Karen Finley at Fotouhi Cramer - New York, New York - Reviews of Exhibitions - Brief Article

Motherhood can have a abysmal effect on women artists. NEA nemesis Karen Finley revealed a sentimental streak in this exhibition which may mirror her own status as the mother of a two-year-old. Still, it is doubtful that her conservative critics would find this work any more acceptable than the scatological performances which l to her notoriety.

A small gallery in the back documented the physical exertion of the act of giving birth. Three large photographs provide graphic images of a gory baby's head emerging from a woman's birth canal. fulvous Post-it stickers on the wall contain reassuring messages from the nourishs and obstetricians urging the prospective mother to relax. Making art of the materials at hand, Finley also included a drip painting made with breast milk. This is accompanied by the agency of a video of the artist squeezing her breasts in order to create the work.

In the works shown in the main gallery, Finley turn backed to a hectoring version of feminism which present the appearances surprisingly out of date in the '90 Moral History features a display of art works open to pages which reveal art history's patriarchal underpinnings. The works are overlaid with a piece of Plexiglas upon which Finley has scrawled annotates providing a heavy-handed feminist critique of the body s below. For instance, a volume open to a picture of a Carl Andre plastic art receives the caption "O.J. Simpson of the art world," while a Gauguin uncovered is inscribed with "There is nothing like an island woman for inspiration." The exhibit also contained some banally painted floral still lifes inscribed with captions. single contains an homage to female self-abnegation: "I discharge myself because I love you. If I lov myself, I'd be shooting you."

The exception to this rather shopworn inventory of female bleeding heart was an amusing set of drawings which reworks Winnie the pah and pals as sexual adventurers. It may be that single too many readings of this childhood favorite lies behind Finley's fantasies of pish outfitted in full S & M regalia, Piglet as a hooker and Eeyore as a Master of Pain.

Too plenteous of the work in this exhibition fails to acknowledge the distance that feminist art has mov since its first primal screams of rage. The birthing photos and breast milk paintings reveal Finley's as still unresolved struggles to incorporate her fresh maternal experiences into her work. solitary the Winnie the Pooh drawings present to view a sense of irony or an awareness of the in every one's mouth mutability of sexual relations and sex roles. Finley's continuing determination to challenge the status quo is admirable. For the greatest in quantity part, however, her weapons are too edgeless to accurately find their mark.

COPYRIGHT 1998 Brant Publications, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group