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BIG MOUTH: contemporary feminist voices in art + illustration

kwadkins — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 18:52:40 +0000

OPENING AUGUST 9 @ BROOKLYN FIREPROOF

a group show featuring
Suzy Exposito / Molly Fair / Kim Funk / Kathleen Hanna
J. Morrison / Adee Roberson / Gabby Schulz

Curated by Kate Wadkins + Lauren Denitzio, BIG MOUTH: contemporary voices in feminist art + illustration is a platform for unpopular visual opinions. Feminist movements have historically grown out of interventions within radical communities in the face of silence, anger, and often, violence. Still, these conflicts and contentions are fought with the utmost passion and humor in hopes for a radical resolution. BIG MOUTH illustrates the ever-evolving search for feminist/queer identities and communities. This group show places feminist narratives at the center of radical art-making, where often our voices are poorly represented or left out altogether. BIG MOUTH is a celebration of our pluralism, our goofiness, and a proclamation of defiant love.

@ Brooklyn Fireproof
119 Ingraham St (at Porter Ave)
Brooklyn, NY 11237

with open hours throughout

OPENING TUESDAY AUG 9 6p-9p
Opening party
& participatory feminist art workshop
Bring your favorite art supplies (some will be provided)
Limited materials so register here!

THURSDAY AUG 11 12p-6p
Open hours: drop by and visit with curators Kate Wadkins + Lauren Denitzio

FRIDAY AUG 12
12p-6p Open hours
7p Panel discussion with Suzy Exposito, Kim Funk & more
9p Closing DANCE PARTY!

BIG MOUTH is part of the Birds of Summer event series hosted by For the Birds.
A map of all events can be found here.

Molly Allis’s “Pilgrim”

cynthia ann — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 18:47:16 +0000

The fire escape outside of my kitchen window serves as a meeting ground for Mourning Doves, where they sit and sing their ooAAH cooo coo coo requiem for me while I drink my coffee or work on some writing. It’s our morning routine. Or rather, our mourning routine. Anyway, today when I sat down to write this blog post, I put on Molly Allis’s new album “Pilgrim.” One of the doves, a regular who I’ve been studying the past few mornings, hopped on the window sill and looked at me with one black beady eye shadowed in baby blue. I turned the music up and she stared right back at me and sang out. Now, I don’t mean to get all woo-woo on you or anything, but I’m pretty sure she was singing along to these jams!

“Pilgrim” is a concept album that tells the story of a girl journeying to the kingdom of the heart and, in the process, learns about healing herself and others around her (and isn’t this what we’re all working towards?) Molly uses a variety of instruments to tell this charming story, and does so beautifully. My favorite tracks include “The Void,” “Death/Sunrise” and “Oh, Great Mother!” The music swells in and out; louder drum-driven songs melt into the quiet of violins and banjos while Molly’s voice remains a powerful and consistent force. The journey, you see, will always be one of ups and downs.

You can listen to and/or buy “Pilgrim” on Molly’s website here!

Molly is not only a musician, but also a puppeteer and animator. Here is a gorgeous stop animation film she created, “Pilgrim, Your Heart Is a Ball of Light,” filled with lots of winged creatures, so you know we at For The Birds are loving it:

Pilgrim, Your Heart is a Ball of Light from Molly Allis on Vimeo.

You can also check out Molly’s other awesome creations and doings at her website, blog or Facebook!

Feminist Voices in Visual Resistance #2: Feminist Politics in Art Institutions

Lauren — Mon, 31 May 2010 22:01:40 +0000

Presented in conjunction with their publication Modern Women: Women Artists at the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) hosted a symposium last Friday on Art Institutions and Feminist Politics Now. Through multiple presentations and panel discussions, artists and curators of various specialties started to examine what effect feminist politics and gender specifically have in their work and curatorial practice. They discussed the political impact of their curatorial choices as feminists, along with the extent to which certain feminist and queer images are silenced within larger art institutions (museums, biennales, art fairs, etc.).

Notable participants included curators Camille Morineau (Musee national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris) Ivet Curlin (What, How & for Whom Collective, Croatia) Catherine Lord (author of the forthcoming Art and Queer Culture, 1885-2005), and Connie Butler (Chief Curator of Drawings at MoMA) along with artist Sonia Khurana, and author Michelle Wallace, among others.

