Guerrilla Girls Exhibit at Rutgers

This past Tuesday, I headed up to New Brunswick to see an art exhibit with @mswas and @yuricon. Surprising in a number of ways, not least of which was seeing @mswas so soon after attending a concert in Asbury together, I not only enjoyed the exhibit but, more important, loved the discussion these images produced both during our time there and at lunch afterwards.

Entitled “Feminist Masked Avengers: 30 Early Guerrilla Girls’ Posters” and presented by The Feminist Art Project at Rutgers (my alma mater), this small exhibition included posters, books, and videos produced by all incarnations of Guerrilla Girls over 3 decades.  If you’re unfamiliar with this activist group but you know me well, you won’t require a long explanation of their cause.  Founded in 1985, this group of masked women sought to spotlight gender inequality in art, theater, film, and pop culture through various printed media and live performances.

Upon entering the exhibit, visitors are met with a huge poster touting facts about the Oscars.  I immediately pointed out that one fact was wrong; in 2010, Kathryn Bigelow won Best Director for The Hurt Locker. @yuricon responded that she never watched the Oscars which to me seemed like refusing to watch the moon landing, but I know nothing about her area of expertise (Japanese animation and comics) either.  After some thought in front of this huge poster, I realized that the Oscars have been around for over 80 years and it took that long for a woman to be recognized as Best Director.

I think the Guerrilla Girls would say their poster succeeded.

Directly across from that was a poster for The Birth of Feminism starring Pam Anderson, Halle Berry, and Catherine Zeta-Jones.  A history of feminism as only Jerry Bruckheimer and Joe Eszterhus could do it, this movie promised that “They made women’s rights look good.  Really good.”  Zeta-Jones is one of my least favorite actresses, and the other names mentioned in the credits aren’t exactly trailblazers either, although it would be mildly amusing to see Rosie O’Donnell as Betty Friedan.

Somewhere, Bella Abzug is laughing.

As tempting as it would be to recount all the stats from the years of Bush I and Bush II and point out that women artists fare no better in Europe than they do here in the States, I’d rather urge you to visit the show and find out for yourself!  When you go, don’t skip the “video room”.  There are a number of videos you can view on small screens with headphones, but I particularly enjoyed the interview piece projected on the wall of this room.  @yuricon may not find performance art appealing, but I’m a sucker for a play with a message, and since the Guerrilla Girls rarely tour, it’s a chance to see what they are like when they perform.

This exhibit at the Mason Gross School of the Arts Galleries in downtown New Brunswick runs through June 18, 2011 and is free to the public.  Below you can see Erica and Bonnie (my partners in crime) in the galleries as well as the last poster on display as you leave … gives you something to discuss over lunch!

Visit to the Met (Part 3)

If you haven’t read parts 1 and 2 of my visit to the Met, you might want to start there.  I’ve been sharing what I learned on a Fashion in Art tour I took when I recently chaperoned a trip with NAHS students.  In this entry, I’m going to share what I learned about a statue from Mali:

The Dogon people of Mali (18 c. – 19 c.) had no written language, so their sculpture and statutes conveyed information to members of their community.  The man and woman this statue are the same height and similarly carved which echos the Dogon concept that marriage is an equal partnership in their society.  However, the two figures have different roles. While you can’t see this in the picture, the man has a quiver to hold a bow and arrow on his back, the woman a child in a papoose type wrapping on hers.  This message is obvious: men are providers, women caregivers but neither role is more important than the other. The man has a beard, the woman mirrors that with a labret, a metal ornament pierced through her chin.  The position of his hands indicate that they both have roles in procreation.  Finally, the small figures holding up the stool are thought to be ancesters and indicate that the individuals seated on the stool are “supported” by those who’ve come before them.

Honestly, I never would’ve got all of that from just looking at the statue.  In fact, I hardly ever venture into non-Western areas of the museum because I just don’t understand what’s on display.  Yet so many of the students on the trip said they spent the most time in the Asian area of the museum, an area I never even got to!  I selected this tour because it focused on fashion, but I believe when I return this summer (which I’m definitely going to do), I’m taking tours of the museum that focus on non-western art.  This small statue says as much or more than the Warhol painting on the floor above!

Visit to the Met (Part 2)

I gave up my home delivery of The New York Times at the end of last year because once again I was looking to cut costs around here, but I do love to read the paper on paper.  My parents came to visit late last week, and my Dad is an avid newspaper reader.  My Mom is all about the coupons, my Dad all about the info, so I got the rare treat of being able to read both the local and New York papers this past weekend.

Imagine my surprise when I opened up The New York Times and saw an article on my favorite exhibit at the Met on the cover of the Arts & Leisure section!  The small show outside the African Art area contains masks styled like the traditional wood masks hanging in the Met’s collection but made out of modern materials and in many instances items that have been discarded.

Of course, I was immediately drawn to the mask entitled Internet by Romuald Hazoume (above) made from an old gasoline can and wires.  Not far from this modern mask hang a few by Calixte Dakpogan.  This artists uses old floppy disks and CDs in his pieces, but the one that drew my attention had metal circles with string coming through them for eyes.  As I viewed this piece I realized I’d seen that metal and string before but couldn’t quite place it until I turned away.  Dakpogan used the tops of kerosene lamps with the natural cotton string complete with center red line as the eyes!  I don’t think I’ve used a kerosene lamp since my childhood, but seeing part of such an old fashioned source of light used for eyes and surrounding it with metal and plastic from newer forms of technology to create this “face” made this my favorite find of the day.

Visit to the Met

On April 13, 2011, I chaperoned a group of high school students on a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.  I went with some trepidation; the few memories I have of earlier visits to the Met all involved getting lost in some part of the Museum.  Advanced planning can sometimes help with a Museum of this size, so I visited the website and discovered the “Fashion in Art” tour.  Shallow woman that I am, this had me written all over it.  The tour became the focal part of my day when I discovered that the Costume Institute is closed in preparation for a new Alexander McQueen exhibit.

Over the next few days, I’ll share a few things I learned on the tour as well as a few pieces I enjoyed viewing during my overall visit.  The first is The Fortune Teller by Georges de la Tour.

I admit, this wasn’t the first time I saw this painting, but it was the first time I understood what was going on. If you look at the young man’s tunic, it’s dirty, and his hands have dirt under the nails; this is not a wealthy man. The look on his face, at least to me, led me to believe he was a bit full of himself which makes the details I missed so much more important.

Look at the lower third of the painting … our snooty young man is being relieved of his possessions by the bevy of women around him.  I especially like the look on the face of the woman to his immediate left; now that I see what’s really going on, her expression is just priceless!  Another thing of note, women at the time commonly carried fans but in place of the fan, the fortune teller carries a knife.  Does not bode well for that young man…

Another bit of information I would not know if I didn’t take the tour: the painting appears off center because 7″ of the paining on the left side was damaged and had to be removed before it was hung in its current place at the Met.  I thought it was just the artist’s choice to frame the action this way, sort of a 17th century indie painter!

More “What I learned at the Met” posts to come…

[Visit to the Met (Part 2) can be found here and Part 3 here.]