Inside Rachel Alger's Studio

   This assignment forced me to take a look at myself as well as the great things as well as flaws in my own work. For this assignment, I read and cited an article for each women who I interpret. I wanted a general sense in how they act and talk, but did not want so much information that I could not make them into a character that made sense in my head. 

   As I came into college as a journalism writing major and am about to graduate, I thought it would be fun to write this assignment as a magazine or newspaper article. 

   Please enjoy, also as a disclaimer, anything not cited and quoted is not anything these women have said. It is my interpretation of them based on reading about them. 

The Studio Visit

   On Friday, December 7, 2012, four women gathered in a small collegiate house in Reno for a studio visit of a young artist just on the verge of completing her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. The visit last just over an hour and primarily consisted of a critique of the young artists thesis work as well as topics in how women work in the art world, both past and present. The four women consisted of the following:

Lynn Hershman Leeson

     Award winning artist and filmmaker. Leeson works in a variety of themes including identity in the time of consumerism and the relationship between human and machine/virtual world. She is the director of !Women Art Revolution, which explored, “the secret history” of  the feminist art movement and where women stand in the art world today.

     She is currently the Chair of the Film Department at the San Francisco Art Institute.

Kiki Smith

   Acclaimed contemporary artist. Working in an array of mediums from sculpture to printmaking, Smith’s work is highly socio-political. She seeks to explore the role of woman and undermining the sexualization of her body as well as using the biological systems as hidden metaphor for social issues. Themes of her work include birth and regeneration, fairy tales, gender, race, women’s issues and religion.

   Smith is currently a practicing artist and highly involved in AIDs and violence against women awareness.

Sarah Thorton

    Writer and culture sociologist. Much of Thorton’s work and research focuses around cultural hierarchies and subcultures, specifically those in the music and art communities. Her book, Seven Days in the Art World, which focuses on varying facets of the art world and market as well as its importance to human culture, has been read all over the world and cited as being, “the most important book on contemporary art of this time as it makes the art world more transparent, and might lead to reform,” by Andras Szanto.

 She received her undergrad in Art History from Concordia University and her PhD in Sociology of Music from Strathclyde University in Glasgow. She has taken a break from journalistic writing to focus on a new book.

Rachel Alger

   Art undergraduate student. Alger is in the process of receiving her BFA in Art from the University of Nevada, Reno. She works in varying medium and the themes central to her work focus around childhood trauma and its relation to memory and associations to fairy tales.

   Upon her graduation in May 2013, she plans to move to the Bay area to obtain her Master’s Degree in either Contemporary Art History and Theory or Curatorial Practice. She currently works as a gallery assistant in the university’s Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery.

   Here is the story that followed the studio visit.

   Rachel Alger is an artist that doesn’t care about nity-grity details. You can see this by the state of her studio; a large bedroom shared with her boyfriend of seven years, Jacob, in a college rental property shared with three other people in addition to the couple.

   In the studio is a desk tucked away in a corner covered in all kinds of mess. Books and school papers are stacked on an adjoining shelf. Cut outs of old book pages, glue, paper, pencils, thread, dried out tea bags and dead flowers litter the desktop and surrounding floor.

    But the extent of her artwork explosion does not stop at the disorganized desk. On a wall opposite the desk there are dozens of lithographic storybook pages half-hazardly taped to the wall in no significant order. Below those and across the room sit half a dozen, thin rectangular wooden structures about two feet tall clearly in no state of completion.

   “I’ve kind of taken over the room in the last few months,” she sheepishly says. “I try to contain it for Jacob’s sake. And I never let it explode into the rest of the house. I know it would drive my parents insane if I was still in their house.”

   She does not say much more than that. She overall comes across very quiet and contemplative. She is clearly someone who listens intently and analyzes what she’s saying before it leaves her mouth.

   Alger is preparing for her upcoming thesis exhibition in March 2013.The exhibition focuses on highly personal subjects related to Alger, specifically fragmented and disassociated memories of childhood abuse, which in an attempt to reconcile, she related to classic fairy tales and stories whose lead characters suffer from similar fates.

