Home Pop Culture The Man I wish I was. An interview with Kharis Kennedy.

The Man I wish I was. An interview with Kharis Kennedy.

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Kharis Kennedy and Sands Murray-Wassink
Kharis Kennedy and Sands Murray-Wassink

However following block buster exhibitions such as “WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution,” “Global Feminisms,” and the opening of the Sackler Center for Feminist Art I began to really think about the state of feminism and I began to wonder if there might be a threat implicit in the canonization of feminist art.  The threat that the side-effect of canonizing feminist art may be that it robs the artwork of it’s vitality by freezing the very movement that made it revolutionary.

Which isn’t to say that ribbon-cutting ceremonies for the opening of institutions such as the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art shouldn’t be cause for celebration, but such events also suggested that it’s probably time for me to accept that my invitation to The Dinner Party was not lost in mail and move on.

So I began a cascade of self-questioning: is feminism still a movement in motion?  Or have we reached a post-gender moment, a moment where gender is no longer a relevant signifier and we can comfortably slip into daddy’s shoes?

SCV: How much has our interpretation of women changed since the 1970’s when feminism became a palpable battle cry?

KK: I think the main thing is that there has been a subtle shift in the way our culture perceives gender; gender as a construct has become more fluid.  Whereas in the 60’s and 70’s gender was largely considered intrinsic rather than socially constructed I think we’re all now taking a step back and re-evaluating that assumption.

In terms of de facto inequalities by many measures we continue to trudge on to the same tired diddy…but hand me a bull horn and a paycheck that isn’t 23% less than what my male counterpart earns and I’ll sing you whatever battle songs you’d like to hear all the way to the bank.

SCV: You mention that when you curated the show you wanted to bring to light what you thought was being glossed over. What was it that you thought was being glossed over?

KK: A riffle into the less-illuminated corners of feminist art revealed a substantial amount of work that deals not so much with being a strong woman (although it does inherently advocate female strength), but with the actual embodyment or usurping of roles commonly associated with “male.” There was a strange longing implicit in these works that caught my attention, a sort of underlying desire not to just imitate the masculine in an illusionary drag sense, but to truly embody a new persona by internalizing “male” gender roles. I think that the sub-context of these works, their admission to a type of longing to be male/the longing to shed the feminine/the longing of the individual to ultimately live free from gender restriction, does not often sit comfortably with traditional feminist strategies of self-empowerment.  As a result the tendency has been to shy away from addressing these works through this particular gender-questioning lens in order to avoid certain implications that might be potentially undermining to the traditional feminist line.

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