Middle East College ?Contemporary Art and Feminism at Brooklyn Museum Discussion

This chapter is a critique of the 2007 Brooklyn Museum exhibition Global Feminisms. This exhibition is a very important part of the exhibition history of feminism in contemporary art, and is worthy of further reflection. However, it is also important to consider how this exhibition frames feminism and what this might mean for feminism and contemporary art/art history what the limits are of feminist thought as it exists today. I also appreciate that this article highlights Tracey Rose’s Venus Baartman, which we have discussed on multiple occasions. Focus on how Lamm describes the exhibition and try to understand the ways in which she links post-colonialism, feminism, and globalization/global capital.

For your discussion board, I would like you to reflect on contemporary art and feminism more broadly. In this week’s main article, Kimberly Lamm gives a critique of the exhibition Global Feminisms, highlighting the ways in which feminism, post-colonialism, and globalization/global capitalism is intertwined. In particular, she points to “the importance of reflecting on feminism’s own complicities with capitalism and the histories of exploitation colonialism and slavery name” (255-256). She describes the use of images of women’s victimization to counter the realities of globalization/to offer a space of commonality, and the issues with glossing over the racialized aspects of globalization suggesting that “the desire to transcend histories of racism can ultimately reinscribe their presence” (240).

How do you understand this article? What do you see as Lamm’s primary critiques? What do you think is the role of feminist art history/feminist art practice according to Lamm, and do you agree?

*** Words count = 600 words.

*** In-Text Citations and references using Harvard style.

*** I’ve uploaded file named “Kimberly Lamm Gestures of Inclusion Bodily Damage and the Hauntings of Exploitation in Global Feminisms”.