WACK! @ National Museum of Women in the Arts
During the 1960s the feminist movement gained momentum as it actively questioned gender norms and confronted oppressive stereotypes. By-products of the time included a number of women’s art collectives, such as the Art Workers Coalition (AWC) and the Women Artists in Revolution (WAR), all giving voice to women questioning their place and role in the world. WACK!, currently on view at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, derives its name from the various artist collectives and highlights a collection of feminist visual art created during 1965 -1980.
Holding over 300 pieces by 119 women from around the world, the exhibit is solid from start to finish. All mediums are represented, including painting, performance art, photography, film, video, fiber, and collage. WACK! demonstrates the range of emotion and thought brought out in the feminist movement. From the drop dead seriousness of Suzanne Lacy’s collaged Prostitution Notes (1975) to the outright humor of Tee Corinne’s Cunt Coloring Book (1975), you can feel the outrage and the irony, along with the quiet breaking of stereotypes.
The collection is chock full of influential feminist artists, like Judy Chicago, Miriam Shapiro, and Sylvia Sleigh, all who identified themselves as feminists and feminist artists, and all without whom this exhibit wouldn’t be complete.
Image of Big OX No. 2 courtesy of NMWA; copyright Miriam Shapiro
In an effort to make the show more interactive, visitors can partake in a cell phone tour. You simply dial the number and code that accompanies a highlighted piece of art and on the line comes the voice of, for example, Miriam Shapiro explaining the vagina imagery of Big OX No. 2 (1968) (pictured). Unfortunately, the museum hasn't quite gotten the message out to the staff about this new endeavor -- while listening to one of the segments, a security guard came by and told me I wasn't allowed to talk on my phone.
The show also highlights female artists who didn’t necessarily categorize themselves as feminists creating feminist works, but the context of the time allows their creations to be viewed through a feminist lens. Sculpture II (1968), by Kristen Justesen, is a photograph of herself crouching, nude, looking up. The photograph is black and white and very grainy. Justesen placed the photograph of herself on top of an open white cardboard box, giving the illusion that she is in the box. Justesen assembled this sculpture to explore the three dimensional medium of sculpture, where the artwork is displayed on top of a pedestal and not in it or under it. Within the context of feminism, the box confines Justesen just as she is confined by her role as a woman in the 1960s.
Black artists working at the time typically didn't identify with the feminist movement, as it seemed primarily to seek advancement for the white middle class. Many of these artists are included in the exhibit to provide a full history of the era. In Untitled #6 (1975), artist Howardena Pinell recalls a time when her family ate at a restaurant with dishes marked with barely noticeable little red dots, denoting the dishes separate use for blacks. Untitled #6 is as subtle as the racism. Not until you get up close to it can you discern the composition: a series of paper hole punches inked with numbers and placed on a very tight grid.
Some of the show is purposefully uncomfortable. A warning sign is placed before one section cautioning against possible offensive material. Behind the sign is a section dedicated to pornography and its dichotomy. Some of the work found here showcases how exploitive the industry is, while other works played off the exploitive nature of porn and reclaimed it for women, tailoring it to women’s wants and desires.
Much of feminist art captures the female body as giving of life and the vagina as the center of power. Black and white photographs of Carolee Schneemann’s performance of Interior Scroll at the Women Here and Now Festival in East Hampton, NY in 1974 exemplify this. During this performance Schneemann, naked, paints her body in mud, then slowly unrolls and reads a scroll from her vagina. A portion of the scroll, bearing frayed edges, hangs accordion like inside a vertical glass shadow box by the photographs. Schneemann’s manifesto is printed carefully on the two-inch wide lined paper.
WACK! is on display at the National Museum of Women in the Arts through December 16, 2007. Located at 1250 New York Ave, NW, the Museum is open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 12 to 5 p.m. General admission is $10.