   “These stories are pretty fucked up if you actually read into them,” she explains. “I’m not sure these stories were ever meant for children in the first place. If they were they were likely meant to terrify them into behaving. For me though, it just confirms that this type of abuse has gone on much more consistently in human history. It’s disgusting really, but so, so common.”

   Alger is not the first artist to stumble upon this information of the dark origin of fairy tales. Famed Kiki Smith has also used similar themes and imagery in her work. She has been a huge inspiration to Alger’s thesis work and love affair with contemporary art in general.

   In fact, Smith is part of the reason we are here today.

   Writer and sociologist Sarah Thorton, artist and filmmaker, Lynn Hershman Leeson and Smith have all come to Alger’s studio to review her work. All of these women have been highly involved within the art world for years and have come to redefine what the art world is made of and how it works.

   The three women are currently walking around the studio space seemingly unfazed by the disarray of the space. They are clearly here to focus on her work and nothing else.

   Smith is focused on the book prints that litter the bulk of the wall. She turns to Alger and says, “There is a definite sadness and provocation to what you are doing here. There is a clear violence and unspoken anger with these pages, and maybe even you. I think you have found some form of therapy in doing all of this, ‘If you stick to your work, it will take care of you somehow’” (Kuan).

   Alger blinks questioningly at her a couple times before Smith continues on. “’Our culture seems to believes that it’s entertaining to teach women to be frightened (Kuan).’ I don’t think I necessarily see that here completely, but you are way more tentative in your creations than you seem to realize. I wish maybe that it was a little more aggressive, like you are confronting this information head on, but…” She stops for a moment, looks back at the work and continues, “There is a loneliness here and almost a romantic quality behind these prints. Almost as if you’re nostalgic for something, but that something is not clear. I think I quite like that actually.”

  Alger face holds an expression of confusion. This kind of mystification is not uncommon for Smith. Her words always seem to come out whimsical and soft. She is an enigma to many.

   Smith goes on further. “I am very much attracted to your material usage,” she says, fondling one page that has had an image of Belle and Beast from Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve's Beauty and the Beast. It has also been burned.

   “I think you are attempting to breach the divide between craft and fine art,” she says. “I think there is a playful attitude in the way you have approached the usage of sewing images on. I’ve been known to use traditional women’s craft in my own work as well. It is not always easy, but ‘one can still have a playful attitude towards it and try to some extent to disempower and disassemble it. Maybe in one or two generations it won’t exist’ (Kuan). Maybe it will begin with your generation.”

   There is a silence within the room. Leeson breaks it.

   “Tell me about these photographs,” Leeson says as she points to a series of large-scale self-portraits Alger completed for her BFA Midway exhibition last May, The Traumatic Memory Inventory. In the images she portrays an archetype of a fairy tale princess, complete with fluffy, pink princess dress.

   “Those photos are meant to portray the story of a young woman in a fairy tale who is coming to terms with the fact that she was abused as a child. Something she reads in one of her own books triggers a memory that she cannot quite place,” she states. She gives no more information.

   “I think you have stumbled upon some difficult concepts in more ways than one,” declares Leeson, clearly going into something that Alger may be unprepared for. She plays the part almost too well for Leeson’s liking it seems. Either that or she is not saying something.

   Leeson will push her to do as such.

   “Obviously, this material and concept is not easy to stomach, especially emotionally, but that’s not the point I want to make. Female discrimination in the art world is incredibly complicated. People are afraid of women artists. We had the feminist art movement from the 1960s, 70s and 80s, but that fight is not over. ‘There are many examples of subtle resistance which is reflected in how and where work is seen, who is exhibited, how work is reviewed, collected, or placed and what future creative opportunities are available. Having a strong, original voice can be personally exhilarating but often treacherous in its uniqueness when it does not fit into a pre-existing expectation’ (Savage). You pose yourself as a child, but in the body of a woman. I believe you may have inadvertently sexualized yourself in the same way your abusers sexualized you in your youth. Was this intentional? Do you think that this simple attempt “prettiness” adds to women not being taken seriously in art?”

