Karen Finley is an american performance artist, author, and playwright. She has a crazy mix of different styles. Some themes I would describe her art would be outrageous, pain, suicide, sexual abuse, humor and female sexuality. She is known for breaking the rules and not giving a damn.
Humor
She wrote a funny play about President Bush and how Martha Stewart found out that Osama Bin Laden was hiding in Bush's rectum. Basically, she was stating that Bush's ideas were up his ass, shitty.
Issues
Issue in her life. Her bipolar father was the dominate leader in her household. He had the power in every decision. Later, he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head and she also got a divorce with her husband. So she has some issue with men, which shows a lot in her work.
Abuse
She had a performance called "We Keep Our Victims Ready"(inspired by Tawana) where she where smeared her body in chocolate because she said that women are treated like shit, then she covered herself in candy hearts because she said that women become more loved when they are belittled, next she covered herself in bean sprouts because she said it smelled like semen and looked like it too(?), and finally she wrapped tinsel around herself to symbolize how no matter how a woman is badly treated, she still has to get dress for dinner. Basically saying that women have to act like nothings happen and it's all just normal.
One of her books that she made for her daughter is new style of Winnie the Pooh, called
Pooh Unplugged
Winnie has a serious eating disorder.
Tigger is manic depression disorder, where he is a maniac one minute and depressed the next.
Piglett has esteem issues
The book is about sexual fantasies and greed. This women seems kind of crazy for writing this book for her daughter.
Shut up and Love Me
She came up with this idea when her daughter ask to be tucked in for bed and Finley said "Are you ready for bed, honey?" Then she got the idea to do a photo shoot in honey. She was portraying love, sweetness, and affection, but some of the the pictures looked like she was trapped. I'm getting mixed feelings about this art work of hers.
She was portraying love, sweetness, and affection.
Reasons
Some of the reasons for her 'abused women' artwork are:
- Her father being the dominant leader in the house
- Her favorite childhood TV shows being "I Dream of Genie" and "Bewitched" where women were not allowed to use their powers
This lady has many threats and criticism against her and she likes it. It makes her feel like she is on the edge.
