"views from the edge: women, gender and politics"
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Exhibition at Sarah Doyle Gallery, Brown University by Karen Gutfreund, Curator and the Women's Caucus for ArtTRANSCRIPT
Views from the Edge: Women, Gender and Politics
Announcing: Views from the Edge: Women, Gender and Politics The Women’s Caucus for Art and Karen Gutfreund Art present an exhibition of art at The Sarah Doyle Gallery at Brown University March 2—March 28, 2015 This feminist exhibition features the art of 24 women artists raising their voices to advocate for gender equality, women’s rights, and social justice. Works in all media range from the poetic to the psychological, from the personal to the political, and from representational to the abstract. These expressions provoke, dramatize, and challenge as-sumptions about women’s lives in today’s global society. How is women’s identity defined, controlled, and supported when it comes to politics, reproductive rights, and self-expression? Why is violence against women so common? Why are women’s lives so difficult even now in the 21st. century? This show asks the viewer to look critically at the boundaries and barriers to women’s rights, to celebrate the wonderful differences that women make in both personal and public domains, and to join the fight to achieve the equality that women deserve. The artists in this show include: Sherri Cornett, Anahi DeCanio, Cat Del Buono, Sally Edelstein, Linda Friedman Schmidt, Patricia Izzo, Marky Kauffmann, Sandra Klein, Beth Lakamp, Monica Lundy, Sarah Maple, Janice Nesser, Guerrilla Girls On Tour!, Priscilla Otani, Mervi Pakaste, Min Kim Park, Jane Peterman, Roxanne Phillips, Nora Raggio, Sinan Revell, Amanda Sawyer, Gail Smuda, Rebecca Stern, and Jennifer Weigel. About Karen Gutfreund Art: Karen Gutfreund is an independent curator focused on promoting women in the arts and specializes in creating exhibition opportunities for artists on themes of “art as activism” to stimulate dialog, raise consciousness, and to create social change. www.KarenGutfreund.com and www.GutfreundCornettArt.com About the Women’s Caucus for Art: The Women’s Caucus for Art was founded in 1972 in connection with the College Art Association (CAA). WCA is a national member organi-zation unique in its multidisciplinary, multicultural membership of artists, art historians, students, educators, and museum professionals. The mission of the Women’s Caucus for Art is to create community through art, education, and social activism. WCA is committed to recognizing the contribution of women in the arts; providing women with lead-ership opportunities and professional development; expanding networking and exhibition opportunities for women; supporting local, national and global art activism; and ad-vocating for equity in the arts for all. As an NGO (non-governmental organization) of the United Nations, the Women’s Caucus for Art actively supports the UN Millennium Goals. WCA utilizes art as the universal language to engage artists, NGOS, and civil society on a broad range of issues such as gender equity and environmental sustainability. As a founding member of the Feminist Art Project, WCA is part of a collaborative national initiative celebrating the Feminist Art Movement and the aesthetic, intellectual and po-litical impact of women on the visual arts, art history, and art practice, past and present. www.NationalWCA.org About the Sarah Doyle Gallery: The Sarah Doyle Women’s Center (SDWC), established at Brown in 1974, seeks to provide a comfortable, yet challenging place for students, faculty, and staff to examine the multitude of issues around gender. The SDWC offers programs and services for all members of the Brown community, and is a site for research into and exploration of gender issues that extend into and beyond the classroom. The Sarah Doyle Women's Center and the LGBTQ Center share staff and resources to support students around issues of gender and sexuality.
Sherri Cornett
Ancestresses & Wise Women Video, 5:38 min, 2012 www.sherricornett.com Ancestresses & Wise Women, each roughly seven-foot sculpture representative of women who have mentored me, was my response to conversations I had with young women who did not know women’s history or rights. This lack of knowledge shocked the political/activist in me and caused me to reflect on how I had been educated. Each sculpture is accompanied by text that shares the wisdom and inspiration I received. Within the circle of the sculptures, I hold Conversations Among Women, which provide powerful dialogue around activism and issues for women of different ages and backgrounds.
Anahi DeCanio Commack, New York www.fineartamerica.com/profiles/anahi-decanio.html
Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Piece Mixed Media Installation: Paper, Textiles, Wire, Found Objects Variable 2009 ‘The Feminist’ — Inspired by typing exercise ‘Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country’ Papier mache 3D piece states Now is the time for all good women to come to the aid of the world. ‘Do-Overs’-Self portrait photography montage of the evolution and revolution over several life & artistic stages. ‘Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Piece’ - Photography of installation highlighting violence against women resulting from marriage. Paper icons are symbols of actual ‘honour killings’ and abuse.
Cat Del Buono Brooklyn, New York www.catdelbuono.com
American Female, Video, 1:15 min, 2012. This video was inspired by statistics that show how female value in our society lies solely in beauty and sexuality. It incorporates installation and performance. Each word on each balloon is a trait that can be used to describe a female. Off camera, I threw darts to pop the balloons. As the balloons pop, the traits representing women are gradually reduced to just one dimension: physical attractiveness.
