Susan Boyle, performs on "Britain's Got Talent"
Like everyone else on planet earth I have been moved to tears by Susan Boyle's amazing performance on Britain's "Got Talent." Any of you who haven't yet watched her on YouTube, do yourself a favor. I want to reflect here on Boyle's massive appeal from a very personal point of view, for I have spent much of the last three years managing a project that harnesses the creative energies of hundreds of middle-aged female "nobodies."
In late 2005, my sister Christine and I began crocheting a coral reef, a project we started in our living room as a response to the devastation of living reefs due to global warming. From the start we envisioned this as a collective enterprise and we announced on our website that we'd welcome others who wanted to participate. Three and a half years later we have just opened an exhibition in Scottsdale AZ that contains the works of 500 people — almost all of them middle-aged women.
The "Crochet Reef Project" exhibition at the Scottsdale Civic Center, 2009
The "Crochet Reef Project" exhibition at the Andy Warhol Museum, 2007
Time and again, they and other visitors to the exhibitions have been moved to tears by the vast outpouring of creative feminine energy on display. Christine and I (oursleves now technically middle-aged women) have watched with an increasing sense of awe the exponential growth of our project. When we began we thought a dozen or so people would join in. We seem to have tapped into a parallel universe of female power — I can think of no way to put this anymore, except to say that we have become the channels or mediums for what appears to be an unstoppable force.
Margaret Wertheim, a science journalist and author of physics books wrote the Quark Soup column for the LA Weekly and is currently a contributor to the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, as well as a contributing editor to Cabinet magazine. Her books include Pythagoras' Trousers and The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to the Internet. she and her twin sister Christine Wertheim also founded the Institute For Figuring, an organization based in Los Angeles that promotes the public understanding of the poetic and aesthetic dimensions of science and mathematic.
Why has this force not been channeled before? How is that such power and potential has gone unnoticed? Unrecognized? Unutilized? If this much of it could be channeled randomly through our living room, imagine what could be achieved with even a modicum of social support and encouragement. As I watch Boyle's astounding performance I think about the dozens of equally ignored and in some cases equally brilliant women whom it has been my privilege to observe as artists during the course of the Crochet Reef Project. I think especially of our beloved contributor Evelyn Hardin — an unemployed woman in Dallas TX who left school at 16 and is nothing short of a creative genius — though, like Ms. Boyle, nobody has seen fit to say so for the past 40-odd years.
Above: details of the "Crochet Reef Project" exhibition at the Andy Warhol Museum, 2007
When Susan Boyle walked onto the London television stage on Saturday night everybody laughed. "No one is laughing now," as one of the show's judges remarked. Except in joy. Boyle's transcendent voice, issuing from her blubbery and sagging body under a mop of frizzy unruly hair, resounded off the studio walls like an angel in flight. Our spirits soar with her not merely because of the virtuoso performance but because the experience so far exceeds our expectations. Over the past three years I have had the chance to observe how many middle aged women can defy expectations when given the chance. It is with joy that I can announce that the Crochet Reef Project has just been accepted for exhibition by the Smithsonian. It will be the first time ever that the Natural History Museum will exhibit an art project.
Postscript. Now after 70 million YouTube views and endless press — it's impossible to see Susan Boyle raw. She has become a bona fide Phenomenon. I'm glad I saw her before that happened, when it was genuinely possible to be moved by the sheer tenderness of a middle-aged woman defying expectations and annihilating disdain. Her impact results not just from her voice, or the song (surely a canny choice), but also from the joy of her being. She represents the triumph of what we Australians call the "dag." Every wrinkle on her face and crinkle of her unruly hair — all of which she seems so comfortable with — resists the barbie-doll ethos of our culture that weakens so many women. I agree with the show's female judge, Amanda Holden, that she should resist all efforts at beautification and Hollywood-style makeovers. When our tears flow it is not merely because of her surprising talent, but because for many women it is such a release to witness a woman so evidently and joyously in defiance of the social rules that require shabby-flabby people to be silent and slink into the shade. That takes real courage.
Comments [25]
•shabby flabby_NO!
susan,you are having memory lapses, exercise builds body and mind.
•i had two grandmothers that could crochet anyone under...no.. er...wait... um
anything on top of a table. I had to think a second.
•they both died when they were sixty. I don't know why, they were active in the kitchen and walked to the grocery store everyday. Maybe not active enough. Maybe just too tired. anyway...
•which reminds me. my aunt used to do this knotting stuff with her fingers and palm leaves. Most beautiful knotting you can imagine. No hooks/ no thread. she is a Catholic nun. They did it for palm sunday.
•which reminds me
In chicago
for arbor day they have one person makes a difference campaign and placed one Triumph Elm in the middle of michigan avenue with green ribbons knotted on the branches for ARBOR DAY.
•which reminded me to take a ribbon and tie it around my pony tail and wear it proudly
•which reminds me
I dig a pony TAIL where you can celebrate anything you want!
•and if Chicago women, maybe we can make a giant green palm leaf knotted ribbon and tie it around the pony tail of the magnificient "injun" (no harm meant, play on word engine) that's riding the horse on the other end of michigan avenue for arbor day. since his field of stinky onions has been replaced by magnificient skyscrapers. Oh and one on that Polish guy on a horse by the planetarium.
