This morning I heard a great CBC Radio The Current interview with artist Judy Chicago. You might remember her from the late 1970's when she created the then controversial art installation called The Dinner Party. It was literally an elegant, triangular dinner table set as a banquet with 39 place settings to honour 39 famous women from history. It was controversial because the motifs were based on vulvar and butterfly forms -- you can figure that out what that means. Many galleries would not display this work, considering it vulgar, but it eventually toured the world.
Needless to say, The Dinner Party, offended the religious sensibilities of many. Chicago was raised in a loving, affirming non-religious family, even though her father came from a long line of Jewish rabbis. Eventually she reconnected with a form of Judaism which had room for her feminist sensibilities.
While in the interview she doesn't mention this, she does use a Jewish term "tikkun olam" or "mending the world" in relation to a a new project in collaboration with Jane Fonda, and Greenpeace and other institutions and galleries
It's called Create Art for the Earth and the website offers this explanation and exhortation:
We call out to you to join us in creating art for the Earth; a global creative response to the climate crisis and the pandemic afflicting us. Create images that offer an alternative vision; one that protects the planet and all living creatures, one that promotes equity and justice for ALL.
Make art. Sing songs, create performances, recite poems. Do this alone or with your families on any kind of material that is available to you. Share what you create via the pathways we have established. Demonstrate the many ways that the arts can heal, lead, transform and make change.
I think this is a wonderful initiative which appeals to my spiritual and artistic sensibilities. I'm in awe of 81-year-old Chicago's energy and vision, and I can't help but believe that the Creator approves!
Judy Chicago (American, born 1939). The Dinner Party, 1974–79. Ceramic, porcelain, textile, 576 × 576 in. (1463 × 1463 cm). Brooklyn Museum; Gift of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation, 2002.10. © Judy Chicago. (Photo: Donald Woodman)
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