Art has always had a progressive and defiant essence. Even though it’s made under the implied norms of society, it has something that tends to rebel against them. You could say that sacred art can’t be placed under that description. But, even that style was intended to be a defiant response to particular doctrines. Now, when it comes to talking about contemporary art, perhaps the idea of defiance takes a leading role, and words become the foundations of the discipline. Art, then, becomes a concept instead of the artistic demonstration of an artist’s skills and sensibility. Now, you can imagine what happens with performance art.
The story you’re about to read is that of a battle of censorship between power and the artist. This may not sound new. We’ve heard tons of stories about artists being persecuted by the high spheres of power. What makes of Karen Finley’s case relevant is the importance of this fight in the public sphere.
It all happened when she presented her performance, We Keep Our Victims Ready, at the Lincoln Center in 1990. The act consisted of her facing the audience naked and pouring melted chocolate all over her body while mouthing phrases regarding gender violence. She poured the chocolate in a playful way, making the audience cheer her on as if they were seeing a striptease act. Then when she started reciting her speech, she confronted the audience and exposed how society objectifies women. The chocolate represented the filthiness women feel when the male gaze becomes so piercingly uncomfortable. It showed how women are treated like dirt every single day.
Naturally, her performance caused a huge controversy among the audience and the artistic world. Finley had been selected by the National Endowment for the Arts to receive a grant for her work, but many conservatives led by a fray of the Traditional Values Coalition started a campaign asking the NEA to withdraw the grant for Finley. Soon, many conservative politicians joined the movement and forced the NEA to officially intervene. Naturally, it became a public case and people would pose their opinions and take sides in the problem. Finley and three other artists, who had also been censored, sued the NEA, arguing that the reason their grant had been withdrawn was arbitrary and lacked on sustainability according to the contract. But it was all in vain. The court favored the association, and the four artists officially lost their grants.
When the trial was taking place, many took the chance to expose what they think about these types of arts or whether we should call them like that. Many argued that there was not artistic value in performance art. Hence they believed she didn’t really deserve public funding. Now, listen, I’m not a fan of either contemporary or performance art. I actually agree that it shouldn’t be called art. But all the attitudes taken by Finley and that particular performance proved why she was doing it in the first place. Her piece spoke against sexism, gender violence, and oppression. She exposed that men only see women as objects they can possess and throw away. And, if you think about it, that’s exactly what happened to her in this censorship battle and as an artist.
She claimed that it was ridiculous that a group of men had power over her body and her decisions, and that censoring her was just more proof of how damaged our society is. Some of the press against her treated her like a hysterical young woman who didn’t know what she was doing. And the fact that they used those diminishing and condescending adjectives proves that, in fact, we’re really screwed. She wouldn’t let this happen just like that and posed for Playboy as a way to show them that no one could ever censor her again.
Now, I don’t know if Playboy is the right venue to present your opinion regarding the objectification of women. But it certainly gave her the voice the government had tried to shut up. Her career increased dramatically, and she continued making controversial performances, not caring about what associations thought. Still, she used to say that no matter how famous you are, fame will never equal the level of injustice in the world, so art should be used to expose it.
***
If you like performative art or want to know more about its controversial nature, take a look at these:
The Artist That Lets You Touch Her Genitals for Your Shame
The Artistic Performance That Shows The Double Standards Regarding Big Breasts
The Man Who Had Sex With Different People As A Form Of Art
***
