Introduction
This is Irene Manion's response to my art essay that I wrote on Western Culture Categorization of Gender.
Enjoy!
Marie-Therese
About The Author: Irene Manion
Irene Manion employs a range of textile techniques and materials in her work. She has exhibited textiles since 1983. She employs photography, watercolor painting, and digital graphics techniques in order to create imagery that becomes the subject of her textile art pieces.
Irene's dominant concern in her work is her care for the environment and how human choices and mismanagement have intentionally damaged the local environment. Native birds are often the subject of her work, with an exploration of their social habits and the dangers presented to their successful breeding in ‘developed’ environments, where the habitat is continually being destroyed or endangered.
As well as hand and machine embroidery, and surface embellishment on dye-sublimation printed polyesters, Irene has more recently explored stitching on non-traditional materials such as Perspex and transparent leather, using 3-d printed forms in order to mould the leather substrate.
Experimentation in stitching techniques has led to Irene's development of a ‘long stitch’ technique on the sewing machine that allows greater light reflectiveness in her contemporary embroidered pieces.
The many years Irene has spent working as a Secondary Visual Arts teacher and Head Teacher, has fed her to experiment, explore and originate a wide range of media and techniques.
Irene regularly publishes articles on the work of other textile artists as well as reviews on exhibitions etc.
Irene's work is always innovative, creative and moreover, is sensitive to exposing her concerns about climate change and the impact it is having on the natural environment - using the fragility of bird life as a conduit for her concerns.
Artist: Irene Manion.
Title: Feathers I (detail) 2017.
Technique: Monofilament on perspex.
My Take on - Western Culture Characterisation of Gender
Guest Author: Irene Manion
British textile/conceptual/installation artist Tracey Emin, who like Madonna, challenges traditional perceptions of sexuality, also uses traditional textile techniques in her work, achieving high profile gallery exhibition opportunities. However, although her work ‘My Bed’ was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1999 it did not receive the award. " ‘It was overlooked’ despite being the one of the most popular pieces on display.” (Wikipedia).
Artist: Tracey Emin.
Title: 'My Bed' Tate Britain.
Photograph: Courtesy of Andy Hay, 2015.
Later Turner prize winner, Grayson Perry – openly a conventionally married, cross-dresser, most definitely questions sexuality and stereotypes in all of his work and most pertinently in his use of woven ‘paintings’. This use of the ‘traditional’ textile medium creates an association with what is generally perceived as traditional women’s work, to invest layers of meaning into his tapestries. He boldly embraces a more androgynous concept of sexuality and debunks traditional stereotypes.
Artist: Grayson Perry
Title: The Adoration of the Cage Fighters. From the series, The Vanity of Small Differences.
Photograph: Courtesy of Flickr (2012).
Lubiana Himid, the current (2017) winner of the Turner prize, is a female, and the oldest person to ever have received the Turner prize. Her medium is painting/collage and installation. She makes acerbic commentary on perceptions of women, black women and male subconscious stereotyping that has regularly appeared in the Guardian newspaper. Being given recognition for her body of work could indicate that the androgynous view of sexuality is becoming increasingly accepted and questioned by newer generations of both artists and the entire art community, including galleries and critics.
Artist: Lubiana Himid.
Part of her collection of works submitted for the Turner Prize.
Current Turner Prize Winner.
Photograph: Courtesy of David Perry (Flickr).
Although, at times, the artworld seems to me to be taking steps forward in the right direction, mass media and especially television for the masses, seems to be heading in entirely the opposite direction. Reality TV shows such as "My Kitchen Rules", "The Bachelor", "The Bachelorette", and most recently the advertisements for a new soapie called, "Bad Housewives", seem to be playing a morally reprehensible role in modelling the worst type of extreme behaviour to mass (unquestioning) audiences. On the one hand, one could argue, that they are merely reflecting what is already happening in society, however, on the other hand, one might argue that they are actually modelling the worst kind of sexual stereotypical and often, violent and negative behaviour towards women, and inculcating in women (and men), the very types of behaviours that place women in vulnerable positions in society. Hence, the appalling statistics on domestic violence in Australia. The morality of what these shows are doing can be seen as eroding the values of society in general.
Finally, I recently saw the ‘Preraphaelites’ exhibition in Canberra. There was one painting of a pair of nuns by John Everett Millais, called ‘Vale of Rest’ that stood out for me. One nun was digging a grave while the other peered out at the viewer in a very direct way. This painting showed women in such atypical roles as subjects for paintings of women up to that time. The women are perceived as asexual, strong and so different to the naked female that peers back at the male viewer who is observing them as sexual objects. The nun stares straight back at the viewer with refreshing directness. Her sexuality is not part of the ‘evaluation.’
Artist: Sir John Everett Millais.
Title: Vale of Rest: where the weary find repose,1858. (Partially repainted in 1862).
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Size: 40.5 x 68 inches.
Photograph: Courtesy of Kotomi (Flickr).
Artist: Sir John Everett Millais.
Title: The Vale of Rest: where the weary find repose (detail) 1858.
Photograph: Courtesy of Kotomi (Flickr).
