Jill Scott

Paradise Tossed 

 It is important to note that not all feminist had the same exact ideas. This means that the art created by feminist do not concern the same issues or always agree. Jill Scott shows how the idea of feminism varies and depends on location and time just as the women themselves vary. Her approach is different because she uses interactive installations instead of having something that is just looked at. She calls on participants to choose instead of giving all the same experience. This emphasizes her idea that people are not all the same and therefore they cannot be reduced to share the same solution. Feminism is not the same for all.

Machinedreams

In her installation "Machinedreams" in 1990 Scott shows four women in different times holding  appliances. The objects are a sewing machine, a typewriter, a mixer, and a telephone; these objects are all technological innovations that have been associated with women and domesticity. The title of the installation itself "Machinedreams" tells the audience a little of the artist's intention; the images are in fact a dream that does not exist in reality. Scott also displays these same objects on pedestals alone without the women. The objects themselves are allowed to exist without the women but the women are only displayed with the object. The identity of these women and how they are seen by society rely on the objects because of the association; a woman without it has no purpose. But this is not reality, in fact it is a dream because women do exist without these objects and have purpose that goes outside the home and the roles assigned. Jill Scott sees feminism as dynamic and through this piece she shows how issues have changed because people have changed. The fights of early feminist are not the fight of the contemporary feminist because they exist in different times and places. Feminist must change as well and cannot solely concentrate on the ideas of the past.

Scott moves on from "Machinedreams" and makes "Paradise Tossed" in 1992-1993. She takes the images of paradise and jumbles them all together. Once again there are four women but they are not with a machine instead the participant gets to see their apartments. Along with the apartments the viewer can see how the home as changed throughout the years and can tell by comparing the different technology that lives in each of the apartments. The participant can touch the screen and select segments to play. You can even view four different magazine covers each associated with a time that show the images of "Machinesdreams". The result is for the participant to be able to create associations that go beyond the boundary of time. The end result is that the participant can realize the similarities in the women from different times and how redundant reality can be.

Paradise Tossed

Works Cited

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. New York, NY: Thames and Hudson, 2007. Print.

"Jill Scott." Ars Electronica . Ars Electronica Linz GmbH. Web. 20 Nov 2012. <http://90.146.8.18/en/personen_page.asp?iPersonID=161>.

Gilles, John. "Jill Scott." Scanlines. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov 2012. <http://scanlines.net/person/jill-scott>.