•which reminds me of the seventies
where for one day we can be flower children without the drugs and alcohol and wear dandelions or grass in our hair.
just to be silly and politically green just for one day.
Even if you think being green is lame, planting something in your back yard and a daisy chain of greens or olive branches or laurel leaves (i don't really like polyester ribbons all that much) would give new meaning to
kNOT in my back yard. kimby
04.20.09
08:42
04.20.09
09:26
04.20.09
10:52
04.21.09
12:14
I really hope this Susan Boyle lets everything people say roll off her back. How would you like it if someone approached you with "Wow, you are incredibly ugly, almost heinous, but your voice makes up for it. Congratulations on being brave enough to show your fugly face! Don't change at all so we can all feel better about ourselves and pat ourselves on the back for supporting an 'ugly' person. See! We aren't shallow!"
Good God. Do we even see our own ugliness?
04.21.09
01:21
The article also describes her offensively. How can you say, "Boyle's transcendent voice, issuing from her blubbery and sagging body under a mop of frizzy unruly hair..."?? Even the author of this article is a victim of the Barbie doll culture.
I think she is amazing the way she is, she should stay that way, because she is the most genuine and real person around, who is true to herself, and not ashamed of it. Hats off to you Susan Boyle, don't change an inch for anyone!
04.21.09
02:26
04.21.09
09:14
04.21.09
11:42
When it comes to Susan, the argument in the responses is missing the point. She stood on the stage pre-performance as a meek, uncomfortable, humble contestant, nervous and unsure of herself. Her performance showed the opposite: A strong presence and talent that was moving and inspirational. She was completely transformed when she started to sing.
As for the judgment on her appearance, I don't know who can truly say that their judgment isn't affected by outward appearances. If shapes, colours, fonts and buildings have the ability to influence us, why can't hairstyles and faces communicate with us too. We are a visual species.
04.21.09
02:08
04.21.09
02:49
04.21.09
03:19
04.21.09
03:24
As far as the art, perhaps they are good, but I agree that from the photos it doesn't look impressive (except for the first pic.) Maybe you need to take better pictures?
I think the article is an interesting food for thought, as far as harnessing the power of people who are normally "sidelined," at a time when everyone seems squeezed out of energy while so many new crisis burgeon (political, environmental.)
Also, it's interesting to see a post on "art" on a design forum.
I'm guessing that is part of why there doesn't seem to be much constructive criticism focusing on the work itself, but, ironically, more criticism and *Even more* hysteria concerning the whole Susan Boyle phenomenon.
I personally know a "late-middle-aged", shabby/flabby woman who is an artist and who mostly has been sidelined because of her appearances... She is self-conscious of it, in a way, but also far from being "in denial" about it, nor does she need others to pretend her flab does not exist.
04.21.09
07:03
Hey, it happens, too.
BTW, i don't know what came first!
knitting, crocheting, tatting or fishing net knotting. If you want to compare other mathematical principals, like fractals or mapping the eighth dimension, to handicrafts, you realize that math and science has just recently become a classroom study. It has been with both men and women for the longest time.
The other way around, if you are a higher mathematician nerd, you understand higher dimensions, but maybe are having trouble coming down to the third dimensional planet earth from the sun, Look at lacemaking to see what a interconnecting web we pattern ourselves after on earth.
Come to think of it, i think that ninth planet pluto is just a edging on the tattered lace fooling us into thinking what it's shuttle is spinning round.
04.21.09
11:28
... my how i could take up the task and share if i had a bit more programming skills or programmers had a bit more fiber -optics.
04.22.09
02:59
http://www.designboom.com/snapshot/gallery.php?SNAPSHOT_ID=30&GALLERY_ID=1115
in Milan Design museum there was a cool exhibit with displayed crocheted hyperbolic space models among other cool things
04.22.09
09:36
mathmen, you need to give me a call
04.22.09
10:27
04.23.09
07:23
But as many of us suspected from the beginning, Susan Boyle is just another bad joke that most of the world fell for, and, frankly the antithesis of the coral reef.
Move on....
04.23.09
12:47
http://thesuperficial.com//bfm_gallery/2009/04/0424%20Susan%20Boyle/gallery_main/gallery_main-0424_susan_boyle_newdo_00.jpg
04.24.09
03:40
04.28.09
03:16
because i would have thought that such a discussion might even get a sidebar note toward the use of non euclidean geometry in trajectory science. Afterall, on April 21, 2009 they announced the discovery of the planet e orbiting in the gliese581 system.
Now how could crochet or some handicraft explain radial velocity for me? and be used in further design?
04.28.09
09:24
However, as Arthur Freed said, I'm not sure about the connection to Susan Boyle. I mean, yes, if you compare the intention of people who participated in your project, and Susan Boyle's intentions, they're obviously connected. But the phenomenon was entirely created by a bunch of TV people who thought they needed someone "different" for the show - I'm pretty sure they staged that. Whereas your work is a real work of art, it hasn't been influenced or deviated for entertainment-only purposes.
Or maybe not? Not sure.
04.30.09
07:05
You should all watch the latest episode of Newswipe, it sums this non-event up perfectly.
05.02.09
08:26
01.15.10
01:33