Short Paper on Identity in Art Becoming a Subject (10% / 10pts)
Formal Guidelines
Up until this point in our course, each of our readings, discussion prompts, assignments, and subjective/collective experiences have provided you with the foundational means through which to engage with ideas concerning gender, sexuality, and identity and their visualization in contemporary art. Having looked explicitly towards modalities of embodiment (Cartesianism and Phenomenology), gender performance, and the violence of social normativity, this short paper is intended to expand on your understanding of how theories of gender, sexuality, and identity can contribute to our collective knowledge of bodily representations.
The main theoretical focus of your paper (3-4 pages, double-spaced) should respond to ONE of the two prompts that I have provided below. You may choose whichever prompt you are most comfortable/interested in writing about. After selecting a prompt, you must choose ONE artist that we have featured/discussed in class and research/select 2-3 artworks by them to use within the schema of your paper. If you have a specific contemporary artist in mind that has not been discussed/featured, please email me to ask about using them within the confines of this assignment.
Each prompt will require you to make use of at least ONE of the texts that weve read in class already. Because of this, it is not only suggested, but encouraged that you utilize an artist/artwork that weve already discussed in the PPTs! Please be sure to explicitly tie in the text that youre using rather than employing a broad generalization of similarities between the artist/artwork and ideas weve discussed.
Prompt 2:
2. Gender as Performance: Through Butler, Chase, Halberstein, and more, we have recurrently encountered gender as a learned social performance wherein we are expected to act in a way that conflates our outward appearance/identity with our sexed bodies. Selecting an artist that perpetuates, disrupts, or subverts these socio-cultural and political expectations, how do they/their work engage with gender performativity? What corollaries do you see being made between their work and the texts that weve read/encountered up until this point in class? Do you feel the artist/artwork is visually successfully in eliciting these ideas? Why or why not?
Some ideas concerning gender performance might include:
Reproduction
Beauty/Aesthetic Ideals
Sexual/Gendered Normativity
Trans and Hermaphroditic Identities
Toxic Binaries (Hyper-masculinity/machismo or women as caretakers)
Additional Artists to Consider Using:
Annie Sprinkle
Sebastian Hernandez
Catherine Opie
Marcus Kuiland-Nazario
Nao Bustamonte
Xandra Ibarra
Please be sure that, in addition to the text(s) that you are citing, you have a TOTAL of 2-3 in-text scholarly references (these can be other, supporting texts that weve discussed in class so no need for additional research on your behalf).
I have provided supplementary resources for anyone unfamiliar with Chicago Manual Style (which is standard for the arts), however, all papers should be comprised of the following:
1. A Cover Page
2. An Introduction
3. Body
4. Conclusion
5. Bibliography/Citation Page
The artist I choose for the paper is Judith Butler research/select 2-3 artworks by them to use within the schema of your paper.
Text we will be using is “Subjects of Sex/Gender and Desire” i have attached the file for it with the instructions
We still need 2-3 artworks by Judith Butler
I have attached a power point on Judith Butler and the reading to use