San Francisco media artist Jill Miller inserted herself into a seminal 1971 performance art video by John Baldessari. The original piece, itself an ironic commentary on body art, is called “I Am Making Art.” Miller’s update is dubbed “I Am Making Art Too.” As Baldessari moves through his meditative tai chi-esque motions, Miller busts a move to the Missy Elliott soundtrack she added to the clip. According to Miller, the piece raises questions about women’s roles in art history and, of course, the power of appropriation and cut-up. From an article in the New Zealand Herald:
“Women have clearly risen above the status of some painter’s odalisque,” Miller says. “But there are still huge, gaping disparities between the percentages of men to women in positions of power, like museum director positions…”By editing herself into Baldessari’s video, Miller has to negotiate the inherent male-female interactions of dancing.
“I wanted to look like an equal partner, like his contemporary, so I wore studio clothes and considered my own vision of a 70s woman artist – no hair products or makeup or overtly sexy clothes. I didn’t bathe for a few days to give my hair a limp, greasy-ish look.”