Unfortunately, though so atypical of subjects and portrayals of women at that time, this was anything but a popular painting at the time and was not treated well by the critics.
This is Irene Manion's response to my art essay that I wrote on Western Culture Categorization of Gender.
Enjoy!
Marie-Therese
About The Author: Irene Manion
Irene Manion employs a range of textile techniques and materials in her work. She has exhibited textiles since 1983. She employs photography, watercolor painting, and digital graphics techniques in order to create imagery that becomes the subject of her textile art pieces.
Irene's dominant concern in her work is her care for the environment and how human choices and mismanagement have intentionally damaged the local environment. Native birds are often the subject of her work, with an exploration of their social habits and the dangers presented to their successful breeding in ‘developed’ environments, where the habitat is continually being destroyed or endangered.
As well as hand and machine embroidery, and surface embellishment on dye-sublimation printed polyesters, Irene has more recently explored stitching on non-traditional materials such as Perspex and transparent leather, using 3-d printed forms in order to mould the leather substrate.
Experimentation in stitching techniques has led to Irene's development of a ‘long stitch’ technique on the sewing machine that allows greater light reflectiveness in her contemporary embroidered pieces.
The many years Irene has spent working as a Secondary Visual Arts teacher and Head Teacher, has fed her to experiment, explore and originate a wide range of media and techniques.
Irene regularly publishes articles on the work of other textile artists as well as reviews on exhibitions etc.
Irene's work is always innovative, creative and moreover, is sensitive to exposing her concerns about climate change and the impact it is having on the natural environment - using the fragility of bird life as a conduit for her concerns.
Title: Feathers I (detail) 2017.
Technique: Monofilament on perspex.
My Take on - Western Culture Characterisation of Gender
Guest Author: Irene Manion
British textile/conceptual/installation artist Tracey Emin, who like Madonna, challenges traditional perceptions of sexuality, also uses traditional textile techniques in her work, achieving high profile gallery exhibition opportunities. However, although her work ‘My Bed’ was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1999 it did not receive the award. " ‘It was overlooked’ despite being the one of the most popular pieces on display.” (Wikipedia).
Title: 'My Bed' Tate Britain.
Photograph: Courtesy of Andy Hay, 2015.
Later Turner prize winner, Grayson Perry – openly a conventionally married, cross-dresser, most definitely questions sexuality and stereotypes in all of his work and most pertinently in his use of woven ‘paintings’. This use of the ‘traditional’ textile medium creates an association with what is generally perceived as traditional women’s work, to invest layers of meaning into his tapestries. He boldly embraces a more androgynous concept of sexuality and debunks traditional stereotypes.
Title: The Adoration of the Cage Fighters. From the series, The Vanity of Small Differences.
Photograph: Courtesy of Flickr (2012).
Lubiana Himid, the current (2017) winner of the Turner prize, is a female, and the oldest person to ever have received the Turner prize. Her medium is painting/collage and installation. She makes acerbic commentary on perceptions of women, black women and male subconscious stereotyping that has regularly appeared in the Guardian newspaper. Being given recognition for her body of work could indicate that the androgynous view of sexuality is becoming increasingly accepted and questioned by newer generations of both artists and the entire art community, including galleries and critics.
Part of her collection of works submitted for the Turner Prize.
Current Turner Prize Winner.
Photograph: Courtesy of David Perry (Flickr).
Although, at times, the artworld seems to me to be taking steps forward in the right direction, mass media and especially television for the masses, seems to be heading in entirely the opposite direction. Reality TV shows such as "My Kitchen Rules", "The Bachelor", "The Bachelorette", and most recently the advertisements for a new soapie called, "Bad Housewives", seem to be playing a morally reprehensible role in modelling the worst type of extreme behaviour to mass (unquestioning) audiences. On the one hand, one could argue, that they are merely reflecting what is already happening in society, however, on the other hand, one might argue that they are actually modelling the worst kind of sexual stereotypical and often, violent and negative behaviour towards women, and inculcating in women (and men), the very types of behaviours that place women in vulnerable positions in society. Hence, the appalling statistics on domestic violence in Australia. The morality of what these shows are doing can be seen as eroding the values of society in general.
Finally, I recently saw the ‘Preraphaelites’ exhibition in Canberra. There was one painting of a pair of nuns by John Everett Millais, called ‘Vale of Rest’ that stood out for me. One nun was digging a grave while the other peered out at the viewer in a very direct way. This painting showed women in such atypical roles as subjects for paintings of women up to that time. The women are perceived as asexual, strong and so different to the naked female that peers back at the male viewer who is observing them as sexual objects. The nun stares straight back at the viewer with refreshing directness. Her sexuality is not part of the ‘evaluation.’
Title: Vale of Rest: where the weary find repose,1858. (Partially repainted in 1862).
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Size: 40.5 x 68 inches.
Photograph: Courtesy of Kotomi (Flickr).
Title: The Vale of Rest: where the weary find repose (detail) 1858.
Photograph: Courtesy of Kotomi (Flickr).
Unfortunately, though so atypical of subjects and portrayals of women at that time, this was anything but a popular painting at the time and was not treated well by the critics.
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