Harmony Hammond Lecture

Hammond was an excellent speaker and knew exactly how to get her thoughts and ideas across to the audience. I was especially interested in her work that contributed to the feminist movement and her work on gay rights. The burden of representation, that Hammond described was something that spoke volumes. Her involvement in trying to express women's views and the oppression of women through her art was extremely moving and apparent in her work. To me, this was shown most specificall in the artwork using fabric and textile materials. Being that fabric and the textile industry have been steriotypically a woman's field of work only added to the inrony of her work. In dealing with gay rights, there was a particluar thing she mentioned that was astondingly accurate: she inserted the queer conciousness where it was unwanted (the piece responding to the hate crime). This is something that struck me. Being gay is just that- a sort of forcing, if you will, of this unwanted identity and culture on the unwanting majority. Unfotunately women are still at a disadvantage in mainstream society and gays are even more so. I couldn't have agreed with her more on her ideas and representation of women and gays (more specifically lesbains). {since I can probably go on forever talking about oppression and unequal rights I will stop here :) } Excelent lecture.