While an effort was made to convey the slowly changing tide of feminist politics within mainstream art institutions, overall I felt there was a tangible lack of pushing the political boundaries therein and even some of MoMA’s curators admitted to suffering from self censorship. However, the mere existence of these panel discussions signals a hopeful note for the expansion of more radical examinations of gender, sexuality, patriarchy and feminist politics both at MoMA and other venues within the US and abroad.

One participant, Emily Roysdon, spoke specifically about the artistic freedom of working outside major art institutions in LTTR, a feminist genderqueer artist collective. Founded in 2001 and recently disbanded, the group produced an annual art journal along with various events and collaborations that highlighted “radical communities whose goals are sustainable change, queer pleasure, and critical feminist productivity.” Though they often collaborated with MoMA and other galleries on specific workshops and presentations, the collective sought to be a radical outlet for artists to speak uncensored about relevant feminist/queer topics.

Since the dissolution of LTTR as a formal group, Roysdon has continued working as an artist and curator. She has written about and developed projects around the concept of Ecstatic Resistance, which seeks to re-imagine both what is possible and what political protest looks like. It is partially inspired by a statement in Kathy Acker’s essay Seeking Gender, which I think is appropriate to the ways in which feminism and dismantling patriarchy play into Roysdon’s creative practice.

“I am looking for the body, my body, which exists outside its patriarchal definitions. Of course that is not possible. But who is any longer interested in the possible?”

You can read more about her work and Ecstatic Resistance here.

It was inspiring to see that while radical feminist politics are only slowly gaining a foothold in more mainstream creative venues, groups such as LTTR can successfully function outside of them. During one panel discussion, the question was asked if artists and curators can reclaim institutions by being anti-institutional. Judging by Roysdon’s continued work both in and out of LTTR, challenging these institutions is certainly a step in the right direction. Through their collective work, LTTR was able to produce projects, exhibitions and journals which looked critically at feminism and the dismantling of patriarchal, binary cultural structures.

Though For the Birds seeks to foster creative spaces for feminist voices in broader ways than solely visual art, I am encouraged by LTTR as an example of using artistic resources to discuss and examine feminist and queer politics. Stay tuned for more upcoming events and please get in touch if you have possible opportunities and collaborations!

Feminists in Current Visual Resistance

Lauren — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 03:28:16 +0000

Kristine Virsis - Alice

Last week I went to an event at Bluestockings, a radical bookstore in lower Manhattan, for the book Paper Politics: Socially Engaged Printmaking Today, based on a traveling exhibition of amazing protest art. A group of artists included in the book gathered to share their thoughts on making art to promote social justice and global equity. Despite being a broad survey of issues and voices (the book is incredible), the topics of sexism, reproductive rights, sexual assault, patriarchy, and other similar issues were not very prominent among these images.

While certainly contemporary printmaking addressing these issues does exist, even a recent exhibition of feminist work from The Center for the Study of Political Graphics lacks a significant recent feminist voice, as most of the work is from prior to 1990. Their collection, Reclaiming the F-word, contains posters addressing so many feminist issues that are still pertinent today, yet most of them weren’t created in the past two decades.

While certain issues may not be as prominent in activist printmaking as they previously were, there are a host of female-identified artists who are using their work, in anywhere from traditional printmaking to flyers and other illustrations, to continue confronting feminist issues in an accessible way.

Just Seeds Collective members such as Kristine Virsis, Favianna Rodriguez, Meredith Stern and Melanie Cervantes, use their prints to address the role of women within resistance movements. Others like For the Birds friends and collaborators Cristy Road and Caroline Paquita are using their art and illustration to tackle gender, sex, and queerness, among other topics. These are just a few of the women I know of who are currently creating accessible feminist art. It would also seem that with a current strengthening of DIY feminist zine culture, there would be a surge in similar image making as well. I’m looking forward to exploring these topics and posting more often about current feminist visual resistance.

In other For the Birds friend-art news, Tamara Waite-SaintIbanez, who designed last year’s Big She Bang poster, has a solo printed sculpture show coming up in March! Check out the flyer for details.