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Chambre noire Handout for teachers by Rotondes - Laure Schreiner

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Chambre noire 22.11.19 >10:00 & 19:00

by Yngvild Aspeli & Paola Rizza / based on the novel Dreamfactories by Sara Stridsberg

Duration: 65’ Age: 16+ Performed in English

Table of contents Introduction Getting to know…

Part I: Analysis of themes The puppet and the artist Andy Warhol and the ‘Nothing Art’

Part II: Analysis of scenes Scene 1 – The fragmented child Scene 2 – The fragmented woman Scene 3 – The liberated female?

Part III: Tasks for students Task 1 – Double act Task 2 – Raising voices Task 3 – Camera Obscura

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Introduction Welcome to Chambre Noire… Yngvild Aspeli’s mesmerizing one-woman puppet show about Valerie Jean Solanas’ life, the woman who wrote SCUM and shot Andy Warhol, is sure to have you on a string. Aspeli’s skillful, forceful interpretation of Solanas’s unsettling and controversial life story will keep you oscillating between genuine compassion and utter bewilderment. Having been both the prostitute and the intellectual, the offender and the victim, the accused and the accuser, Solanas rocked between extremes. Her all-consuming rage towards gendered injustices, and the sexual abuse she suffered as a child, led her into a twilight zone of passion and violence. She continuously shapeshifted between a warrior for social justice and a cultural iconoclast but in the end, only the ghost of a mentally and physically fragmented woman lingers on. Aspeli’s play Chambre Noire, her camera obscura so to speak, sheds new light onto this often misrepresented character. Instead of presenting the usual prejudiced view of the hysterical woman who shot Andy Warhol, out of the darkness she reveals to us a different image. The image of a fascinating, yet deeply traumatized lesbian woman at the centre of a tale of survival, revolutionary spirit and radical feminist vision can serve as a potent reminder of the precarious sexual dynamics and discrimination many women still face today. As the play deals with complex subject matters, a thorough preparation before the show and an in-depth discussion afterwards will be beneficial to your students. This handout offers a point of access into Aspeli’s artistic rendering of Solanas’s life story. Use it as an explanatory text, offering an analytical framework on which to base further analysis and interpretation. Part 1 should make you critically aware of some of the play’s underlying themes and

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their artistic visualizations. Part 2 should help you address some of the play’s more sensitive scenes. Both Part 1 and Part 2 can be used in preparation before watching the show in order to familiarise students with the play’s subject matters and guide their understanding of its main character. Finally, Part 3 suggests role play activities which can be used in class (before and after the show) to further explore specific themes. Your Rotondes Team If you wish to send us your feedback, feel free to use the following email address: scolaires@rotondes.lu

Getting to know … Sara Stridsberg comes from Sweden and is the author of the novel Drömfakulteten (Dreamfactories) which she published in 2006 and for which she received the Grand Prix de Littérature du Conseil Nordique. The novel centers on Valerie Solanas’s life story. Since May 2016, Sara Stridsberg has been a member of the Swedish Academy.1 Yngvild Aspeli is a Norwegian puppeteer, actor and director, who was trained at the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq and the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts de la Marionnette de Charleville-Mézières (ESNAM) in France. In 2008 she launched her theatre company Plexus Polaire which often tours around Europe. Her play Chambre Noire, which is based on Sara Stridsberg’s novel Drömfakulteten, was first presented at the Festival Mondial des théâtres de marionnettes de Charleville-Mézières.2

1 Wikipedia, (2018). Sara Stridsberg. [online] Available at: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_Stridsberg [Accessed July 3, 2019]. 2 Plexus Polaire, (2019). Yngvild Aspeli. [online] Available at: http://www.plexuspolaire.com/about/ [Accessed July 3, 2019].

