The Dinner Party
The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago was first exhibited in 1979 and since
then more than a million of people have appreciated this unique piece, which
reflects feminist art and women’s history. This masterpiece was a gift from the
Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation to the Brooklyn Museum of Art. This consists in
a ceremonial banquet that has thirty-nine place settings, commemorating an
important woman from history. It’s made with gold candels and utensils, and
china –painted porcelain plates. Each plate is based on butterfly and vulvar
forms. The one plate that captured my attention was the one from Ethel Smyth,
as I mentioned before the plates are base on a butterfly and vulvar forms, this
unique plate in the whole table had a piano, this is because Ethel Smyth was one
of the first major composers, in the cover it has a suit which symbolizes the
power of man and the inequality that she had to go through in order to be a
composer. There are around 999 woman names inscribed in the heritage floor
that consists of white tile in a triangular shape and the names are inscribed in
gold.
Ethel Smyth
This art gallery to me it represented a history subject containing
biographical information on each woman representing the legacy on history that
the Dinner Party represents. To me the title helped to interpret what I saw but I
did not expect that it was going to be commemorating woman through out
history.
The Dinner Party is set around a triangular table that symbolizes
equality divided by three wings each 48 feet long. The lighting in the room is
dark, with clear light that seems to me is coming from under the table this
contrast of lighting keeps your eyes specifically on each place setting and gives
you the opportunity to noticed every little detail in the covering that are embroider
with different colors and different designs, at the corner of the triangular table the
covers are made from silk and are inspired by altar cloths.
The author explains that the three wings are divided into history. Wing
one of the table begins in prehistory and continues with the development of
Judaism moving towards early Greek societies to the Roman Empire, marking
the decline in women’s power. Wing two represents early Christianity through
the Reformation. Wing three starts with the American Revolution, suffragism and
the movement toward women’s individual creativity. The table is well organized
through the history showing every step of fights women’s had to go through to be
able to be where we are at this point.
The Dinner Party
The banners at the beginning of the exhibition; that where created by Judy
Chicago are made in colors red, gold and black tones that are associated with
the Dinner Party. They have a poem created by her, representing the equality in
the world and her desired of women expressing values through art.
At the end of the exhibit you could find panels with the names of the 999
women who are inscribed in gold in the heritage floor. These women inspired
and created an impact in history and made significant improvement in women’s
lives. This exhibition represented so many things that I can relate to and I
believe every women can relate as well, even though we are living in a new era
where women have accomplish so many things, we sometimes tend to forget
how we end up accomplishing these amazing things, and thanks to women
through the history we were able to now be where we are. By commemorating
amazing women we are remembering that women had been a great part of
history and have played important roles in every culture in the world, not only
now we are important to society but back then women played an important role
as well. My perspective is that Judy Chicago try to remember all the great
women in history by creating the Dinner Party and letting women from today be a
part of this party and meet with the women from thousand of years ago, to be
part of this great fight for equality and liberty of expression in every society.
Merelyn Aragon
April 17,2009
Art in New York
The Dinner Party
&
The Black List Project
Black List Project
The Black List Project consisted in twenty-five portraits by photographer
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. This portraits represent being Black in America. In
some of the photographs we find Serena Williams, Chris Rock, Toni Morrison
and some other. The portraits represent African American who had created an
impact in the American society.
The exhibit shows how race, history and individual’s struggle to become
successful. Each portrait has its own unique style and different subject from
politics, arts, sports, religion and business. The portraits where taken after each
subject was interviewed and then they pose for a portrait. The results of the
sessions became the images for the museums. These portraits are large-format
of 8x10 Deardorff view camera. His method and setup are simples but the
results as many had mentioned are powerful.
He mentions that he uses a single, hi-powered light source, a plain paper
backdrop and color film. For most of the time his sessions are short as a few
minutes and some others almost never longer than a half hour. He tends to
shoot relatively few frames of film, making each exposure count. The portraits
were printed on Epson paper 58x44 inches in size.
The portraits reflects successful people who show that they are
comfortable and confident in their selves, fighters, loving and caring people, who
worried for themselves but for others as well.
To me the Black List Project represented black people and their struggles
to overcome every obstacle they had in their path to become a successful
person, not only successful but to be a role model in this society specially for
black people. There are so many people of different races that can relate to
these portraits you don’t have to be black to see what the author wants to show
through his work. The daily struggles so many people had to through to become
successful in different areas politics, religious or whatever is it that you are
involve, but when there is the desire to be successful you can always achieve it
no matter what.
Serena Williams
Tony Morrison