White Fungus #16

[Ron Hanson, editor in chief]

White Fungus #16

Taichung City, Taiwan: White Fungus, 

234 pp., 26 x 19 x 1 cm., softcover

Edition size unknown

This was sent to me ages ago and I never got around to posting it. It's an impressive periodical that began as a photocopied protest zine and has morphed into a slick production. 

Issue #16 features Kurt Gottschalk reporting on a performance of Max Richter's Sleep, Tobias Fischer on animal music, an article about 2018 Turner Prize–nominee Luke Willis Thompson, curator Jeph Lo on the emergence of noise music in Taiwan, and a photo essay on political demonstrations held during the islands transition out of military rule. 

But most notable is a 50-page interview by Ron Hanson with Carolee Schneemann. It's one of the last major interviews with the artist before her death in March of 2019. 

Schneemann candidly recounts running away from home at 15 and going to Mexico, changing her name at 18 (in part to keep her parents away from her work), and losing her teaching job at Rutgers in 1999 because her male counterparts thought she was a witch. Stan Brakhage (best friends with her partner James Tenney) apparently thought she was a monster also - for identifying as more than a wife. She recounts the story of how he insisted his bride burn everything pertaining to her life before they married:

"When he meets Jane [Wodening], his life-partner for 35 years, he has her burn all of her things on the side of the mountain where they lived: her diaries, her paintings, her clothes, her books. Everything is set on fire. And then she has a handmade dress that she wears as his bride. So her life is consecrated to him.

After five children, and all the creative work together, Stan says, “I don’t want to live with you anymore; I’m changing my life.” So I’m reading a lot of her writing because she’s an amazing writer, a profound naturalist. And she moves into her old car and drives across the country for two years.

That’s a pattern that we’ve discovered for women whose marriages are solid and coherent and consistent. When their marriages are suddenly blown apart by the male partner, they often start driving. They don’t know who they are; they don’t know where they want to be."

Schneemann discusses spending time Joseph Cornell's place: 

"I found a drawing from Rauschenberg signed "To Joseph, with great admiration". And I said, "Look what I found. And he said "Put that away! I don't want to see that thing!". 

She also describes her most acclaimed artist publication: 

"I began a work that would be titled "ABC - We Print Anything - In The Cards". I was really devastated and gathered advice from my friends over the phone. The women friends suggested "Well, make him his favorite dinner. Invite him over and have candlelight, and he'll feel how close you still are." So I wrote that on a card and that in the drawer. And then the next friend would say , "Tell him to fuck off! Got out and get stoned , and don't pay him any attention. So I write that down. I begin to have that drawer full of contrary advice. I thought, "Oh, this is good. This is really interesting. This is wonderful.""

The issue can be purchased here for $10.