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Valerie Jean Solanas (April 9, 1936 – April 25, 1988) was an American radical feminist and author best known for writing the SCUM Manifesto which she self-published in 1967, and for famously attempting to murder Andy Warhol in 1968. Solanas had a turbulent childhood. She said her father regularly sexually abused her and she had a volatile relationship with her mother and stepfather after her parents' divorce. She was sent to live with her grandparents but ran away after being physically abused by her alcoholic grandfather. Solanas came out as a lesbian in the 1950s. After graduating with a degree in psychology from the University of Maryland, Solanas relocated to Berkeley, California, where she began writing her most notable work, the SCUM Manifesto which urged women to “overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and eliminate the male sex”. Solanas moved to New York City in the mid-1960s. She met pop artist Andy Warhol and asked him to produce her play Up Your Ass. She gave him her script which she later accused him of losing or stealing. After Solanas demanded financial compensation for the lost script, Warhol hired her to perform in his film, I, a Man, paying her $25. Olympia Press owner Maurice Girodias offered to publish Solanas's future writings, and she understood the contract to mean that Girodias would own her writing. Convinced that Girodias and Warhol were conspiring to steal her work, Solanas purchased a gun in early 1968. On June 3, 1968, she went to The Factory, Andy Warhol’s New York studio, where she found Warhol. She shot at Warhol three times, the first two shots missing and the third wounding him. She also shot art critic Mario Amaya and attempted to shoot Warhol's manager, Fred Hughes, point blank, but the gun jammed. Solanas then turned herself in to the police. She was charged with attempted murder, assault, and illegal

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possession of a gun. She was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and pleaded guilty to "reckless assault with intent to harm", serving a three-year prison sentence, including treatment in a psychiatric hospital. After her release, she continued to promote the SCUM Manifesto. She died in 1988 of pneumonia in San Francisco.3 Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 – August 4, 1962) was an American actress, model, and singer. Famous for playing comic "blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and was emblematic of the era's attitudes towards sexuality. More than half a century after her unexpected death in 1962, she continues to be a major popular culture icon. Norma’s childhood was turbulent. Her mother Gladys had a mental breakdown and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. She spent the rest of her life in and out of hospitals and was rarely in contact with Monroe. Monroe became a ward of the state. In the following four years, she lived with several foster families and often switched schools. While living with one of her foster families, the Atkinsons, she was sexually abused. Having always been a shy girl, she then developed a stutter and became withdrawn. She switched foster families often and was finally placed in the Los Angeles Orphans Home in Hollywood in September 1935. While the orphanage was "a model institution" and was described in positive terms by her peers, Monroe found being placed there traumatizing, as "it seemed that no one wanted [her]." In 1936, a former friend of her mother’s, Grace Goddard, became her legal guardian. In 1937, Monroe left the orphanage in order to stay with Grace. However, Monroe's stay with the Goddards lasted only a few months because Grace’s husband molested her. After staying with

3 Wikipedia, (2019). Valerie Solanas. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Solanas [Accessed July 3, 2019].

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several of her relatives and Grace's friends and relatives in Los Angeles, Monroe found a more permanent home in September 1938, when she began living with Grace's aunt, Ana Atchinson Lower.4

Andy Warhol (born Andrew Warhola; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American artist, director and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture that flourished by the 1960s, and span a variety of media, including painting, silk-screening, photography, film, and sculpture.5

4 Wikipedia, (2019). Marilyn Monroe. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Monroe [Accessed July 3, 2019]. 5 Wikipedia, (2019). Andy Warhol. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Warhol [Accessed July 3, 2019].

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Part I: Analysis of themes The puppet and the artist The puppet remains a potent collective childhood memory. For children it’s natural to play with an inanimate object. It is also (by modern psychological standards) a healthy feature of a child’s growth to unconsciously project their own desires and emotions onto a toy. However, in adult life, new symbolic layers and darker connotations of manipulation and objectification have been attributed to the puppet. This gives the ‘puppet’ an uncanny double layer of meaning: on the one hand it isan innocent toy, while on the other it represents dark psychological forces. This duality is fully exploited by Yngvild Aspeli in her play Chambre Noire. The actress/puppeteer especially enjoys this multi-layered ambiguity, as she explains in an interview:

C’est vraiment la relation entre l’acteur et la marionnette qui m’intéresse et l’espace de jeu qui se crée quand les deux niveaux de présentation se rencontrent. […] Utiliser la marionnette, (c’est) rendre concret des choses abstraites ou pouvoir rendre visibles des choses invisibles ou pouvoir créer une distance par sa forme même qui nous permet d’aller encore plus proche, plus intime dans des personnages ou des thématiques.6

This double act, of being both the puppet master and the actress, can produce a troubling effect on audiences. The opening scene is indicative of this, as visual elements of the puppet and the actress are merged into a hybrid physicality. This amalgamation of personas is unsettling, especially since it is acted out against the backdrop of Valerie Solanas’s pronounced loneliness. Although Solanas is giving

6 Les carnets de la création (2017). [Radio Programme] 93.5 FM: France Culture. [online] Available at: https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/les-carnets-de-la-creation/faire-corps-avec-la-marionnette-par-yngvild-aspeli

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an impassionate speech in the opening scene, promoting her SCUM Manifesto, one cannot help but notice the fact that she is all “alone” on stage. One wonders whether or not she is talking to herself or even an imaginary audience. Similarly, her motive for this prolonged soliloquy remains unclear. Does she want to vindicate herself or is she about to instigate a social revolution? Does she fight for herself, or are there other women in the dark, comrades in arms, who share her experiences, rage and pain? These questions are addressed in the final scene of the play which makes it clear that she is indeed alone, acknowledging that: ‘It never could have worked my … thing. There was no organisation called SCUM. There was just me … or it wasn’t even me. […] I thought of it as a state of mind.’7 It was an illusion, the wild fantasy of a woman whose sole desire it was to finally be heard and listened to. Throughout her life, Valerie Solanas struggled to regain her voice, a voice which she had lost as a child due to emotional and physical abuse. But in the end, both her mind and body decompose. Her creation as well as herself remain ‘ghost[s] from the 60s.’8 The dichotomy and parallel play of the puppet master and the actress is also representative of Solanas’s paranoid schizophrenic disorder which was diagnosed after her arrest in 1968. However, in a broader sense, this schizophrenic state of mind is also representative of the “schizophrenic” double standards concerning femininity. Indeed, the ambiguous interplay between puppet and actress is symbolic of society’s underlying power dynamics which unconsciously dominate and inhibit women’s bodies and minds. It comes as no surprise that the only other female character represented on stage, Valerie’s mother Dorothy, is obsessed by an all-time favourite sex icon: Marilyn Monroe. The stark

7 All quotations from Chambre Noire in this handout are taken from Chambre Noire, Plexus Polaire. 8 Chambre Noire.

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contrast of seeing the haggard looking puppet representing Valerie Solanas, and the actress’s exuberant representation of a Marilyn Monroe-esque Dorothy, highlights that these two representations of femininity are part and parcel of the same abusive sexist dynamics. Indeed, these two “dolls” exemplify what can happen to a woman’s body and mind in an overly sexualised patriarchal society, cooped up in the restrictive clichés of the naïve blonde child-woman and the whore - the glorified sex symbol and the disregarded rape victim. Marilyn Monroe, whose actual name was Norma Jeane Mortenson, and Valerie Jean Solanas, not only share the same middle name, but unfortunately also sexually abusive fathers as well as absent mothers. Marilyn died just before the rise of the modern women's movement in the 1960s, at a time when the sexual revolution and the second-wave feminists had only just begun to deconstruct traditional norms of sexuality. The restrictive codes of behaviour and socially defined standards of masculinity and femininity, which Norma experienced, still reverberated into Solanas’s childhood. In the play, Solanas has to deal not only with Dorothy’s hollow standards of femininity but also with her mother’s refusal to acknowledge her pain. Instead of hearing her daughter’s pleas for help, only the news of Marilyn Monroe’s death truly affects her emotionally. The underlying critique of how the insubstantial images of femininity are held in a higher regard than the actual struggles of womanhood is still of utmost relevance today. Especially in the context of #Metoo and #TimesUp,

the story has renewed resonance.