Sally Edelstein South Huntington, New York www.sallyedelsteincollage.com
A Storms Approaching, Collage composed of appropriated mass media imagery, 20 x 24 inches, 2011. Like most American women I consumed vast amounts of pop culture imagery and images of how to be female lay all around me. What did it mean to be a woman in the wake of the women’s movement and the resulting ambivalence towards femininity on one hand and feminism on the other. Aware of these contradictions young women were conscious not only the inequality but how our identities had been fragmented as a result of being raised female in America.
Linda Friedman Schmidt Franklin Lakes, New Jersey www.lindafriedmanschmidt.com
Contagious Silence Discarded clothing 44 x 24 inches 2009 The oppression of women worldwide is the human rights cause of our time. I protest my own lack of freedom growing up and how women today are still controlled and silenced by the dictates of society, government, religion, family, husbands, fathers, other men, and fear. Living in fear of speaking your mind is no way to live as a free human being. I have found my own voice and power through narrative textile art, yet cloth can also silence and disempower women when they must dress in a burqa, niqab, or the latest trend.
Patricia Izzo Wyandotte, Michigan www.izzophotography.com
WHO ARE YOU TO BE BRILLIANT? Cold press water color paper 20 x 24 inches 2009 The Title: ‘WHO ARE YOU TO BE BRILLIANT’ smacks hard at the core issue of women being hushed, told to shut up, zipp it and forget about it! Women have been assigned to the back row, back seat and second class. This image asked the question: ‘Who are you to be brilliant?’, then begs the answer I AM WOMAN. I count. I am smart. I have a lot to say! Free to be BRILLIANT. I was motivated by Marianne Williamson’s poem and Nelson Mandela’s 1994 inaugural presidential address as well as my own life circumstances.
Marky Kauffmann Milton, Massachusetts www.markykauffmannphotography.com
Lost Beauty Iona Facial Ink jet print 24 x 16 x 3 inches 2012 This piece is from Lost Beauty, a body of work about aging and the loss of patriarchal culture’s idea of physical beauty. Why do women succumb to the knife, the chemical, the poison, in an attempt to change what is inevitable? The original photograph is a bleached silver gelatin print. I use the bleach symbolically. It represents all the ways in which women alter themselves to delay aging. The question I am asking is, what is lost? The answer is complicated – body, mind, soul.
Sandra Klein Los Angeles, California www.sandrakleinportfolio.com
Caress Hand stitched archival pigment print 22 x 17 inches 2011 This piece reflects my journey through life as a woman. It is a specific response to the aging process. The inscribed poem is from “Age Comes A-Wooing” by Joyce Kilmer.
Beth Lakamp Fenton, Missouri www.bettsvando.com
Don’t Mind the Haters, Oil on canvas, 24 x 18 inches, 2014.
Women unafraid to stand alone to speak out and do what they feel is right.
Monica Lundy Oakland, California http://www.monicalundy.com
0-2580 Pulverized charcoal, mica flake and gel medium on Fabriano paper 34.5 x 26 inches, framed 2012 Grit and glitz are what these gals are made of. Gritty, pulverized charcoal and glittery, mica flake compose these paintings, which are based upon SFPD mug shots of women who were arrested for prostitution in the 1940s. The juxtaposition of the black, sooty charcoal against the shimmery mica flake draws parallels to the dualities of seduction and ruggedness inherent in the lives of these subjects. This work also exhibits my curiosity about what constitutes a criminal, and how that perception changes as society also evolves.
Sarah Maple Crawley, UK www.sarahmaple.com
Fighting Fire with Fire C-Type print 25 x 19 inches 2007 In ‘Fighting Fire with Fire No.2’ I am looking at my identity as being raised as a Muslim in a western society. I have mixed parentage and this duality has played a huge role in my upbringing. In an ever-multicultural world, I am asking if it is possible for us to live side by side. As with much of my work is dealing with difficult topics, I use the humour and satire as a tool to express these idea.
Janice Nesser St. Louis, Missouri www.janicenesser.com
not made in her mother’s image, Plastic baby dolls, clothing patterns, embroidery thread, fabric pattern on canvas, gel medium, 16 x 16 inches, 2009. My series From the blood of my grandmother melds quilting and embroidery with dress patterns, altered books, photographs and found objects in an investigation of familial relationships, cultural taboos and their place in the formation of identity.
Guerrilla Girls On Tour! New York, New York www.ggontour.com
I Still Love Feminism Paper 8.5 x 17 inches 2009 Guerrilla Girls On Tour! proving feminists are funny since 2001.
Priscilla Otani San Francisco, California www.mrpotani.com
The Pleasure Quarters, Mixed media installation, 30" diameter, 2011. The Pleasure Quarters installation consists of a cluster of paper-covered structures surrounded by waxed paper shoes. The work represents the world of women who ply their flesh for a living, women who survive in the lowest rungs of society. The shoes left outside the structure express their vulnerability and their shadows from inside the structure remind us of their isolation and courage.
