Feminist Fervor in Spain
A show of Carrie Mae Weems, Faith Ringgold, and Fatima Tuggar would be a brilliant accomplishment on its own. Each woman articulates a relationship to blackness and the feminine that is unique and challenging. All three women, plus forty-two other international women artists who have produced feminist art will be on display at the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum (Bilbao, Spain) in an exhibit titled Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. The show focuses on the struggle between the imposed sexuality placed on women (Kiss Kiss) and the violence that such impositions mandate (Bang Bang). Looks to us like the feminist trend (most notably jumpstarted by The Brooklyn Museum's Global Feminisms) is speeding up internationally.
For those not in the know, Carrie Mae Weems makes magic with photos by rephrasing dominant iconography of culture into a matrix that allows for a black cultural aesthetic. Having come to the craft as an adult, Weems's subjects are as developed as her craft. Her Kitchen Table Series allows the viewer to question gender roles in a way no amount of text truly can.
Faith Ringgold is an artist who makes a mockery of the divide between high art and craft. While it's taken the quilts of Gee's Bend to get many to see quilt making as art, Faith Ringgold's painted story quilts have been carrying that message to all who've seen them for years. An accomplished children's book author and illustrator, Ringgold utilizes the traditionally female medium of quilting to address what others barely attempt to on canvas.
Fatima Tuggar utilizes digital imagery to challenge conventional notions of the role of women and Africans. Her images often have a sarcastic tone about them calling out the assumptions one makes about what they're supposed to be seeing. She's not going to give you that. Instead, she'll challenge your perceptions and conceptions.
Yeah, like I said before, if it was just them the show would be hot. But there are forty-two other international artists. Plus it's in Spain. We say get gone.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang closes September 9.
23 July 2007