Feminist art exhibit tackles patriarchy and roles of women today
On Dec. 17, F*ck U! In the Most Loving Way: A National Feminist Art Exhibition, will open at the Arc Gallery downtown.
Tanya Augsburg, associate professor of humanities and liberal studies, helped organize the event and will be performing in the exhibition. A film by Cheryl Dunye, Assistant Professor of Cinema, is being featured in the show as well.
The purpose of the exhibition is to shed light on womenās issues ā including equal pay, physical standards of beauty, womenās health issues, and what comes next for women under the new political administration. Itās also an homage to āWomanhouse,ā an exhibit from the 70s by Judy Chicago, which was a commentary on womenās roles, but more confined to the domestic sphere.
āWe decided to examine what are womenās roles today,ā Augsburg said. āWe are standing up to how we are being measured, valued and assessed based on our bodies. Why is it taboo to talk about womenās reproductive processes? We wanted to have a diverse show, and not just reinforce gender-binaries. The exhibition also showcases gender fluidity and queer perspectives. Itās a feminist show. Itās defiant, itās activist, and itās very affirmative.ā
Augsburg will be performing an interactive piece called āKitchen Table Talk,ā where she will ask questions to the audience with a hopeful vision of a positive future for women in light of the recent election results.
The exhibition will be open from December 17 through January 21. In that time there will be special performances and video screenings, including a screening of Dunyeās āBlack is Blue.ā The cinema professorās film explores the journey of a black transgender male.
Opening the performances will be Emma Sulkowicz and Violet Overn, two graduate students based out of New York, who attempt to critique the urge to define the undefinable, and control the uncontrollable.
āI think thereās so many ways to fight patriarchy,ā Sulkowicz said. āIf one woman thinks the best way to do it is through humor, and another thinks the best way to do it is through the very meditated angry subversion, we have to create a world in which every strategy is equally valid.ā
Rebekah Jacobson, a liberal studies major, decided to help out with the show because she was inspired by a piece by Overn that depicted her lying face down outside of fraternity houses, in the trash, after parties as a commentary on sexual assault.
āIāve worked with kids my entire life and I want to teach eventually,ā Jacobson said. āWe donāt teach boys not to rape – we teach girls not to act a certain way or not to dress a certain way. I think itās really important for me, as a teacher, to instill [feminist] ideas in the kids that I have in my classrooms.ā
The diversity of issues being discussed, as well as people being featured, is an attempt to modernize what feminism means at this point in time. The original āWomanhouseā performance was run primarily by middle-class heteronormative women and the new performance is an attempt to bring as many people together for one cause.
āFeminism to me is a collaboration,ā said Sulcowikz. āIt canāt work if itās one person fighting. Itās about working together in cross-gender, cross-sexual preference, cross-racial ways in order to make the world more livable.ā
If you want a picture to show with your comment, go get a gravatar.