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Recently, feminists have started to re-appropriate Marilyn Monroe’s story, stripping it of its superficial objectification and laying bare the victimized woman underneath the Hollywood glamour. Feminists today are citing her life as an example of how sexism objectifies women, ruining their lives in the process.9 Repeatedly type-cast as the archetypal dumb blonde, no one took Marilyn’s artistic aspirations seriously. Ironically, it was Andy Warhol who in his Marilyn Monroe series of silkscreen paintings (1962, 1967) highlighted this superficial pin-up perception of her. The vivid, neon colors of her skin, hair and facial features stand in stark contrast to any naturalistic depiction of her. Her sexual attributes such as the blonde hair, red lips and eye make-up are even further accentuated. She incarnates an imaginary representation of femininity, the eternal pin-up whose face has become a reproducible image, similar to a can of beans or any other consumerist item. Andy Warhol and the ‘Nothing Art’ Many art historians recognise Andy Warhol as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. The pop art movement, which he helped establish in the 1960s, wanted to get rid of the traditional forms of subject and representation. Focusing on the seemingly trivial and detached from the big gallery names, this counterculture movement sought new ways of artistic exploration. Initially, Solanas must have felt at ease in this milieu, as she herself was convinced that the so-called “Grand Art” was nothing else than an expression of women’s oppression by an elitist male system:

9 West, Richard. (2017). Marilyn Monroe: the marvellous phenomenon of our times – archive, 1961. The Guardian, [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/apr/07/marilyn-monroe-maurice-zolotow-book-1961.

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“Great Art” proves that men are superior to women, that men are women, being labelled “Great Art”, almost all of which, as the anti-feminists are fond of reminding us, was created by men. We know that “Great Art” is great because male authorities have told us so, and we can’t claim otherwise, as only those with exquisite sensitivities far superior to ours can perceive and appreciate the greatness, the proof of their superior sensitivity being that they appreciate the slop that they appreciate.10

This excerpt from her SCUM Manifesto illustrates Solanas’s strong rejection of the traditional definition of ‘Art’ and its veneration by established critics. To her, this tradition is inherently patriarchal, oppressive and patronising in nature. Even though the tonality of this SCUM passage is defiantly provocative, one still has to acknowledge the legitimate underlying critique of an exclusionary milieu which despite its avant-garde claims of inclusion and openness, often struggled to make space for female creators. As an openly gay female author, Solanas was all too familiar with the act of being overwritten and marginalised by established male forces. For centuries, the norm of the male (white) artist has shaped our collective western art canon. Women such as Solanas tried to imprint their voices and vision onto this canon or bravely set out to define and create new ones. Initially she embraced the sense of liberation which reigned among New York’s 1960s counterculture. Yet, her contact with pop art godfather Andy Warhol and his trustees turned increasingly sour. In the play, Solanas describes how ‘everything except her voice got sucked into a black hole and disappeared, her ideas swallowed by an Art factory’. 11 Solanas

10 Valerie Solanas, ‘Scum Manifesto’, in I shot Andy Warhol, by Mary Harron and Daniel Minahan (New York: Grove Press, 1996), p. 175. 11 Chambre Noire.

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increasingly felt trapped inside a mechanical power structure which reduced and silenced her once again. Solanas’s deeply felt rage and childhood traumas resurfaced, culminating in a persecution mania. She levied the unwarranted accusation of Warhol having stolen her manuscript in order to take advantage of her. Later, she defended the assassination attempt by stating that Andy Warhol ‘had too much control in [her] life’12.

Her struggle with established forces and the feeling of being stifled is powerfully rendered by one of the play’s scenes. It shows how an Andy Warhol puppet clings on to Solanas, who is struggling to release herself from under its grip. On the one hand, the scene is a visual interpretation and reminder of her private traumas of abuse and neglect. It is reminiscent of an earlier scene in which she is the puppet clinging on to her mother Dorothy. On the other hand, it also evokes many female artists’ experiences of repression by an omnipresent male force. Warhol never fully recovered both physically and mentally from the assault. The assassination attempt also marked a shift in his artistic production. He was no longer able to produce art in the factory-like manner he had done before. In this photograph, Warhol stylises himself as a martyr Christ figure, stating that: ‘The scars look pretty in a funny way. It’s just a reminder that I’m still sick, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be well again’13.

