Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: April 30, 2021 at 6:30:13 PM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-SHERA]: Razor on Zychowicz, 'Superfluous Women: > Art, Feminism, and Revolution in Twenty-First-Century Ukraine' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Jessica Zychowicz. Superfluous Women: Art, Feminism, and Revolution > in Twenty-First-Century Ukraine. Toronto University of Toronto > Press, 2020. Illustrations. 424 pp. $85.00 (cloth), ISBN > 978-1-4875-0168-6. > > Reviewed by Sasha Razor (Museum of Russian Culture, San Francisco) > Published on H-SHERA (April, 2021) > Commissioned by Hanna Chuchvaha > > Jessica Zychowicz's _Superfluous Women: Art, Feminism, and Revolution > in Twenty-First Century Ukraine_ is dedicated to the work of > Ukraine's young generation of artists and activists who became active > on the arts scene in the period between the Orange Revolution of 2004 > and the Revolution of Dignity of 2014. The introduction states the > project's central concern as showing "how protest becomes meaningful, > particularly where aesthetic exchanges between activists and > audiences rhetorically frame the body as an ideological site in > public speech" (p. 7). "Superfluous women" here is an ironic allusion > to "superfluous men," the term popularized by the nineteenth-century > Russian prose writer Ivan Turgenev. Feminism is indeed the dominant > theoretical approach informing this study. Its additional > methodological frames include "literature by anthropologists and > sociologists working on gender in postcommunism," as well as the > author's participatory observations (p. 25). > > Chapter 1, "Performing Protest: Sexual Dissent Reinvented," claims to > "supply a local history of public dissent and [examine] parody in > performances by Femen" (p. 21). Femen is a feminist collective > founded in Ukraine in 2008, self-described on their website as "an > international women's movement of brave topless female activists > painted with the [sic] slogans and crowned with flowers."[1] In > particular, the chapter features the author's interview with the > group's founder, Anna Hutsol, reviews the existing literature on the > group, and promises to contextualize Femen's performances on three > intersecting planes: "as a wry retrospective or spectacle of the > Orange Revolution; as a parody of the branding of the nation...; and > as a pun on feminism itself" (pp. 31-32). These goals, however, get > somewhat diffused by the multidirectional discussion of the various > contexts of Femen's cultural production, with several sections > advancing topics worthy of a separate monographic study, from > Romanticism and Taras Shevchenko to Ukrainian pop culture. But the > analysis itself does not scale to a nuanced contextualization of the > group's place in Ukrainian cultural production of the past decade, > while the extensive excursus into Alphonse Mucha's representations of > women, the action from Pomarańczowa's Alternatywa in Wrocław, > Poland, or Czech New Wave films seem extrinsic to the analysis of the > group. > > Chapter 2 comes closer to discussing the pivotal questions of Femen's > work that a researcher familiar with the group might have by focusing > on "representational strategies within these performances in the > context of international mass media technologies" (p. 16). In > particular, the chapter covers the group's relationship with the > Russian feminist protest group Pussy Riot. It comes to the conclusion > that, unlike Pussy Riot, whose "trajectory was fueled by Western > governments' grievances around Putinism, Femen could not earn such > credentials, arguably because their image contained more explicit > references to Western patriarchy and hegemony," while "the group's > aesthetics collapsed into a parody of their own activism" (p. 95). > The chapter also covers the group's critical reception in Ukraine and > a theoretical contextualization of Femen's work, rightfully > mentioning Ukrainian scholars' consensus on Femen as "carnivalesque > performers without any local ties" (p. 120). Among other factors that > influenced the group's reception, the author mentions the group's > "false sense of universalism," its particular, racist take on Islam, > and the (mis)identification of women's agency within Islam, while the > audience finds itself opposed to "the same news scripts that the > Femen sextremist image interpolates" (pp. 126, 98). All in all, the > chapter advances a complex argument contextualizing Femen's activism > from an international perspective and challenging the group's ethical > frameworks. > > Chapter 3 turns to work of a militant feminist group that originated > within the Ukrainian academic milieu. Feminist Ofenzyva (Offensive) > was founded by gender scholars from Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and Kharkiv > University in 2010 and terminated its activity in 2014 on the grounds > of "not wanting to be a part of the commercial institution of art and > activism" (p. 189).[2] The next sixty-five pages are dedicated to a > detailed discussion of Ofenzyva's initiatives and a close reading of > two major series of images by photographer and author Yevgenia > Belorusets who was a member of Ofenzyva at the time but, curiously, > does not indicate any affiliation with the group on her current > website.[3] All in all, Zychowicz offers a valuable account of the > existence of the rather marginal group whose online presence is > limited to a WordPress website and a dozen articles in the press.[4] > Her readings of Belorusets's series are perceptive and nuanced, but > the forty-something pages dedicated to their discussion seem somewhat > excessive. Additionally, given Ofenzyva's tendency to inscribe > themselves in the cultural scene by using revolutionary narratives as > a life-building strategy, the group's legacy should be interpreted > with a degree of caution. > > Titled "Museum of Congresses: Biopolitics of the Self in Kyiv's > R.E.P. and HudRada Visual Art Collectives," chapter 4 examines how > these two major Ukrainian curatorial collectives experimented with > "extra-judicial and unofficial contexts" while pushing "what one is > permitted to say in order to extend what one is capable of imagining > and speaking" (pp. 18, 240). Founded in 2004, R.E.P. (Revolutionary > Experimental Space) is an art group well known outside Ukraine for > representing the country at international exhibitions of contemporary > art. Founded in 2009, HudRada (Arts Council) is a group of Ukrainian > artists, activists, and intellectuals from all spheres of culture > that currently counts nineteen members, including the above-mentioned > Belorusets.