Analysis: The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago
Whilst researching into artists who create, or created, room-like installations, I came across 'The Dinner Party' by Judy Chicago and was struck with how it looks eerily close to the idea I had come up with. Though where Chicago celebrates femininity and feminism in an elaborate embroidered banquet, I want mine to resemble a family home and reveal things about family life with a minimalist setting, making our works completely different. I really like 'The Dinner Party' it's a really inspiring piece and makes me proud of the women depicted and how far they have come to make the world better for future generations.
In 1979, Chicago unveiled an installation that is regarded as 'the first epic feminist artwork'. The piece consists of 39 place settings arranged around a triangular table, each place celebrated a different inspirational historic female figure from prehistoric times right through to the women's revolution. Each woman was given a seat, a place setting with her name and symbols of her accomplishments embroidered on a table runner. Chicago then had hand-made and painted china plates, each have a flower painted on that strongly resembles a vulva.
Flowers have long been associated with female sexuality and femininity and the marks are shown throughout literature, art and history so where this symbolism may seem cliche, it's part of Chicago's plan to relate back to history to celebrate resilient women throughout time. Though where the imagery and connotation of flowers are usually presented in a derogatory way, Chicago uses them to reflect the social movements of the time. The contraceptive pill was released to all women, regardless of martial status, in 1967 and the result was the Women's Rights Sexual Revolution that ran from the late 60's and the majority of the 70's as women gained more control over their reproductive systems and could shape their futures however they wanted. This movement had a lot of support during the five years Chicago took to create everything for this installation and that, I believe, is very clear in the plates.
Others have claimed the plates look like insects or butterflies mixed with the image of female genitalia which links into a different but equally empowering interpretation. Chicago chose women she felt had been ignored by history creating a kind of comparison of that the time a caterpillar spends in a cocoon, waiting to break out. In this metaphor, her celebration of the selected women would be the butterfly breaking out of the cocoon and gaining the recognition and esteem they deserve. Butterflies also have connotations of beauty and suggests Chicago thinks what each women did is a kind of beauty that needs celebrating.
Regardless of the interpretation, the piece was met with a lot of praise and enthusiasm for celebrating women through history, but it also received backlash from the supposedly pornographic imagery on the plates. This marks the divide in attitudes and shows the more conservative and less liberated views that met the women's emancipation, whilst showing the more radical and provocative side of the piece.
The table is set out in an equilateral triangle and though this seems unimportant, I think the shaping is very deliberate on Chicago's part. There are 13 women on each side of the triangle, making the 39 which creates a sense of balance and equality as if to say all the women represented are of equal worth and celebration. There's a beautiful sense of equality and that really comes through the shape. It's every feminists dream.
Though Chicago initially shunned and avoided work that was traditionally associated with women, like needlework and china painting, she then decided to honour them in 'The Dinner Party'. Chicago also exhibited preparatory drawings of the plates and table runners which went under a lot of changes. She even made pieces along side the installation as a kind of catharsis a lot featuring broken porcelain tiles. She used this as a method of how to use china paint and to release frustration of the lack of women's representation in history. Chicago even made 999 additional tiles with women's names inscribed along with the cutlery, chalices and chairs. She enlisted people to help as the sheer scale of the piece increased, the more time and research she spent on it. Chicago found 400 women and men to help her and this collaboration reflects on how for things like feminism to advance, we need a whole network of people working together. This again links into the timing of the piece as women banded together to demand change, I think there's a beauty in the teamwork and knowing that so many people helped out with this project makes it really powerful.
The work is very iconic and has become the 'poster-child' of feminist art, though it does have its issues. The piece seems to neglect minority groups and focuses more on white western women. The only woman who doesn't fit this description is Sojourner Truth who was a woman's right activist and abolitionist. Nowadays, one would hope that the selection of women would be more diverse, but I think this is part of Chicago's plan. She invites us to question who we would put at our dinner party of inspirational women, who we'd leave out and so on. This piece is a celebration yes, but it's also a suggestion of the millions of untold stories from unknown women throughout time, who deserve to be celebrated.