Dear Chancellor Cantor, Vice-Chancellor Spina:
Jeffrey Hoone is circulating his "defense" of the COME ON exhibition to Matthew R. Snyder, Director of Communications and Media Relations Syracuse University Division of Student Affairs, sent Aug. 22, 2007. Hoone’s release of these e-mails reveals that University officials were uptight about the exhibition and had begun their efforts to censor Suparak.
In his ‘defense’ to Snyder, Hoone recycles the words of Astria Suparak, used in her defense of the exhibition Hoone had demanded of her one month earlier.
Note in the correspondence below that Hoone makes Suparak justify her exhibition, down to artworks chosen and the title of the show. Hoone does this one month before the exhibition's opening date, subsequently delaying all production of the exhibition; this after he announced to The Warehouse Gallery staff that they will report directly to Domenic Iacono, rather than to him (the beginning of the ‘restructuring’ Hoone deemed necessary to exert his control over the Warehouse Gallery).
I offer this correspondence between Hoone and Suparak to point out that the University was involved in censoring Suparak through the actions of her supervisor, Jeffrey Hoone, the Executive Director of CMAC. As has been pointed out repeatedly, CMAC has no board of directors, nor has CMAC any by-laws governing the behavior of its executive. In this case Hoone was obstructing Suparak’s efforts to mount a show he characterized as “weak” in his self-appointed role of Uber-curator. This correspondence also offers a glimpse of Hoone’s management style.
Please read the correspondence below. After considering this documentation of Hoone and Suparak’s discourse over “the Female Gaze show” (COME ON: desire under the female gaze), it should become clear that the University has been involved in censoring Astria Suparak through the unchecked administrative actions of Jeffrey Hoone. I ask that the Administration of SU reverse Hoone’s decision to dismiss Ms. Suparak from the Warehouse Gallery and Syracuse University.
Respectfully,
Tom Sherman
Professor, Art Video
Department of Transmedia
Syracuse University
Addenda:
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeffrey Joseph Hoone [mailto:jjhoone@syr.edu]
Sent: Thu 7/19/2007 11:23 PM
To: director@thewarehousegallery.org
Cc: Domenic Iacono
Subject: RE: Drawings by Juliet Jacobson
Astria,
We are going to have to do quite a bit of work to provide a context
and rationalization for exhibiting these pieces. Because she is a
young artist right out of graduate school, and that the work will be
clearly offensive to a good number of people, won't make it any
easier, or wether it is a risk worth taking.
These images will be a challenge for sophistacated art lovers, off
limits to any school groups, and certainily seen as controversial by
many. In making selections for this three person exhibition please let
me know how you considered the challenges of including these images
within the context of the gallery's goal of "engaging the community in
important issues." Your response should include a statement of
curatorial justification, and how the works are indespensible in a
three-person exhibition; plans for contextualizing the work and
presenting it to the media, and alerting gallery goers about the
explicit nature of the work. I would like to receive these materials
by Monday and then to meet with Domenic to dicuss how to move forward.
At that time we can also discuss the exhibition title to help clarify
and contextualize the exhibition. It is unfortunate that you chose to
send out the title of the exhibition before we concluded our
discussions about the wording. This is not how I had hoped to start
off the new year, but I look forward to receiving the materials I
requested and moving forward. Also please send the materials to
Domenic.
Jeff
Jeffrey Hoone
Executive Director Light Work
Executive Director Coalition of Museum and Art Centers (CMAC)
Syracuse University
316 Waverly Avenue
Syracuse, New York 13244
(315) 443-1300
jjhoone@syr.edu
www.lightwork.org
http://cmac.syr.edu/
-----Original Message-----
From: Astria Suparak
Sent: Sat 7/21/2007 12:42 PM
To: Jeffrey Joseph Hoone; director@thewarehousegallery.org
Cc: Domenic Iacono
Subject: Materials on the next exhibition at The Warehouse Gallery
Jeff and Domenic,
Attached you will find the written materials requested by Jeff.
I would like to meet on Tuesday afternoon to discuss final details for
the exhibition title.
Astria Suparak
Director, The Warehouse Gallery at Syracuse University
350 West Fayette St, Syracuse, NY 13202 USA
T: 315-443-6450 F: 315-443-6494
http://www.thewarehousegallery.org
The Warehouse Gallery's next exhibition, which I will refer to as The Female Gaze in this text, deals with the significant issues of gender and sexuality. Every day problematic imagery related to these areas are publicly displayed on television and in advertising and the news. In university environments, entire programs and courses revolve around these topics. Yet in Central New York, homosexual sex and explicit female desire are treated almost like taboos and are barely visible. These issues are important markers of our time.
