Before seeing Carolee Schneemann and a few of her films (Fuses, Snows, Body Collage, American I Ching Apple Pie, Infinity Kisses) at the Gene Siskel Center, the only thing I knew were the pictures of her performance "Interior Scroll" and the poem written on that scroll (a part of the text written on the scroll came out in the anthology Poetry for the Millennium). I found out she actually taught at UIC--she said it was her first teaching job--though I don't know that many people are aware of that over there (I'd also like to point out that her last name and my first name are derived from "snow" in German and B/C/S, respectively.) Here are some notes I took:
Daughter of a country doctor, grew up in the country.
Feminist critique/parody of feminism 1972. Self-parody 2007--nothing is sacred. Awareness of the body that looks like a model's body.
Fuses: equality in bed.
Criticized by feminists: essentialism (!). Censored (by the state?).
FBI in the 60s, fining film labs, going through garbage to find sexually explicit films.
Snows--aluminum foil--napalm--anti-war.
"The ghost of the Interior Scroll"
New sound piece: Gnarles Barkley "Crazy" intro sampled, looped, transformed.
She's concerned about copyright: "I hope Gnarles Barkley doesn't mind; he probably won't hear about this." Irony: DJ Danger Mouse and plunderphonics.
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She was great--sometimes performance art and art film can be as rock'n'roll as anything.
