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Feminism: February 2007.
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Home > Feminism: February 2007 > Longer Poetry

In the Art of Her
by Josie Schoel

Lee Miller, model, war correspondent/surrealist photographer,
photographed by Time Life photographer David Scherman.

1. A diagonal composition as a manifestation of the cliché
Infringe upon the viewer a singular reality. This in the form of image. When
discussing oppression, the content is secondary to the fact of its very nature. The
image as the ultimate dictatorial source. The very nature of the image allows for little
to no comment. The image as reality. The sense of self, false or true, is subsequently
abolished and handed over to the influence. The audience is, in essence, held under
the tyranny of the original imagist.

2. Stories hang in strands
Tub, aftershock of time, after shock of snow or heat, one extreme or the other, I am
told, is the only way to live right on the bone. The bone is where the meat hangs off
in thin hair like strands and according to a certain set of stipulations, tossed in the
barathrum. The bone is where stories are told, and living this close is the only way to
live.

3. Hitler’s tub with someone in it who is not Hitler
Underneath the discordant pile of anti-war buttons and pictures of daughters in
Florida, there is a postcard of a straight faced and beautiful woman in a bathtub. She
is wearing an ominous look and has her hair pinned. There is a framed picture of
Hitler on the edge of the tub. Everyone’s muse doesn’t usually find her own.

4. A photograph as promulgation of belief
I was reminded that the owner of the house is the daughter of a late Nazi. A closet
Nazi. One cannot help but think of the process of osmosis, the order of indoctrination,
and how many generations it truly takes.

5. To do one
For the purpose of confession, the moment of capturing a crime may absolve the
punishment but not the shame. When shame is omnipresent, it may not be felt, but
when it is periodic, yet daily, it mutates to guilt. Shame being the umbrella, guilt
being the spokes. The letter said two words. Go Home.

6. Actually, she preferred to deflect the attention from the fashion industry
Upon her departure from his arms, one of the leading Surrealists made an assemblage
to represent his longing. It was a picture of her eye stuck to the end of a metronome.
The sculpture came with an elaborate list of directions, the last one being to plunder it
with a hammer. In 1945 she went to Munich and found herself, it would seem, by
accident, in Hitler’s apartment. When she saw the tub she removed her clothes,
started the water and climbed in. She then turned off the water, climbed out, and
found a picture of Hitler in the living room. She put the picture on the edge of the tub,
started the water, and climbed back in again.

7. Tile or ceramic is cold against something that is
The ceramic of the claw foot is cold against skin. Need to pin up hair so ends won’t
get wet. Sun is setting is making little crooked slants of light line up soldier like on
the wall. Through the blinds they lengthen and shorten depending on the time of day.
Sharp in early morning, supple and gold in the evening.

8. Her father was an unhappy man
The battle, the body, the wind, the torso, the neck, the eye, the best navel in Europe.

9. At times I was unsure of their merit
In Germany for five months. Missed it at home. Forgot where that is. Just
photographed the liberation of Dachua and sent the images to the magazine. When I
got to the apartment I didn’t yet know it was Hitler’s. It was as though I couldn’t
escape the hell, now in the arms of it, the pit of it, the belly of it, the box, the steamy
liquid.

10. It would be nice to see erotica for the sake of art
When it is so—art sake for the sake of erotica, when it can be so, it has not crossed that
line to or from pornography. The definition is in the portrayal of submission. Or the
level of submission. One comes to me christened and wanting, the other, chaste and
unveiled. Contrary to popular belief, it can’t be found in academia. The level is high
to explode, permeates to wingless inertia. There is an inertia that can be called
kinetic. The ball that stops at the end of the table versus the one that sits under a pile
of clothes.

11. Art more often than not comes in stagnation
An art book on the montaged art coffee table in the art room with the art on the walls,
on the art walls.

12. So much for the subconscious
There were many muses and always have been, but they say that this one was the
most ravishing. Despite artistic merit, when she made it her project to push the
gender envelope, they were disgusted. We don’t hold it against them. The men.

13. I wasn’t the one who bathed in Hitler’s tub
The crack of it breaking “his tressed blonde thing.” It is the noiselessness that
makes all that racket from under the bathed image. Those who are enamored with
poverty and war crime would like to take hold of the ideal and pinch it to see what it
does. Knees to chin, hair pulled back in a tight twist, stoic indulgence.

Note:
Lee Miller (1907-1977) recorded some of the most momentous events of the 20th century, including the fall of Hitler and the liberation of the concentration camps in the Second World War.