Mervi Pakaste Manhattan, Kansas [email protected]
Till Death Do Us Part, Letterpress on paper, 9.5 x 10 inches, 2012. ‘Till Death Do Us Part’ was created to draw attention to domestic violence. The victim often feels helpless and bound to their abuser, unable to see a way out.
Min Kim Park West Lafayette, Indiana [email protected]
Zummarella, Inkjet print, 40 x 32 inches, 2011. Zummarella is a caricature about women who have it all. This work examines the tragicomic impossible situations, and isolation stemming from the conceitedness of feeling ‘different and better than anybody else.’ It also deals with the hypocrisy of seeking to be different and the agony of contemporary women unable to escape from a self made predicament and social mores in the land of entitlement.
Jane Peterman Palo Alto, California www.janepeterman.com
The Right To, Acrylic on Canvas, 36 x 36 inches, 2012. In my wildest dreams this artwork would wake up the twenty- and thirty-somethings about the lack of equal opportunity for women. Composed in one session, the partial list of women’s rights imposed on this acrylic work on canvas spans the spectrum of feminine/human interests and concerns. We all have the right to make and live by our own list. Pass the Equal Rights Amendment!
Roxanne Phillips St. Louis, Missouri www.roxannephillips.com
Boundaries X series, Etching, Pen, 12 x 12 inches , 2007. We all are surrounded by boundaries some physical and some mental. These separating forces are built to protect, in most cases, by either keeping forces in or out. What they tend to really do is keep a person from experiencing the world around them. The boundaries keep the person from interacting with others, from experience new cultural events, from making new discoveries. By exploring my own boundaries I hope to be more willing to move past the restrictions and open to the world around me.
Nora Raggio Palo Alto, California [email protected]
STOP THE TRAFFIC: Trapped Mixed Media 36 x 12 inches 2012 STOP THE TRAFFIC is a series of work devoted to the consequences of the huge, illegal, underground business of human trafficking. Bounded by poverty and youth, and, on the other hand, pushed by an insatiable demand for sex, teens are physically and mentally abused as they are traded for profit.
Sinan Revell Pacific Palisades, California www.sinanrevell.com
COLORBLIND/PRISONER, Vinyl cut out screen over archival inkjet print, 24 x 24 x 2 inches, 2008. In my COLORBLIND TEST series, the form of colorblindness is a deliberate choice to ‘not see’. My series of photographs depict people who have been marginalized and invisible in society-eg. woman in Burqa, Homeless woman, Darfur refugee. These are self portraits of my self as the Other. As 3D installations, the images assume a depth due to the play of light and shadow .From a distance, one only sees a dot pattern. Close up, one can see the whole person.
Amanda Sawyer Stillwater, Oklahoma [email protected]
Tangled In Your Roots, Pen and Ink, 10.5 x 11 inches, 2012. My work consists of improvisational drawings taken from traditional Christian folklore, organic forms and man-made objects of restrictive clothing, elements of industry and symbols of class. These works center on an ambiguous surrealist narrative and reflect the current political climate’s attempted restrictions of women’s reproductive rights in America. The images focus on interactions of women grouped closely together to convey a sense of community and interdependence.
Gail Smuda Concord, New Hampshire www.gailsmuda.com
Women Through The Eyes of History, Mixed media, 7 x 12 x 6 inches, 1995. While I was growing up history was viewed, and still is to a certain extent, as a litany of wars and the male heroes of those wars. Women were always viewed as "the other" and their stories remained untold. In this work the album pages which should hold images of people are empty and the glass through which those images might be seen are, like so many women in history, transparent.
Rebecca Stern Stamford, Connecticut www.rebecca-stern.com
Wait Waist, Photo lithographs, machine stitching, and hook and eye closures on paper, 40 x 37.5 inches, 2009. I am a woman living in the 21st century and much of my privilege comes from the work of women before me. I recognize that we have come a long way in actualizing women’s rights; there is still a lot that I am left wanting. The internal struggle I feel between becoming who I am and being who I should be is enormous and confusing. Through my work I am examining the internal struggles and darkness I face as I continue to find my place in the world; one where I can accept who I am and leave behind everything else.
Jennifer Weigel Affton, Missouri www.jenniferweigelart.com
Still Silent Found chair, worn shoes, artificial plants, styrofoam, glue 33 x 17 x 27 inches floor installation 2005 I found this chair thrown away alongside the road and was immediately drawn to it, finding its state of maltreatment and neglect to bespeak violence against women. The absence of the sitter allows the chair itself to become an anthropomorphism of those whose lives have been touched by violence but are themselves unable or unwilling to come forward. The shoes represent a return to nature, in death or in healing, as though seeking and sharing secrets with the Earth Mother Goddess. ## I originally created Still Silent in response to how many victims are hesitant to divulge or discuss what has happened to them out of fear, shame and stigmatization. But as I came to learn more of the femicides happening in Mexico, this piece resonated with that inhumanity and came to represent the unfortunate victims of those heinous crimes, too many of whom have never been found or identified.