Standing inside the Bronx Museum of the Arts Sunday, guest-curator Carey Lovelace was asked to describe the overall feel of the exhibit titled Making It Together: Women's Collaborative Art and Community. She had just kicked off the opening of the exhibit, part of the museum's spring exhibitions, with a chat to museum-goers and an interview with a brightly lit News 12 camera. Without pausing for a second, she answered the question with a single word: "Pink!"
It was true; the walls that held the artwork were painted a soft, creamy shade of pink, and a chair or two scattered around the room were upholstered or painted the same color. The hue helped to set a mood that Lovelace described in more detail as "very lively, humorous - satire to make a point." Looking around the room, the photographs, writings, film and other media all contributed to the sense of theatrics Lovelace was talking about.
"It's not just ho hum, we're here on the wall," she said. "This branch of activism, humorism, is what people like the Guerilla Girls were going for." She points to a picture of a woman wearing fishnet stockings, leaning against a stool and wearing a guerilla mask. The engaging and bold nature of the exhibit is appropriate, given it took its inspiration from the1970s feminist movement.
The theme of theatrics making a political point pervades the whole exhibit, though not always as playfully as the Guerilla Girls have interpreted it. The first thing viewers see when they walk through the museum's doors is a mural covering an entire wall. The colors are not as soft as the pale pink; instead blood red, black, neon green and white make up the color scheme. The mural depicts the faces and names of various women, from a young girl standing with her hands on her hips, to Elvira, whose name is grouped with the words "single mother," "cleaning lady" and "Mexican immigrant." Phrases like "Abuse of Power," and "We pay with our Bodies" are graffitied across the mural.
2008 Woodie Awards
Be the first to comment on this story