work in progress
My intention is to publish a feminist debate forum delivered via a commercially printed magazine, a website and promotional material.
Before its publication in any form the content is encrypted. This implies that, even though the content is real, and it is important that it is, it is unintelligible at first sight. It is, however, decryptable.
The stages towards the publication of the magazine will be public, either via art exhibitions or the internet. If you would like to be kept updated you can register. You have a look at what people are sending at www.sumemos.com.
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| xyx28 :: encrypted feminist magazine | ||
| Some promotional posters and encrypted subscription forms were shown at the Bargehouse, London, in February 2007. Toilet photograph by Mary Yacoob. | ||
View the encrypted subscription form (pdf) · View the poster (pdf)
Feminism: The advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of sexual
equality.
(Concise Oxford English Dictionary)
Why encrypted?
The encryption is a comment on the historical and intellectual status of the achievements of many women, whose work is systematically ignored. To inquire into the role of women in history is like trying to decypher a manuscript without knowing the alphabet used to write it. It also touches on myths around women as mysterious, full of secrets, complex and prone to conspiracy.
In addition, art with an obvious message becomes mere propaganda, assimilated according to the stereotypes and prejudices of the viewer. I use unintelligibility to try to evade the filters of preconception, to interfere with the need to control and to distance the viewer from the immediacy of consumer society.
Although the encryption method in this particular case is very basic, the idea itself of encrypting the magazine also touches on personal privacy issues and on the controversy surrounding powerful encryption methods, like PGP, which are for the moment too strong to be broken, and are being used by numerous pro-human rights groups accross the planet to denounce corrupt regimes and social injustices.
Why feminist?
My art practice is about propaganda, the manipulation of information and language. Like all movements that question the status quo, feminism generates controversy and is surrounded by propaganda, more against than in favour in my view. We all know the stereotype of the bitter man-hating “feminazi”, and nobody wants to be associated with her. So much so, that a lot of women, perhaps even the majority, officially detach themselves from the fight for equal rights, even if they also reap the rewards.
After going to the talk by the Guerrilla Girls at the Tate Modern, I realised that in some way I was also eluding the subject, for fear of being pigeon-holed, in the name of a sort of false freedom.
When a term is avoided, somehow the ability to think about the subject gets reduced. From there, the idea of the creation of a feminist magazine was born.
According to the dictionary, feminism is the fight for equal rights independent of gender. This is something apparently so obvious that it is hard to believe that anyone would be against calling themselves feminist. This fight for equal rights and opportunities is not, obviously, a fight against men, but with them. Although men and women are different, I do not think that our sex defines us as much as we think. Sexual stereotypes, however, do prevent us from developing as complete human beings. The answer is not homogenization, but in enjoying diversity and assigning value to each individual’s contributions based on the value of those contributions to society, and not on who generated them.
find out more · participate! · register · xyx28.com
encrypted feminist magazine
on-line qstnnr
laaaotfohc
grafeos
essence
and existence
you,
fascist (or the holy trinity of manipulation)
the
book of madness
propaganda
paintings and
drawings
photography
