THE
AESTHETICS OF FEMINIST CREATIVITY
curated by Silvia Pezzati, University of Bologna
5th
- 15th May
Kingsway
Corridor
Richard
Hoggart Building
Goldsmiths
The
installation consists of 6 artworks created using a mixture of
painting, collaging, illustration, cut and pasting, scrapbooking and
visual mapping.
On
the one hand, the installation explores the articulation of
aesthetics through issues of ideology, class and gender. On the
other, thanks to its art exhibition-like appearance and the pastiche
of techniques it embodies the debate about what can be considered as
art, hinting at how popular forms of creativity can provide a
challenge to legitimate beauty.
The
installation works as a visual representation of the theoretical
discussion around the sphere of the aesthetics, drawing attention to
its social implications.
Key
theoretical themes are introduced: Gendered bodies as subjects of
internalised political power. Performative and gendered bodies and
their potential for challenging gender norms through gender itself.
The human body as a key concept of aesthetics. Aesthetic experience
and the spheres of sensuousness and affectivity. The affective ways
in which the appreciation of beauty has come to acquire an
ideological role in the silent imposition of class interests.
Aesthetic taste as a marker of class distinction. The cultural
dimension of social inequality. The role played by class in the
sphere of affect and emotions, and in relation to the sensuous
concept of aesthetics. An aesthetic
response to ideological positions of class and gender, outside of
'true' and legitimate beauty.
The
visual overload, together with the unusual materials and
presentation, create a contrast with the severity of traditional
art.
Frivoloty,
silliness, messiness and everyday aesthetics are reclaimed as serious
and valid.
The installation also
lays the philosophical foundation of our start up creative business
Create Mood.
Founded by Rosa Crepax
(Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths), Carlotta Crepax (ICCE,
Goldsmiths), Francesca Mazzucchi (Department of Design, Goldsmiths)
and Silvia Pezzati (DAMS, University of Bologna), Create Mood seeks
to bring the sphere of affect and emotions back at the centre of the
aesthetic experience.
In contrast to the way
in which, in Western society, in the wake of Kantian philosophy, the
appreciation of beauty has come to be perceived in terms of
disinterested judgement, on the basis of pure and objective taste, we
believe it is intertwined with problematic dynamics of legitimation,
delegitimation, inclusion and exclusion.
We want to remove art
and the aesthetics from the aseptic space of the gallery or the
museum, as well as from the dominant context that constructs them as
the prerogative of the educated, well-off privileged few. While
insightful critiques associated with the Frankfurt School have taught
us to see popular culture as a manifestation of the capitalist
ideology, depriving people of imagination and creativity, we want to
rediscover its subversive and aesthetic potential. Blossoming from
low forms of culture, our idea of aesthetics transforms art into an
affective experience outside of the norms of legitimate taste, which
anyone can take part in, and which everyone can live out, through
creativity and fun.
From a feminist and
intersectional perspective, Create Mood also aims at offering women
of any social and ethnic background, but also gender and sexual
identity, the possibility to emerge in the male-dominated art world.
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