The intention of this exhibition is not to shock people. It is to provide a springboard for discussion, to reveal what is not represented in popular culture, and to help balance out the overbearing imagery created by and for heterosexual males.
In the simplest understanding, this exhibition offers a reversal of what we see all the time: the sexualized, "available" female body. Nude or nearly nude female figures are witnessed daily by all age groups, across the world, via TV commercials, weekly newspapers and magazine ads, internet pop-ups, car adornments, and other outlets of mass culture. Even in the narrowest conception of art, or in the most classical reading of art history, the naked female form created for
male viewers reigns. A modern example: SU Art Galleries recently exhibited a painting by Mel Ramos depicting a heavily-bosomed nude woman behind a stag, playing on the slang term for breasts, "rack". The Female Gaze may be shocking to some simply because it provides images which are not commonly available. Each of us must endure depictions of the sexualized, passive female regularly. But the sexualized, passive male is suppressed, and suspiciously absent. The
male gaze viewing females as sex objects is expected and normalized. But the female gaze viewing males as sex objects is still considered deviant in 2007. This is one reason why using the activated term, "sexualizing" in the title of this exhibition is important; It focuses attention on the female enacting the sexual advance.
Within the downtown Syracuse community, three blocks from The Warehouse Gallery, are a gay bar (Rain), a gay dance club (Trexx), and a gay spa (Clinton St. Spa) that have no windows into their spaces, unlike their heterosexual counterparts. There isn't even visible signage on the street, in one case. The homosexual lifestyle continues to be treated as something that needs to be hidden, yet every day we are forced to observe expressions of heterosexuality. In The Female
Gaze, the delicate drawings of Juliet Jacobson disclose what is not represented in the open, through her loving depictions of interracial, homosexual male lovers.
Including work by three artists in this exhibition allows a multitude of ideas, experiences, and perspectives on the topic of female sexuality, as viewed by women artists in their late 20s through mid 30s, encompassing Third-wave Feminism. This carefully considered selection includes diverse media, imagery, formats, and practices, without overcrowding the space needed to contemplate these issues.
Rachel Rampleman, originally from the South, exhibits a video interview with traditional framing and structure, describing the idolization of a man, the fantasy and anticipation leading up to a
meeting, and the ensuing disappointment in the desired object's sexual skills. On view from Canadian Jo-Anne Balcaen are text based works, such as juxtaposed dictionary definitions which question the gendering of and the cultural baggage assigned to romantic phrases. Balcaen also
displays minimalist, abstract sculpture created out of balloons which points to the commercialization of courtship, the expectations of enjoyment, and the temporality of emotions like happiness.
From the West Coast, Juliet Jacobson's drawings are the only works in this exhibition that visually or realistically portray the male body. I realize the subjects that Jacobson represents will be difficult for some people. In large part, this will be because homosexual lovemaking is not portrayed as frequently as is the heterosexual act. This will also be due to the poorly represented perspective of the female gaze. Jacobson's drawings are the most literal illustration of the curatorial idea that there is a dearth of articulated female desire and a lack of sexualized, passive male bodies in mass culture and in the arts. Significantly, these complex works also speak to other interests and ideas. In a symbol set strongly grounded in the history of art, these densely composed, finely rendered drawings meditate upon life, generation and creativity, fragility, intimacy, love, vanity, morality, identity, alienation, universality, nature, death, eternity, and many other rich topics deeply tied to art history, literature, and current, critical issues in Central New York and beyond.
This exhibition addresses the psychological, social, cultural, and political dimensions of female desire, subjectivity, and pleasure. The three artists chosen for The Female Gaze are integral to adequately address the complexity inherent in this subject matter, providing a variety in art viewing experiences for our visitors, yet still maintaining a cohesive exhibition experience. This exhibition has the potential to expose any latent sexism and homophobia in a community that is accustomed to viewing sexualized female bodies but not sexualized male bodies, and displays of heterosexual love, but not homosexual love.
The questions this exhibition raises are:
- Why is "slut" such a bad term, and "stud" a positive one?
(Or, why is female desire considered deviant, whereas male desire is expected and excused of good manners, under rhetoric like, "boys will be boys"?)
- Do women and men feel differently about sex?
(Or, is there an essentialist difference between male and female sexuality?)
- Why is violent imagery more acceptable than that of consensual, loving sex?
