Artist Post #6: Janine Antoni

"Saddle"
2000
Full rawhide (cow), 25 2/3 x 32 1/2 x 78 5/8 inches
"Moor"
2001
Dimensions variable
Installation views, "Free Port," at Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthalle, Sweden
"Loving Care"
1993
Installation view at Anthony D'Offay Gallery, London
The artist soaked her hair in hair dye and mopped the floor with it.
"Lick and Lather," detail
1993
7 soap and 7 chocolate self-portrait busts, 24 x 16 x 13 inches each

I don't think I'll be able to make this lecture so I'll do a post on her instead.

"Janine Antoni, a 46-year-old native of the Bahamas, received her B.A. in 1986 from Sarah Lawrence College and her M.F.A. from Rhode Island School of Design in 1989. She received the MacArthur Fellowship and the Joan Mitchell Foundation, Inc. Painting and Sculpture Grant in 1998, and the Larry Aldrich Foundation Award in 1999."

I see a trend in many of the artists I am choosing. My interest in them are all very similar. I enjoy the act of making. Janine Antoni also expresses this same liking for using your hands. Antoni uses her hands, hair and body to create her art work. There are so many joys and acts that she captures in her art work. She learns how to do old feminine type work with her hands like spinning (not on a stationary bike) and loom weaving. I do not consider myself a feminist but with most works that deal with feminine processes and the way women used to act, I get a strong connection to the work. I am not sure where this feeling comes from. She also just uses her own body to create work. For Loving Care she uses her hair and hair dye to paint the floor of a gallery. She says that she likes to use her body in her work because then other people can feel her presence. It is also helpful that he body is there so and the viewer can empathize with what she has done to create the artwork. She also uses the theme of her family and her life in creating Moor. In this work she weaves together a large rope that she twists and combines herself. The pieces come from special things from all of her friends and family. They can be anything from dresses or electrical cords. She weaves and uses her hands and has her mother help weave with her too. The process is as much of the art as the final product is. She taught herself how to tight rope walk and she made a video where she is walking on the horizon of her childhood view of the beach. History and making things and use of different types of media are so interesting to me!

" I just believe in the power of art, what it can do for our lives. I think if you stay focused on what art can do and don’t get distracted, you discover it is limitless. "

- Janine Antoni via Bomb magazine

"And because "Moor" is made out of materials from my friends, I thought I could make a rope from materials of my life and walk it like a lifeline."

-Janine Antoni via Art 21

LINKS:

Website: http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/antoni/index.html

Interview: http://bombsite.com/issues/66/articles/2191

gallery: http://www.luhringaugustine.com/artists/janine-antoni/

"Art21 . Janine Antoni . Biography . Documentary Film." PBS. Web. 11 Oct. 2010. http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/antoni/index.html.

Horodner, Stuart. "BOMB Magazine: Janine Antoni by Stuart Horodner." Editorial. BOMB Magazine Jan.-Feb. 1999. BOMB Magazine: Home Page. Jan.-Feb. 1999. Web. 11 Oct. 2010. http://bombsite.com/issues/66/articles/2191.