Ladies, be Seated, be Served!

by Bethany Clark

This holiday season catch a sneak preview of Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Marking the 22nd anniversary of its first showing at BMA, this milestone in feminist artworks has finally been purchased by the museum. The Dinner Party will be permanently installed at the Brooklyn Museum of Art on the fourth floor in the fall of 2004. Since it’s completion in 1979, this magnificent, large-scale, extensive piece has been seen by over a million people in six countries on three continents without a place to call home.

The Dinner Party pays homage to over one thousand actual and mythological women. At the same time, the artwork acts as a symbolic historical survey of women of achievement in Western civilization. Judy Chicago began the creation of The Dinner Party in 1974. It took five years and approximately four hundred volunteers to complete. The installation consists of three primary parts: six tapestries with visionary texts, three wings which together form the triangular table of The Dinner Party, and seven Heritage panels.

"And she gathered all before her, and she made for them a sign to see, and lo they saw a vision, from this day forth like to like in all things, and then all divided then merged, and then everywhere was Eden once again;" speaks the visionary texts adorning the large tapestries that greet hungry viewers of The Dinner Party. Almost like entering a dining hall in a medieval castle, these woven and suspended banners set the tone for one most heavily researched installation piece in contemporary feminist works.

Much larger than it appears in photos, The Dinner Party’s triangular dining table is an immense and glorious sculpture. The three wings contain 39 place settings for women of achievement throughout time starting from prehistoric and ending in modern day. Each wing of the table seats 13 actual historical female figures or representations of women that can be symbolically applied to all cultures and time periods. However, Chicago logically places the women figures in a historic chronological seating order starting with wing one: from prehistory to classical Rome, to wing two: from the beginning of Christianity to the Reformation, to wing three: from the American Revolution to the Women’s Revolution. The large triangular dining table sits grandly on a porcelain iridescent tiled base on which 999 more actual and mythological women’s names are inscribed in gold. Who knew so many women were charged with the proliferation of the women’s movement? I spotted my own first name near where Chicago signs the base at the angle of the table where wings one and two meet.

Each place setting includes the proper utensils and chalice all formed out of the same porcelain iridescent material like the sculpture’s base. While these are the same for each dinner guest, each guest has their own custom made ceramic plate and embroidered runner. I would imagine it would be a difficult endeavor to visually individualize and represent 39 different actual and mythological women throughout time and cultures, however Chicago does a fantastic job. While she captures the essence of each specific woman, the artwork is unified through her use of materials (ceramic, fabric, needlework and other embroidery techniques) as well as her iconography. Chicago blends three subjects to create her own abstract vision of female: butterfly, flower and vulva. Each dinner guest’s plate is a visual impression of each woman figure’s identity and accomplishments.

Each of the dinner plates are colorfully glazed with much attention to detail. However, I thought that it was interesting that while most of the plates are two dimensional pieces some of those in the third wing become three dimensional when the abstract iconography begins to raise up off the surface. Perhaps the artist was aiming to illustrate the point that those plates closer to present times required them to become more three dimensional, like reality itself. This would hold true since many of the females seated at the first wing are the oldest and most symbolic representations, whereas the females seated at the third wing are specific historical individuals. For example, the Fertile Goddess seated second in wing one is the symbol of birth and rebirth and the source of nourishment and protection. The Fertile Goddess is seen in many cultures as different mythological or religious figures, in Greek this Goddess is known as Hera (Queen of the Sky) and in Rome, Juno (the Moon Goddess). In the third wing, individuals such as Susan B. Anthony, Margaret Sanger and Georgia O’Keefe are represented as highly sculptural pieces, as far as plates can be three dimensional.

So many intricacies of each guest’s character and persona are revealed through the traditional female craft of sewing and stitching.

Some of the more interesting plate designs include the Primordial Goddess who is the symbol of the original female being or the Earth Mother. Her plate design is warm brown rolling hill-like forms surrounding a deep blood red vertical ellipse. Trotula was an 11th century Italian physician who specialized in gynecology and obstetrics. Her plate resembles a uterus and intertwined fallopian tube-like shapes. Ethel Smyth was an English composer of orchestral and chamber music who advocated for women’s rights. Her plate is the most unusual and is a grand piano with the top propped open. Sojourner Truth’s plate is the only one to depict an actual face that resembles her heritage and an African mask. Emily Dickinson’s is portrayed very delicately as a plate of pink lace.

The embroidered runners underneath each plate provide more visual clues about the female assigned to sit at her place. The runners incorporate a multitude of embroidery and stitching techniques as well as many different kinds of textiles. Each runner has the individual’s name embroidered in gold directly where the women’s body would be if she was sitting there, below the plate and dinnerware, draped over the edge of the table. Queen Elizabeth’s runner incorporates silk, pearls and even a lavender lace circular placemat. The runners also hang over the opposite side of each wing and are not visible unless the viewer moves to another wing and looks back. This opposite side of each runner was intentionally placed in this position by Chicago to reveal something more subtle about the character. In Mary Wollstonecraft’s runner, the backside shows a highly narrative scene of her death. So many intricacies of each guest’s character and persona are revealed through the traditional female craft of sewing and stitching. Observing the backs of the runners are worthy of the viewer’s second or third lap around this enormous sculpture.

The last part of the installation is composed of seven large Heritage Panels. These panels truly spell out the thought, research and depth that went into The Dinner Party’s creation. The Heritage Panels illustrate through text, photographs, drawings, diagrams and maps exactly how each of these great women of achievement can be cross-referenced to different manifestations of women throughout cultures and time periods. Did you know that there was one female Pope who disguised herself as a man? Pope Joan died in 855 and all of her effigies, statues and shrines were destroyed when she was declared "a myth." Tituba from Massachusetts Bay Colony was a black women accused of witchcraft in the late 1600’s. She was burned at the stake for practicing herbal medicine.

In a separate room on the same floor of the exhibit is a video documentary narrated by Judy Chicago herself. In this looping video, Chicago explains the technical work that went into each place setting as well as the process of bringing together so many volunteers (including several men) to execute this project. The artist reveals conscious decisions that many viewers might miss upon first glance, such as the organization and placement of the 999 inscribed gold names on the base of the sculpture. On the back wall of this room are photographs of all the individuals who donated their time to The Dinner Party. There are brief descriptions of each volunteer’s occupation, location and the amount of time donated to the project.

Many women’s lives often go unnoticed and are difficult to see on the surface, the same is true of this immense project that so many individuals came together to create.

The Dinner Party will be on view until January 26, 2003. The Brooklyn Museum of Art is located at 200 Eastern Parkway. The museum is open Wednesdays through Fridays from 10am to 5pm, on Saturdays and Sundays it’s open from 11am to 6pm. Admission is $6.00 for adults, $3.00 for students with valid ID and older adults. Children under 12 years old are admitted for free accompanied by an adult.