13 Moroni, E. (2018). The 50th anniversary of Warhol’s Assassination Attempt. Revolver Gallery, [online] Available at: https://revolverwarholgallery.com/the-50th-anniversary-of-warhols-assassination-attempt-a-moment-that-would-change-warhol-forever-2/

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Part II: Analysis of scenes Scene 1 – The fragmented child Certainly two of the most shocking scenes of Chambre Noire deal with Valerie’s childhood traumas. The scene in which we see her as a little girl trying to make herself heard by her mother Dorothy is heart-breaking. Yngvild Aspeli masterfully renders the girl’s powerlessness by not giving her a voice. We don’t hear any of her pleas for help, which she whispers into her mother’s ear. The fact that her mother could not or did not want to register her daughter’s fears had a huge impact on Solanas’s adult life. The erosion of trust was irreversible. Only at the end of the play, lying on her deathbed, does she raise her voice in accusations: ‘Dorothy, why did you let me drown?’14 This “drowning” is once again painfully translated into Aspeli’s visual aesthetics. The scene in which we witness Solanas’s abuse is distressing to watch. The inanimate puppet is representative of the girl’s powerlessness. Her body is no longer under her control, but has become an object. Her legs start detaching themselves from the rest of her body. The uncanny calmness and quietness of the scene stand in stark contrast to the girl’s inner turmoil. In the end, she is left with a fragmented body and soul. Yet nobody can see the cut, hidden underneath her innocent looking white dress.

Scene 2 – The fragmented woman The brutal reality of women’s objectification and the dehumanising effects of prostitution and pornography on their minds and bodies are once again vividly rendered by Aspeli’s aesthetics. The scene in which we enter Valerie’s ‘red light’ existence is especially painful to watch. Aspeli is sitting, seemingly naked (using fake papier mâché body parts to create the illusion), on a podium. First,

14 Chambre Noire.

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she is posing lasciviously, assuming some of the many eroticized poses society has come to identify as “feminine”. Indeed, sexualized representations and pornographic codes of feminine behaviour have become almost common-place and acceptable as long as women’s complicity is assumed. However, Aspeli shows that these codes can quickly turn into disturbing images, as the boundary between sexual objectification and violence can rapidly blur. Slowly, with the help of a puppet, her initial eroticized posing transforms itself into a sort of painful, unnatural, disturbing contortion/deformation. The imitated sexual act is violent and degrading, reducing the female body to a mere object. The fact that the actress’s face is covered by a sort of mask is also representative of the omnipresent, yet anonymous pain women suffer from in an exploitative and brutal system.

Scene 3 – The liberated female? Another visually captivating scene shows Dorothy crawling onto stage as a hybrid many-legged creature. She represents both a terrifying and nurturing mother figure. This mixture between a beautiful Monroe-esque pin-up and a terrifying insect shatters any fixed notions of “womanhood”, recalling images of the powerful Hindu goddess Kali.

Kali represents the darkness from which everything was born. Commonly associated with death, sexuality, and violence, it is, however, only partially correct to say Kali is a goddess of death. She is first and foremost a destroyer of evil forces. Furthermore, she is regarded as the goddess of time and change. She herself evolved to a full-fledged symbol of Mother Nature (Kali Ma / Mali Mother) in all her creative, nurturing and devouring aspects: a terrifying warrior on the one hand and a compassionate protector who provides moksha (a

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form of emancipation, enlightenment, and liberation) on the other.15 At the end of Chambre Noire, audiences should be critical towards restrictive representations of “womanhood”. A static definition of what constitutes a woman does not exist. Instead, we are invited to celebrate ambiguity as a powerful agent of liberation. Women can (re)gain power in creating new interpretative spaces for themselves. They have the power to change restrictive conceptions and definitions. Valerie Solanas’s struggles prove that there is not just one truth or narrative. Her controversial and paradoxical life story pushes us towards deeper understanding and hopefully provides enlightenment.

