After reading Shanterica's posting, Poem About My Rights by June Jordan I remembered American performance artist Karen Finley.I thought that
I think performance art is a unique way of getting ones voice heard. The pieces to me are full of imagery and the delivery poetic.
Feel free to leave comments about this post.
Below is a piece I wrote on Karen Finley for my Public Speaking class, it should give shed some light on this artist.
Today I would like to honour one of the greatest voices of performance art. A New York-based performer, author, playwright, and director, Karen Finley explores and discusses themes of the body, sexual abuse and violence, AIDS, suicide, female sexuality, and American politics.
This young lady whose theatrical pieces have been labelled "obscene" due to depictions of sexuality and abuse has raised awareness through her performances. She has also received critical acclaim from various organizations and in the art world despite many objections to her work.
Beautiful, outspoken, beautifully outspoken, 54 year old Finley from Evanston Illinois has much to give credit to for her years as a "controversial performance artist -- from growing up as the daughter of a mother she described as "not white" and a father who was a manic-depressive jazz musician who eventually committed suicide to the loss of friends to AIDS, Finley has managed to cover most of today's heated debates and topics, including a commemoration to Tawana Brawley, a young woman who alleged that some police officers raped her and smeared her with feces, through her spoken word and according to New York Metro "has managed to play a significant role in the early-nineties cultural firestorm surrounding the National Endowment for the Arts."
Finley went up against the National Endowment for the Arts to defend her work which was considered inappropriate and had vetoed her grant. She won that but later lost at the Supreme Court level and lost her funding based on a "lack of decency" standards.
Karen Finley is a woman like no other and will continue to touch the lives of many whether it be through inspiration or provocation. Learning about her has opened my eyes to many controversial pieces and works of "free speech" and has reminded me that life is meant to be enjoyed and people should be treated as equals.
So, I leave you with a line from the artist:
“My work is against violence, against rape and degradation of women, incest and homophobia...When I smear chocolate on my body it is a symbol of women being treated like dirt.”
To see more on Karen Finley click here.
I will try to get an audio clip posted so you can hear some of her work.
Ok, I could not figure out how to place audio on the blog, so I made a quick video and added the audio to share with you guys.
The clip is It's My Body from the A Certain Level of Denial album.
Here it is:
I think what Finley is doing is wonderful. The "lack of decency" ruling was silly. We are supposed to be able to express ourselves freely. Smearing herself with chocolate is not nearly as terrible as what other people have done to women. I am also somewhat confused by the verdict; if she had been nude and painted beautifully, would the sentence have gone the same way? Would her grant still have been vetoed? I doubt it.
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