   Alger looks at Leeson for a moment before she speaks. A scowl forms on her face. “I made this work because I want to. Because I have something to get out and say and if I do not get it out, it eats away a part of me,” she speaks emphatically getting irritated with Leeson’s overall dismissal.

   “Those photographs in front of you were a form of therapy to me. For six months I wore than damned princess dress in the freezing cold to ultimately put myself on display. Yes, I ultimately turned myself into an object, but I think in these photographs it was necessary. To any person who has ever been abused sexually, they were ultimately made into an object as well. Their abuser does not care about them. They care about using the object, which in this case, is me, or rather me as a representation of those who have been used and thrown away.”

  Leeson and Alger stare at each other before Leeson smirks.

   “I think that is what you have been trying to say this all along with this work. I’m glad you’ve acknowledged this, even if you have to be provoked to do so. We as women artists need a strong, clear voice. Yours is getting there, but as Kiki said, you seem to act timid at times, which reflects in the work, but I think there is potential for you to be a part of this shift with this work.”

   Smith speaks up again, “You are young, you are not in the center of the art world dynamics yet, nor are you a part of the first waves of feminism or feminist art. ’Women, very actively changed the paradigm. Often they worked to innovate and make new forms…one can be marginalized, but one can also be incredibly empowered be being out of the center. Maybe when one gets into the center you are slightly neutralized and you are just another thing to be knocked off. So there are moments of being in secret that can give you tremendous advantages as an artist’ (Kuan). You need to use those secrets as well as your youth or you are wasting potential.”

   Alger glances from both women and back to her work again. She seems to be taking in what they are saying, but giving no tell on how she is interpreting what they are saying. She could be thankful or offended, but she is definitely contemplative. That much is certain for the young artist.

   Smith looks over to Thorton. “Sarah, you’ve been awfully quiet. What do you think about all of this?”

   Thorton is different from Leeson and Smith in that she is not an artist. She has made her career writing about the on-goings in the art world, as well as pointing out its flaws and shortcomings.

   Her critique more than likely will consist more on how Alger’s work fits into that world than on form, materials or content.

   All three of the other women look over to her and seem very interested in hearing her opinion, as she has said nothing thus far.

    She moves across the room to where the prints that Smith was just both admiring and admonishing earlier. She then looks to the photographs that Leeson harshly critiqued before she begins to speak.

   “In May of this year,” she begins, “There was a post-war and contemporary auction at Christie’s. It brought in $388 million; the most in a single auction in its history. The ratio of men to women was 5:1. Only $17 million of that 388 came from female artists” (Thorton)

   The look on Alger’s face is a mixture of irritation and somberness. This is clearly a sign of her youth as Smith and Leeson look unsurprised. This is not new information for either of them. This is something they have been battling with in both of their careers for decades.

    But Thorton continues on. “But it is not all bad. Things for female artists are improving in the art market. The financial disparity between the top ten male and female artists is not great; $80 million verses $10 on the top end, but, of those top ten women, five are still working and only two of the men are even alive. People’s attitudes are changing toward female artists and I think that it will only become greater as time passes (Thorton). Because of artist like Lynn and Kiki, you are able to attend art school and be taken more seriously than you would have 30 years ago. Kiki and Lynn have started and prolonged this battle. Now with all that information, where do you want to take your work? How far are you willing to push yourself?”

   With that Alger looks at them all, a smirk on her face and simply says, “We will see. The world has no idea what I am capable of.” 

   The women seem satisfied with this answer. The general assessment of Alger’s work is that there is potential. There is something there, but it is ultimately up to her to push her work, the art world and herself. Only time will tell. 




Works Cited

Kuan, Christina. "Interview with Kiki Smith." Oxford Art Online; Oxford University Press. 

Savage, Sophia. "Exclusive Interview: Lynn Hershman Leeson talks !Women Art Revolution, Feminism Outtakes of History." Indiewire. 1 June 2011.

Thorton, Sara. "Post-war artists at auction: The Price of Being a Woman Artist." The Economist. 20 May 2012.