15 Wikipedia, (2019). Kali. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali [Accessed July 3, 2019].

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Part III: Tasks for students

Task 1 – Double act Helpful: Before the show Material needed: 4-5 Barbie dolls Preparation beforehand: Familiarise yourself with Marilyn Monroe’s biography Imagine you are Norma Jeane Mortenson, playing with her Marilyn Monroe doll. With the help of your doll, try to imitate typically perceived “feminine” or Monroe-esque behaviour, while you yourself stay true to young Norma’s shy and insecure body posture and behaviour. Then switch roles: your doll becomes Norma while you impersonate Marilyn. In both cases, ask yourself how this “double act” affects you, e.g. do you feel exhausted, confused etc.? Do you think this “double act” is representative of many women’s lives? If so, why? If not, why?

Task 2 – Raising voices Helpful: Before the show Material needed: Chairs Preparation beforehand: Write a short pitch relating to an imaginary or existing novel. Write no more than 10 sentences.

Imagine you are a collective of five young talented authors wanting to set out on a successful writing career. Your ultimate goal is to have your work published by a publishing house. In order to reach this goal, the five of you have to pitch the plot of your latest book to a publisher during an interview. The five of you sit on chairs, placed in a line, with at least two metres space between them. You are only allowed to whisper one sentence at a time to the next player. You are not allowed to raise your voices in order to pass on the pitch. In addition, the rest of the class is encouraged to distract you by making

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background noises. At the end of the row sits the publisher. S/he has a transcript of your pitch and will only offer you a contract once s/he has heard the entire pitch without any twists or omissions. How does this “non-communication” make you feel? What happens to your body posture while sitting on the chair? What thoughts are going through your mind?

Task 3 – Camera Obscura Helpful: Before and after the show Material needed: / Preparation beforehand: Familiarise yourself with Valerie Solanas’s life story or research the life story of another controversial historical / contemporary character. Info: A Chambre Noire or Camera Obscura, […] is the natural optical phenomenon that occurs when an image of a scene at the other side of a screen (or for instance a wall) is projected through a small hole in that screen as a reversed and inverted image (left to right and upside down) on a surface opposite to the opening. The surroundings of the projected image have to be relatively dark for the image to be clear, so many historical camera obscura experiments were

performed in dark rooms.16

Choose a historical or contemporary character whose different emotional facets and diverging public and private personas you wish to represent (e.g. Valerie Solanas’s public image as the archetypal hysterical assassin on the one hand, and her private image as the traumatised victim on the other). Now, imagine your private persona is standing in front of a mirror which, similarly to the Camera

16 Wikipedia, (2019). Camera Obscura. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_obscura [Accessed July 3, 2019].

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Obscura, reverses and even distorts your image into a public reflection that seems to misrepresent you. In order to create the illusion of the mirror, two students have to face each other. One of you represents the private self of the character you’ve chosen, while your classmate represents its public reverse. Try to get as much into character as possible, using facial expressions and body language. How does this relentless distortion make you feel? Can you identify any similarities between your private and public persona? Ask your classmate why s/he chose to represent your character the way s/he did.

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Further reading Articles Dinsdale, Emily. (2019). Valerie Solanas was more than just the woman who shot Andy Warhol. Dazed, [online] Available at: https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/43949/1/valerie-solanas-more-than-the-woman-who-shot-andy-warhol-scum-manifesto-feminism. Woods, Chavisa. (2019). Hating Valerie Solanas (And Loving Violent Men). Fullstop – Reviews. Interviews. Marginalia., [online] Available at: http://www.full-stop.net/2019/05/21/features/chavisa-woods/solanas/.

Books Solanas, Valerie, SCUM Manifesto (Paris: Olympia Press, 1968).