Double Trouble, continued
By Kathleen Wentrack

The End/The Beginning

Schneemann and Murray-Wassink take the body of the artist, themselves as producers of images and meaning, and place themselves in the position of object in their work. They choose subject matter in which the body of the artist and the social body interact, They aim to liberate sexuality, eroticism and pleasure for themselves as part of a larger project to infiltrate established psychological and societal structures in regards to sexuality. More than most contemporary artists, they undermine the mind/body split of traditional Western thought. Double Trouble provides a fertile juxtaposition of two bodies of work, putting unlikely artists together, an original feminist with a gay male artist of a later generation. These types of investigations can only help further our understanding of art, specifically, and social conventions, in general.

When studying art history at the University of Amsterdam a fellow student asked what I was specializing in? When I answered feminist art, I was told it was passé and had been done. I wondered what world he was living in. While so much has been accomplished, the work is not done. Things still have not changed to bring about true sex and gender equality. The current exhibition offers a glimpse at two artists' work: one who has accomplished so much in her long productive career, but without the proper acknowledgment; the other, a young gay artist who mines her history and that of feminism for new explorations to open our eyes and change the world. A big task still lies ahead of us all.

Kathleen Wentrack
Independent Art Historian
New York City

I would like to thank John Hughes and Debra Wacks, and of course Carolee Schneemann and Sands Murray-Wassink.

"Double Trouble" copyright © Kathleen Wentrack, 2001

Click here for complete list of footnotes for Double Trouble
Click here to return to Current Issues