Dear Tom Johnson and Richard Sainsbury,
I just today received a phone call and an email from Mobena Gilarty stating that Newsfax are refusing to print my publication which was set to go to press on Tuesday 28 June. the refusal to print was on the basis that the operations manager has a problem with the content. Newsfax printed this exact same publication in June 2009. The publication is funded by The Arts Council of England, The Danish Arts Council and London Centre for Arts and Cultural Exchange. It was originally distributed at Tate Modern free of charge and at Goldsmiths University of London. The publication is not obscene; it is an academic arts newspaper. I cannot believe that a company that takes money for printing newspapers has refused to follow through on the services that you offered as a business. It is extremely unprofessional that you would refuse to reprint and especially at such short notice.
My mom sent me an article this morning which lead me to click on this relatively recent interview with Gloria Steinem. I was intrigued by the the host Marlo's nose-job and the rinky-dink set-up of this low-fi chat show. Maybe there's a model for 'The O Show' here. Also of interest is Steinem's 1992 book Revolution from Within: A Book of Self Esteem which has "passages that come dangerously close to the banalities and pseudo-spiritualism of the self-help manual". Sounds like a must-read.
Notes:
Denes, M., 2005, 'Feminism? It's hardly begun', The Guardian, 17 January.
Girls! Girls! Girls! in contemporary art edited by Catherine Grant and Lori Waxman Intellect Books, 2011 / ISBN 9781841503486 / £19.95 Since the 1990s, women artists have led the contemporary art world in the creation of art depicting female adolescence, producing challenging, critically debated, and avidly collected artworks that are driving the current and momentous shift in the perception of women in art. Girls! Girls! Girls! presents essays from established and up-and-coming scholars who address a variety of themes, including narcissism, nostalgia, post-feminism, and fantasy, with the goal of approaching the overarching question of why women artists have turned in such numbers to the subject of girls – and what these artistic explorations signify. Artists discussed include Anna Gaskell, Marlene McCarty, Sue de Beer, Miwa Yanagi, Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Collier Schorr and more.Girls! Girls! Girls! is the missing link in the new feminist art history/criticism. It engages with that crucial and ambiguous period where children become women. In a way, one might say that girlhood lies at the root of Freud’s question ‘what do women want?’ at the same time that it mystifies this originary moment in women’s history. These texts hit the crucial questions in girl representation, running the whole gamut from charm to hysteria to murder. – Linda Nochlin , New York University
Tracking the figure of the girl across the fields of contemporary art and film, this book moves effortlessly between cultural criticism, art history, and feminist theory. Be forewarned, however: the girls in contemporary art are anything but docile or well-behaved. From baby butches to bad girls, from reluctant Lolitas to hysterical orphans, these girls make terrific trouble in the lavishly imagined worlds they inhabit. And the women who do that imagining? They are some of the leading artists and filmmakers of our day. And thanks to Girls! Girls! Girls! they get their critical due. – Richard Meyer, University of Southern California
I just discovered the artist Jennifer Sullivan because John Kilduff (a.k.a. Mr. Let's Paint) is in an exhibition with her, and I'm experiencing some serious art envy. It's a shame there aren't any excerpts from her videos or performance documentation on her website -- perhaps I should reserve full judgement till I see them -- but her work seems pretty cool. Here are some examples pinched from her website which should demonstrate why it appeals to me... 
It's A Process: Episode 3 - Ladies Night Live, 2009
In Episode 3 of It's a Process, I invite special guest artists Brina Thurston and Rachel Mason to help me celebrate Women's History Month in a panel discussion format inspired by "The View". In addition to our discussion, I do some cathartic karaoke, show video clips, invite questions from the audience, and give a live Mudslide drink making demo.
Dancing Girls, 2002, Super 8 and VHS transferred to digital video, 9 minutes
Using images of young girls dancing in the 80's culled from talent shows and home movies filmed during my childhood, Dancing Girls explores the awkward yet emotive abstract expressionist process of dancing and the vulnerable relationship of a dancer to her audience.
Jennifer Sullivan Avant-Garde Glamour Studio, 2009, NADA County Affair, Brooklyn, NY
I performed free avant-garde make-overs for those looking to update their look. A before and after photo was taken of each participant.
It's A Process: Episode 3 - Ladies Night Live, 2009
In Episode 3 of It's a Process, I invite special guest artists Brina Thurston and Rachel Mason to help me celebrate Women's History Month in a panel discussion format inspired by "The View". In addition to our discussion, I do some cathartic karaoke, show video clips, invite questions from the audience, and give a live Mudslide drink making demo.
Dancing Girls, 2002, Super 8 and VHS transferred to digital video, 9 minutes
Using images of young girls dancing in the 80's culled from talent shows and home movies filmed during my childhood, Dancing Girls explores the awkward yet emotive abstract expressionist process of dancing and the vulnerable relationship of a dancer to her audience.
Jennifer Sullivan Avant-Garde Glamour Studio, 2009, NADA County Affair, Brooklyn, NY
I performed free avant-garde make-overs for those looking to update their look. A before and after photo was taken of each participant.
More photos from ICA performance of Impenetrable Power of The Phallic Matron, 20 May 2011.
The bra-burning, peace-offering moment of the performance (following swiftly after the bikini-competition and question round) is a mini-homage to the New York Radical women who carried out the same protest action at The Miss America Pageant in 1968. The mirror reflection of the goddess of love's visage in Velazquez's Rokeby Venus (1649-51) was painted purposely blurry and vague by the artist who didn't want to pin-down the specifics of the ideal face. Venus is rendered anonymous. I've undone this by literally stabbing Sarah Palin's face onto the surface of the mirror as the culmination of my performance. Photos: jimbanks.info
I can't wait to see this movie by Lynn Hersman Leeson - it looks totally awesome!
"Through intimate interviews, art, and rarely seen archival film and video footage, !Women Art Revolution reveals how the Feminist Art Movement fused free speech and politics into an art that radically transformed the art and culture of our times."
There's a short review in The New York Times which mentions the fact that Leeson has also set up an interactive online archive.
