Dr. Stephanie Sparling Williams reflects on the meaning of Lorraine O’Grady’s artwork
By G. M. Burns, 2021
It is a hard truth that in the last decade funding for the arts has been cut and the art world seems to have changed into the art market. And, according to iconic artist Lorraine O’Grady, “that women artists who are not attended to lose opportunities to grow. People think the critic has no function, but I beg to differ.” In the newly released book by Dr. Stephanie Sparling Williams reflecting O’Grady’s conceptual art of visual images and poetry, O’Grady’s work is highlighted and informed on with the artist’s insight.
The interview with the Ithaca Times covers the vast material of a 40-year oeuvre by a feminist conceptual artist as Williams charts the long career of O’Grady in her recent book, “Speaking Out Of Turn: Lorraine O’Grady and the Art of Language.”
Ithaca Times: You were drawn to the artwork, but what do you feel drives Lorraine O’Grady
as a visual and poetic artist? And how does she reflect the soul of a people that has been overlooked?
Dr. Stephanie Sparing Williams: My book, “Speaking Out of Turn,” sought to produce a critical dialogue around O’Grady’s work and practice in ways that examined and celebrated the artist’s innovative use of language. In the introduction and conclusion, I discuss the ways O’Grady’s art “spoke” to me on the levels of ideology and subjectivity. I found it interesting to approach a monographic study of an artist through the methods of auto-ethnography, critical theory, and phenomenology. We will hear in the reviews whether that was successful. In the meantime, I will just add that my directive emerged from what I understand as the “soul,” to use your term, of O’Grady’s work, which is its proclivity towards risk-taking. A demand, really, for all of us to take great risks in our work. Failing is productive and interesting.( … )