- What are the relations between love and sex, if any?
WAYS IN WHICH THE GALLERY WILL NOTIFY VISITORS OF THE EXPLICIT NATURE
OF THE WORK:
- In the title of the exhibition.
The title will include a term such as "Sexualizing" or "Sex" to clearly indicate this subject matter.
- In the imagery of the publicity materials.
The postcard design, large window banner, outdoor sign, and press release will include a detail from Jacobson's drawings that indicate there are nude males in sexual situations. These images will not reveal genitalia, but may include kissing and bare male chests. See attached image.
- In additional signage.
Placed in the front gallery foyer and at the back entrance, visitors will be greeted with a free-standing sign that reads:
Attention: This exhibition contains renderings of human anatomy and sexuality.
HOW WE WILL PRESENT THE EXHIBITION TO THE MEDIA:
. The press release, email announcements, and other publicity materials will indicate the graphic nature of the works and the importance and relevance of these issues in a society that considers itself equal opportunity, not sexist, not homophobic, and not racist.
. The work will be contextualized in the realms of mass media imagery, art history, feminism, and major contemporary art exhibitions like WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution at the Geffen Contemporary at L.A.'s MOCA and Global Feminisms at the Brooklyn Museum.
OTHER ISSUES:
The work will be accompanied by labels about the artists' intentions.
Because we've had many school groups visit The Warehouse Gallery's exhibitions in the past and will continue to host them in the future, we do not find that having one exhibition in which young children cannot attend a detriment. On average, we host about two visits per exhibition by this age group.
We may consider putting together a teaching aid with one of the Syracuse University courses relevant to this exhibition:
. ETS 441 Studies in Psychological Theories of Representation
. SOC 400 Selected Topics: Politics of Sexuality
. SOC 305 Sociology of Sex and Gender
. CRS 614/WSP 615 Communication, Power, and Gender
. WSP/SOC 435 Sexual Politics
. WSP 449 Women in Art
. ETS 360 Reading Gender and Sexualities
. SOC 305 Sociology of Sex Roles
. Ann Demo, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies spoke to us last week about her Fall 2007 course on the female gaze, and its relation to this exhibition.
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeffrey Joseph Hoone
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2007 11:59 AM
To: Astria Suparak; director@thewarehousegallery.org
Cc: Domenic Iacono
Subject: RE: Materials on the next exhibition at The Warehouse Gallery
Astria,
Attached are my comments concerning the exhibition Aw C'mon:
Sexualizing the Female Gaze to be discussed at our meeting with
Domenic on Tuesday.
Jeff
Jeffrey Hoone
Executive Director Light Work
Executive Director Coalition of Museum and Art Centers (CMAC)
Syracuse University
316 Waverly Avenue
Syracuse, New York 13244
(315) 443-1300
jjhoone@syr.edu
www.lightwork.org
http://cmac.syr.edu/
[Attachment]
Astria,
Your description of the proposed exhibition “Aw, C’mon: Sexualizing the Female Gaze” at the Warehouse Gallery” lacks the clarity and curatorial focus necessary to engage the audience in the important and complex issues of gender, sexuality and female desire.
The subtitle of the exhibition suggests that the exhibition will attempt to examine sexual desire from a female perspective as a response to the long history in art and culture of representing the female body as the object of the male gaze. Your description of the curatorial premise of the exhibition seems to want to encompass several topics relating to sexual representation. Sometimes you state that the topic is female sexuality and then also include male homosexual sex and rationale about gay bars without windows in downtown Syracuse as a premise for the exhibition. It feels like you are trying to make a statement about a topic you find of interest and using the artists to make your point. This is a problematic curatorial practice that I have discussed with you previously with the Glam Rock exhibition proposal.
What I expect, and have stated on numerous occasions, is that sound curatorial practice begins and ends with the process of illuminating and providing a context for the artists work so that the audience is better able to understand and appreciate their contribution to the ongoing dialogue of contemporary art practice.
You state in your description of the exhibition that, “homosexual lovemaking is not portrayed as frequently as is the heterosexual act. This will also be due to the poorly represented perspective of the female gaze. Jacobson's drawings are the most literal illustration of the curatorial idea that there is a dearth of articulated female desire and a lack of sexualized, passive male bodies in mass culture and in the arts.” I’m not sure how the lack of representation of homosexual lovemaking in art and culture is due to the poor representation of the female gaze. But you also include a laundry list of issues that you hope might also be raised by Jacobson’s work in particular, which furthers stretches the credibility of the intentions and capability of the exhibition. I’m also not sure how “Balancing out the overbearing imagery created by and for heterosexual males,” by countering it with images made by women viewing males as sex objects, accomplishes very much. It seems more like equal opportunity exploitation rather than an opportunity for a complex examination of desire and sexuality.