[5] In particular, the chapter covers three > exhibitions--_Ukrainian Body_ (2012), _Draftsmen's Congress_ (2013) > and its section titled _Disputed Territory_ (2013), and _Great and > Grand_ (2013)--and discusses a number of artworks from 2000 to 2018. > The close readings of art in this chapter offer a number of useful > insights into how the Ukrainian art scene responded to the country's > political predicament, while the focus on body and biopolitics lends > itself to a particularly productive discussion. At the same time, > frequent digressions into twentieth-century intellectual history via > shifting discursive and theoretical frames stymie rather than aid the > reader's effort. It can also be argued that the gender ratio of the > artists discussed in this chapter--eight male artists versus two > females--undermines the goal asserted in the book's title. > > The fifth and final chapter, "Bad Myth: Picturing Intergenerational > Experiences of Revolution and War," ponders how the > inter-revolutionary generation responded to the war and political > violence following the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine. It focuses > on the grand narratives about the war and the revolution that are > "rooted in ideological myths that were invented and monopolized by > the Soviet regime" but that are also informed by the myth of the > dissident who "plays with the law of opposites dictating the internal > logic of authoritarian states" (p. 247). The following three > subchapters examine various facets of the post-2014 art narratives. > "Urban Spaces as Medium for Aesthetic Experiment" discusses a > biennial event called The School of Kyiv.[6] It looks at how this > event documented the intergenerational reception of Soviet-era > monuments, museums, and architecture. Another subchapter, > "Nonconformist Women - an Unofficial Archive," includes a discussion > of Alevtina Kakhidze's and Vlada Ralko's artwork, while the last > discussion of this chapter dwells on the function of Vladimir Lenin > statues in the post-Maidan era. All in all, the chapter eloquently > amplifies voices of the post-2004 generation of artists who are > simultaneously processing the violent legacies of their time and the > time before theirs and formulating the art frameworks of the future. > The gender ratio of this chapter tilts in favor of women, featuring > the work of five female artists in total. > > It is also important to state that although the book opens a new > discussion in the field of Ukrainian studies, it does not chart the > post-2004 generation of Ukrainian political artists and activists in > its entirety but rather launches the process sometimes described in > scholarship by the preposition "toward." The particular discussion > pertaining to the generation appears as late as page 196, defining it > as "artists who put themselves in confrontation with political > authorities, sometimes endangering their bodies and/or their artwork > in the process" in an "attempt to cut against the mass culture in > Ukraine." Given the book's apparent focus on women, what remains > generally unclear is how many women made political art between the > revolutions and what works their corpus entails except for those > addressed on its pages. Since art as a focus is also declared in the > title, art historians might find the inclusion of two entire chapters > on Femen, a group that is arguably external to the contemporary art > scene in Ukraine, not entirely convincing. Finally, the last two > chapters succeed in discussing major groups, exhibitions, and art > events following the Orange Revolution but do not offer an > overarching analysis of the broader intersections between revolution, > art, and feminism. This is, however, understandable. Given the > temporal proximity of the events in question, it might still be early > for such analysis to emerge. > > In the end, _Superfluous Women_ is clearly a labor of empathy and > solidarity with Ukrainians, and the inter-revolutionary generation in > particular. As a path-blazing study on the topic, it should be valued > as the result of a decade's worth of intellectual production, which > included numerous research trips and prolonged periods of work in the > region, amassing an archive, as well as the work of cultural > diplomacy, translating and representing Ukrainian artists and > activists in the West. Eloquently written, the book also bears the > genre memory of a travel diary, and the authorial digressions about > Zychowicz's personal experiences in the region were among my favorite > moments as a reader. This unique feature of introducing the self to > the narrative might even foreshadow future academic trends, because, > after all, scholarship and activism are no longer foreign to each > other, let alone antithetical. If anything, Zychowicz's study > resonates with the new pressing concerns in the field of the > post-Soviet and East-Central European studies that will be responding > to the regional threat of authoritarianism in the decade to come. > > Notes > > [1]. "About Us," FEMEN, https://femen.org/about-us/ (accessed March > 20, 2021). > > [2]. Zychowicz transliterates the name as Ofenzywa, but the proper > transliteration is Ofenzyva. > > [3]. For more, see "About," Yevgenia Belorusets, > http://belorusets.com/info/about (accessed March 20, 2021). > > [4]. For more, see Feministychna Ofenzyva, > https://ofenzyva.wordpress.com/ (accessed March 20, 2021). > > [5]. For more, see "About HudRada," Hudrada, > https://hudrada.tumblr.com/About%20Hudrada (accessed March 20, 2021). > > [6]. The School of Kyiv is an independent project organized in > partnership with VCRC (Kyiv's Visual Culture Research Center) in > 2015-16. For more, see The School of Kyiv, > http://theschoolofkyiv.org/ (accessed March 20, 2021). > > Citation: Sasha Razor. Review of Zychowicz, Jessica, _Superfluous > Women: Art, Feminism, and Revolution in Twenty-First-Century > Ukraine_. H-SHERA, H-Net Reviews. April, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=56079 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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