February 24 - March 24, 2010

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Background                         Curator's Thoughts                        About the Artist's                        Press Release

" At that moment I realized that I could open a new door or a new possibility for a new perspective. I proceeded to give a movement, a new spirit to the artists who were fixed on the surface.” Michelangelo Pistoletto

Background

March 2010 will mark the 23rd Anniversary since congress passed a resolution recognizing Women’s History Month. In honor of this event, guest curator Ronald Lopez will pay homage to the women who paved the way for such an occasion of recognition to exist. Women’s History Month has progressed from its early inception in Europe on March 8, 1911, as the International Women’s Day, to it’s expansion here in the U.S. as a week long celebration in the late ‘70’s. Finally, what began as one day, became a full-fledged month long celebration passed by Congress in 1987. The great efforts of Molly Murphy MacGregor, Mary Ruthsdotter, Maria Cuevas, Paula Hammett and Bette Morgan led the way and convinced Congress and the White House of the need for our nation to celebrate and recognize women’s roles in history on an annual basis. Each of these women was a pioneer in her field, and set the tone for women who came after her.

Interestingly, also in 1987, miles away and across an ocean, another woman by the name of Beral Madra rose to the occasion in her country and presented the First Istanbul Biennial to the world.

“The back-stage of this venture was more obscure than I had expected. I had a series of difficulties. I only knew a few persons in the European art scene; I had three months to organize a major exhibition, to find artists who could and would come to Istanbul…” said Madra in Post Peripheral Flux: A Decade of Contemporary Art in Istanbul.

Mrs. Madra, along with her colleagues, initiated what is now becoming one of the most important art events in the world, the Istanbul Biennial. It is currently in its 11th season, making it 22 years strong. Mrs. Madra revolutionized a once Islamic/Christian country, and set the tone for a whole new contemporary art movement that no one imagined would be part of the new transnational, mobilized and shifting global art scene.    

Curator’s Thoughts

After fondly recollecting my encounters with Beral Madra in Istanbul in 2006, I am now given the opportunity to pay homage to this wonderful woman in 2009.  I do so via this exhibit, Harmony Reverberates Optimism, the title of which is a quote from Madra herself.

In October 2003, Mrs. Madra wrote a review of the 8th Istanbul Biennial, interestingly entitled Poetic Justice and curated by Dan Cameron, the then director of the New Museum. With its optimistic implications, Mrs. Madra initially pointed out in her review (which can be read here) that Cameron’s Biennial spelled “trouble” and was riddled with many holes. Later, however, she stated that “poetic justice touches the harmony between the aesthetics of the art work and the spiritual needs…harmony reverberates optimism.”

This phrase, “harmony reverberates optimism”, so beckoned to me, that at once I knew what I wanted my show to be about – a celebration of women and their efforts to create social change through their art form.  My desire was for art that not only provokes dialogue but pushes boundaries; art that is active and penetrates society in such a way that it promotes itself fiercely and unapologetically. The works I have decided to showcase are created by women who - in the same fashion as Beral Madra, Molly Murphy MacGregor, Mary Ruthsdotter and Maria Cuevas - aggressively engage society.  The artists’ works reverberate such optimism that they tend to contradict the status quo of the current art scene. For example, at times I have found myself quite dismayed at how many works deemed “important” contain disdain for government, certain aspects of society, etc. For this show, I sought out works that exude optimism in such a way that they drive the viewer to do more than just complain, to actually make changes that allow for a hopeful future. 

The harmony within the aesthetic approach to each piece helps communicate its optimistic message and, in so doing, “harmony reverberates optimism”.   In each piece the line between art and social activism is blurred and the two are married in such a way that they become a powerfully provocative force.   

About The Artist's

Ofunne Obiamiwe presents her latest project, Status of Women, an interactive project inspired by facebook that celebrates ten contemporary women and their leading roles in their respective fields. Obiamiwe created a forum with these women and from that encounter has created a video, ten facebook like profile pages with a portrait of each women and has invited the viewer to write on their “wall” or in this case the black book in response to their “page.”

Lea Redmond, with her Changing Clothes: Care Instructions/Tag Exchange, raises long-lasting social awareness in each viewer. In her effort to “map” clothing labels, Redmond literally requires participants to cut out their own clothing tags and pin them to a map, specifically to the geographic region where the clothing article was made. In so doing, a new awareness is created of the relationship between the clothing’s origin and where it was purchased. This is a very minimal approach to creating a socially conscious community that pays more attention to its ecology and the financial stratosphere of the “haves” and the “have-nots”.

SaeRi Cho Dobson, with her installation 7 Deadly Seams, exposes an all to familiar industry to us, the dry cleaning business. What is presented via typography that is eloquently printed onto garments are covered with slick plastic and hung on typical dry cleaning hangers are horror stories of a rapidly-growing epidemic of immigrants being ‘taken to the cleaners’ by their customers.  With its title it immediately recants Dante’s Inferno with a modern twist. The profoundness in the work comes with great design and tells some of the most beguiling and atrocious stories that one cannot leave without feeling sick.  And if one is not sickened by the stories then one has to re-think how they view themselves in line with the injustices being exposed.

Kristin Ross Lauterbach’s latest video art, Flesh, explores how U.S. citizens participate in the proliferation of human trafficking in the United States and around the world. The 12-minute video follows three survivors from slavery to freedom.  Kristin approaches her work with great conviction as she pulls open the curtain to let us see a world to which we may have otherwise been blind. With a sharp camera lens and at times syncopated movements, almost like a music video, the viewer is taken on a journey from a candy-coated world into the underbelly of a dark and desolate reality.

Azadeh Tajpour fuses harsh imagery with a subtle approach that requires the viewer to intentionally use close examination to gain the full effect of the piece. Iraqi Body Count, at first glance may appear to be a room filled with rubbish, thousands of random strips of paper.  Upon more careful review, however, one can see that each strip has a name, a gender, an age and/or a job description. These words describe those that have been killed during the occupation of foreign enterprises upon Iraqi soil. Iraqi Body Count not only asks us to think of those that have been lost, but presses a provocative question, “What are you going to do about it?” 

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