I also find it problematic that you use the painting by Mel Ramos included in an exhibition at the SUArt Galleries as an example of how “the female form created for male viewers reigns.” The painting was included in an exhibition of POP ART from the Galleries’ collection. The intent of many of the artists in the exhibition is to comment on and critique popular culture. Within that context Ramos’s painting can be viewed as critiquing the historical view of women as sex objects, or in the least raising those questions in the viewers mind. That you used this painting as the only example of how you see “the naked female form created for the male viewers reigns” is a very narrow perspective. I actually could see this painting included in an exhibition about the female gaze to create a more complex dialogue about sexual representation.
You mention that the exhibition will be contextualized within the realm of two recent exhibitions WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, and Global Feminisms. WACK ART was an historical exhibition ending in 1985 and both exhibitions were much larger and comprehensive that what is proposed. There are many artists included in Global Feminisms that could have been included in an exhibition here to introduce the CNY audience to important artists dealing with issues of gender, sexuality and representation including Catherine Opie, Kara Walker, Sam Taylor-Wood and others. You mention that the three artists you selected for the exhibition are all in their late 20s to early 30s and represent “Third –Wave Feminism” yet never elaborate on what that might mean. If indeed this is a movement or informed contemporary art practice this could be explored as a unifying theme for an exhibition. The current selection of the three artists and your multiple explanations of the variety of topics that unify their work is confusing and disjointed.
In describing how the exhibition will be presented to the public and the media you state that none of the public material including banners, outdoor signage, invitations and press images will contain genitalia. Yet it looks like there is exposed genitalia in the mock-up for the postcard you intend to send out as an announcement for the exhibition. This is clearly not something we can send out in the mail as a postcard.
In developing the mission and vision for the Warehouse Gallery as a space to exhibit contemporary art that engages the public in a dialogue about important issues of our life and times it would be expected that we address issues, idea, and images that would at times be challenging for the audience. In order to accomplish this successfully it is important that we approach such ideas and imagery with sound reasoning, thoughtful interpretation, and adequate context. I don’t feel that this has been accomplished for this exhibition and I look forward to meeting with you and Domenic on Tuesday to address these concerns.
Jeff
-----Original Message-----
From: Astria Suparak
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2007 1:33 PM
To: Jeffrey Joseph Hoone; Astria
Cc: Domenic Iacono; Frank Olive
Subject: Meeting Tuesday at TWG, 2pm?
Hello Domenic, Jeff, and Frank,
Are you able to meet at 2pm on Tuesday at the Warehouse Community Classroom?
Jeff, in order for me to better answer your questions, I need to know
whether you are asking me to defend the exhibition of these works at
this moment for you, or for the presentation of the exhibition to the
community.
The gallery has made agreements and arrangements with the artists to
exhibit their work beginning August 23rd. Other University departments
have booked artist lectures.
I am fully invested in this exhibition happening. We need to figure
out how to work together to make this work for all of us involved.
We can discuss these issues tomorrow at the meeting, or you can
respond via email.
Astria Suparak
Director, The Warehouse Gallery
350 West Fayette St, Syracuse, NY 13202 USA
T: 315-443-6450 F: 315-443-6494
http://www.thewarehousegallery.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeffrey Joseph Hoone
Sent: Mon 7/23/2007 2:17 PM
To: Astria Suparak; 'Astria'
Cc: Domenic Iacono; 'Frank Olive'
Subject: RE: Meeting Tuesday at TWG, 2pm?
Astria,
Presenting exhibitions of controversial work is challenging under the
best of circumstances. Those best circumstances include strong
curatorial justification, a reasoned contextual framework, and
compelling interpretive materials and programs. As I have stated "The
Female Gaze" is a weak and seriously flawed exhibition that also
contains controversial work that we will have to defend from this
point of weakness.
What we need to discuss tomorrow are options that include.
1. Cancelling or postponing the exhibition.
2. Moving forward with an exhibition that even despite the
controversial nature of some of the work is a curatorial thin
exhibition.
3. Changes or improvements that can be made in a short period of time
to improve the quality of the exhibition, its contextual framework,
and it interpretive materials and programs.
There are certainly problems with all three options and I look forward
to discussing them tomorrow.
Jeff
