{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.03478904515173945, 'fraction_numerical': 0.002467308166790032, 'mean_word_length': 4.997041420118343, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
The Female Imaginary

The Female Imaginary It was a convergence, a confluence, an extravaganza of networking, an affirmation of gender. The Female Imaginary: a Symposium on Feminist Practice in the Visual Arts, was organized by curator Jan Allen and held on 28 January 1995 in conjunction with an exhibition by the same name at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario. The show featured the artists Shawna Dempsey, Lorri Millan, Nancy Edell, Skai Fowler, Shelley Niro, Mireille Perron and Diana Thorneycroft, while the symposium offered "an opportunity to extend the dialogue of the exhibition by expanding upon specific issues raised by the work ... [and] to foster an exchange of ideas and strategies among artists and within the audience for feminist work women (and men) engaged with the formulation and representation of feminist issues in their personal, public or professional lives."(f.1) The central concept for the series of events was French feminist Luce Irigary's identification of the preconscious as a site for the cultivation of female culture, "the female imaginary." In feminist psychoanalytic theory the preconscious, residing and mediating between the unconscious and conscious, is the realm of myth, symbol and dream. The Female Imaginary coincided with another exhibit and lecture, "Joyce Wieland: Twilit Record of Romantic Love," held the following day, and which the artist attended. The lecture by the new Curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Jessica Bradley, provided an overview of some highlights in Wieland's illustrious career, sensitively exploring major themes and grappling with the essentialist nature of many of her erotic works. Both accompanying catalogues also might have been prefaced with Irigary's words, as quoted by Jan Allen in the symposium's program: "The symbolic order is an imaginary order which becomes law. Therefore, it is very important to question again the foundations of our symbolic order in mythology and in tragedy because they deal with a landscape which installs itself in the imagination and then, all of a sudden, becomes law."(f.2) The symposium opened with Dr. Jean Randolph's keynote speech and slide presentation on preconscious narrative.(f.3) The author of Psychoanalysis and Synchronized Swimming and Other Writings on Art(f.4) accompanied her talk with "rummagable images" of slides photographed from a television screen, cautioning that they might or might not relate to what she was saying. In its style her presentation openly avoided defining location as neither outside nor inside, claiming that "while extemporizing, i.e. living, I do not want to hide what is broken, as important as what is fixed." The ghost of Freud, dubbed "Dr. Dualism" by Randolph, rubbed shoulders with a Wayne Gretzky medal, punctuated by the "pleasure in wallowing in some of the products of patriarchal society." Objectification was distinguished from interpretation by defining it as a terrorizing act, in contrast to interpretation as an act of elaboration, the "willing addition of belief." In keeping with her psychoanalytic approach, Randolph posited baby tossing as a paradigm for lived space. When parents toss their baby up and down in play, they create a setting impossible without the trust generated by the good experiences the baby has had; the ritual contains a "delightful streak of sadism" and the baby comes to a knowledge both up and down, and in between up and down. The latter experience is compared to the psychoanalyst Melanie Klein's "transitional space," experienced as free - floating. Survival is assured, a contract of safety implicit. In space, the relationship is one in which the child learns "me" and "not me." Representations take place in this safe space, "a space of luxury." This metaphor underscores the need to bring to culture - and to the visual arts - an "ethics of luxury." To address ethical questions is to define poles - yes/no, up/down, and to recognize interpretation as a power we mustn't abdicate. …