal limitations to find equality.

***** See finger weaving art project for instructions*****

Once each student has created their piece they can reflect on how the media they used changes the meaning of the artwork. Ask:

1. How can something like weaving be considered art just like a painting? Think about what each artist did with their "domestic" talent.
2. Why is it significant to you that you used an old T shirt rather than fabric from the store? Did that T shirt have meaning for you at one time?
3. How does this project connect with what we learned from the suffragettes? The feminist art movement?

7) Assessment: Students create another artwork to reflect the struggles of another social movement on their own.  

1. The teacher can provide a list of appropriate movements to research for their age group and give students time to search the internet and check out books at the library.
2. The student can then present their movement in class and describe the role art played in it as well as the meaning behind their own personal artwork.