Slippery Signifiers in Gayle Weitzâ€™s Foxy, Chickenhearted, and Harebrained Humananimals

Deborah L. Smith-Shank; Gayle Marie Weitz

Deborah L. Smith-Shank The Ohio State University
Gayle Marie Weitz Seton Hill University

Abstract

Deborah L. Smith-Shank with contributions by Gayle M. Weitz

Gayle Marie Weitz is an artist and educator whose large scale, fantastic creatures, which she calls â€œhumananimalsâ€ engage the child-me, and take me to a place of charm and peace where animals can speak English, play games, and share their wisdom. This is a place of dreams where nobody hurts, hunts, hungers, or yells except in joy. This is a place of simplicity and acceptance surrounded by wonder. These humananimals accept my child-self just as I accept them unconditionally.

The grownup me steeped in visual culture critique and feminist theory has a little more trouble. I canâ€™t escape the baggage that has been acquired over years of living within the multiple discourses of identity and I suspect that there is more to these animals than meets my childselfâ€™s naÃ¯ve longing for peace, playmates, and security.

In Humananimals, the series of 12 adult-size carved, painted, and collaged cabinet-sculptures, Weitz invites us to question not only the humananimalsâ€™ identities, but our own. (See Figure 1.) What are the typical stereotypes we bring to the interaction with others? Are we what we wear? Are we what we do? Are we our gender, race, class, ethnic background? And what self-knowledge do we bring to our encounters with others?

Author Biographies

Deborah L. Smith-Shank, The Ohio State University

Deborah L. Smith-Shank received a Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1992, and serves as Chair of Arts Administration, Education and Policy at The Ohio State University. She is also Emeritus Professor of Art at Northern Illinois University where she served as Head of the Art Education program. Smith-Shank has taught K-12 art, as well as undergraduate and graduate students for over 30 years. Her research is involved with artifacts of visual / material culture and social justice examined through semiotic and feminist lenses and has published over 100 journal articles, book chapters, and books. Smith-Shank currently serves as elected Vice President of the International Society for Education Through Art (http://www.insea.org/) and is co-editor and founder of the journal of Visual Culture & Gender, an international, freely accessed, multimedia juried journal (http://www.emitto.net/visualculturegender). Contact the author at smithshank.1@osu.edu

Gayle Marie Weitz, Seton Hill University

Gayle Marie Weitz received a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1994, and currently serves as Coordinator of Art Education at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA. She was also Professor of Art at Appalachian State University where she served as Founder and Director of the Community Arts School, Head of the Art Education program, and Chair of the Faculty Senate. Weitz has taught K-12 art, as well as undergraduate and graduate students for more than 30 years. Her award-winning cabinets have been shown in hundreds of museums and galleries and publications across the country. Currently she is working on two series: Clothesline, which addresses the exploitative practices of many textile industries in third world countries, and KitschÂ¹n Folk, which addresses major diseases associated with poor lifestyle choices. Contact her at weitz@setonhill.edu