Amazing. I'm really, really impressed with your analysis and coverage of this artist, and thank you so much for bringing her work to my attention and everyone else's.
Thank you for your insightful and mezmerizing reasoning through the labrynth of unreasonable emotions. I was so saddened by the beautiful faces and depravating desperation of the modal that I nearly broke down and cried.
I don't know that it's an academic vs. nonacademic thing, really. I think the issue is really one of context - I suspect Jones saw the pictures and knew little else about the artist. Without the information imparted in this article, I might have had misgivings about the work as well. Now, I think it's far more intriguing.
Come on, cheesecake photos are often taken in "grungy" enviroments. How is this or the fact that the car is dismantled "an in house joke"? How is this breaking the code? You (and I) like her art, that old fuddy-duddy doesn't. Big deal.
Jones does not take the photographs to "stand in for the entire project." Let's quote her more fully and fairly: "Cohen's work is part of a larger project, BODYWORK, which involved her simultaneous transformation of her body (via a personal trainer) into a biking model and rebuilding of a German Trabant into a lowrider American car; the results are entered into lowrider competitions. While the work is conceptually interesting in Cohen's co-articulation of herself as a car customizer and bikini model (the "masculine" and "feminine" positions conflated in one subject), both positions are resolutely normative...." Jones is commenting on BODYWORK, not on the photos alone nor on what Jen calls some "far larger project that spans Cohen's career," whatever that is. Jen, more clarity re your use of "project" would have improved your article.
what's funny is that i see the same things and come to a different conclusion. one example: the inside joke. if you don't know about this, it seems to reinforce the idea that women don't know much about cars -- because look what's she's doing!
DVNS: Jones's basis for understanding the nature of the positions Cohen is inhabiting is based on her understanding of the photographs, which I believe is limited and shortsighted.
BODYWORK starts from the real-world binarism and normativity of car cultureof its female models and its male customizers.
But in the photographs, performances, and videos, Cohen inhabits those positions highly imperfectly and uneasily. Just as she builds a vehicle that toggles between two models of cars (the Trabant and the El Camino) that failed in their functions and have been discontinued on the market, so she associates her performance of binaristic models of gender with the outdated and the impossible.
Lots of reaching. For example, the El Camino was built from 1964-1987, a hell of a run. And it's extremely popular with car enthusiasts. And it's coming back: http://jalopnik.com/366699/2010-pontiac-g8-sport-truck-the-el-camino-is-back: "A few weeks ago we, along with our friends at PickupTruck.com, were given exclusive access to a vehicle whose return we've been anticipating for what seems like forever. Today our prayers to the General have been answered the El Camino is back!" But here's the greatest reaching: "It's hard to fathom such a misreading by such an experienced mind." Over the top, Jen.
DVNMS: This news about the new El Camino is wild, but it's only six months old and doesn't negate the whole failed-function history of the El Camino, despite its being a cult hit. At this point I think you're reaching a little, too, but I really appreciate the back-and-forth with you. You've made me think harder. Thanks.
Tracy
BODYWORK starts from the real-world binarism and normativity of car cultureof its female models and its male customizers.
But in the photographs, performances, and videos, Cohen inhabits those positions highly imperfectly and uneasily. Just as she builds a vehicle that toggles between two models of cars (the Trabant and the El Camino) that failed in their functions and have been discontinued on the market, so she associates her performance of binaristic models of gender with the outdated and the impossible.