I once read a definition of feminism that I saw tacked to an art professor’s bulletin board. It is one definition of feminism that I always seem to remember –

Feminism is the radical notion that women are people too.

Simplistic but effective since feminism, as both a political and a social movement, demands equal justice for women on many levels. There are many definitions of feminism from multiple perspectives including Radical Feminism, Socialist Feminism, Eco-Feminism, and Cultural Feminism. One can Google the word feminism and find a wealth of information. This show is not about debating the definitions of feminism or discussing whether or not the works are feminist in nature. This exhibition is not necessarily about feminist art, although some of the art may fall under that rubric.

Rather, the work is work made through feminist eyes. The artists come to art making through the lens of feminism in the way they define feminism. The artists in this exhibition explain how they see their work relating to feminism. The viewers of this exhibition can read the statements to look through the lens of each artist.

The idea for this exhibition began to germinate in the Fall of 2006 when I approached Dr. Anita Obermeier, the Executive Director of the UNM Feminist Research Institute, about the possibility of having a feminist art show. I had been involved in organizing a few similar exhibitions during my tenure at Cleveland State University that were quite meaningful to everyone involved. I was hoping to do something similar at UNM. Originally, I had thought we could have a low-key invitational at the Faculty Club and include faculty, graduate students and undergraduate students from the Main Campus. In January of 2008 Anita emailed me to inquire if I was still interested in organizing such an exhibition. I jumped at the chance and suggested the exhibition could be the first show of the Fall 2008 season at the Masley Art Gallery provided the Art Education faculty approved of the idea. They immediately approved my proposal that outlined a juried exhibition that would be open to everyone at UNM including faculty, part time instructors, staff, graduate students, and undergraduates at the main and branch campuses.

Around this time I attended the Feminists Under Forty juried exhibition at Through The Flower, the organization located in Belen and founded by internationally acclaimed artist Judy Chicago, whose monumental work, The Dinner Party, is on permanent exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Ms. Chicago spoke at that opening and stressed her interest in K-12 Art Education. I wondered if she might be willing to serve as one of the jurors for the exhibition I was organizing. I had never actually met her but took a chance and sent an email to her at Through The Flower. I was surprised and delighted to get an email back from the Executive Director informing me that Ms. Chicago would indeed serve as one of two jurors.

The other juror was an artist I had admired for years after first learning about her when a student of mine who was enrolled in Feminism and Art class I taught at Cleveland State University presented a paper on Meinrad Craighead. It wasn’t until a year ago that I first met Ms. Craighead at an exhibition at the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History and learned she lived in Albuquerque. One of my colleagues in the Art Education Program is a friend of Ms. Craighead and invited her to be one of the two jurors. She, too, accepted immediately.

From there, I put out a call for art, but wasn’t sure if anyone would enter. To my surprise, 31 people entered including faculty, part time instructors, staff, graduate students and undergraduate students from UNM Main campus and the two branch campuses of Taos and Gallup. Of those, the jurors for this exhibition selected 12 artists.

Their work fills the walls and pedestals of this gallery and you can read their individual statements to learn more about how they see the world through the lens of feminism.

Laurel Lampela
Exhibition Coordinator
Through Feminist Eyes

Artist Statements

My pieces are entirely hand-beaded sequins sewn onto canvas that is then stretched. Each one takes several weeks if not months to complete. I am drawn to the graphic quality of words and the multiple meanings a word has depending on the viewer. I think of them as cultural-context-based as well as experiential with a personal history attached that precedes the interpretation.

I began this series following an afternoon at my friend's gallery a few years ago. I was alone in the room with the dark, elaborately beaded Haitian banners that had been made honoring the spirits of the Santeria religion. I carefully studied the banners that were in such in contrast to stark white walls. Each banner focused on common picture-book images of a saint. Through the careful, minute beadwork and the care of the hands that sewed each bead the banners were something that not only spoke of a deep spirituality but of the connection each stitch still held to the woman who made them.

I began to wonder about the power and importance of objects which led me to consider the everyday illusory objects that are words. I went back to the desk by the windows and began sketching words and phrases from the ethnically African American neighborhood where I was raised; words like "Sugar" and "Honey" that held such different meanings when spoken with a slow smile by a man on the street or tenderly by an old woman on the front porch.

I chose words that have both a strong visual presence and possible layers of meaning. In showing and discussing my work I have found that I have little if any ownership of the words. Something I have chosen because it has a particular resonance for me will have a meaning so completely different for someone else that I feel I have only just discovered the word. The discussions that have come out of this series, which is still developing, have added layers of unforeseen richness to the works. As I make each stitch I can only think of the continuity that is formed between the woman who made the banners, myself and those who will find meanings that I will never know.
Krista Cibis

Recently, I have been studying the semiotic theories of Roland Barthes. His belief is that everyday objects have implicit cultural meanings. I have been ruminating about the connection between Barthes’s ideas and my artwork.

Currently, I am fabricating sculptures and quilts out of coconuts, orange, banana, lime, lemon and grapefruit peels with more fruit skins to come. Even though I am only using part of an everyday object, I am still researching the cultural implications of fruit. Fruit is commonly connected with femininity. For example, oranges and their blossoms are simultaneously symbols of fertility and virginity. The associations of oranges trigger, for me, the writings of the Jungian Analyst Nancy Qualls-Corbett in her novel, The Sacred Prostitute. Qualls-Corbett describes women as embodying the archetypal female energies of the instinctive virgin, the nurturing mother, and the productive animus. However, the definition of these words have been obscured overtime. Qualls-Corbett states, “The virginal attributes of the goddess simply means that she belongs to no man; rather she belongs to herself . . . as ‘one-in-herself’” (58-59), which defeats the Judeo-Christian definition of sexual purity and rightly asserts the virgin as a woman who is true to her own nature. Furthermore, the mother archetype of women speaks to the vital radiance and fertility of a woman’s nature. The mother does not mean that a woman necessarily gives birth to a baby, but it can relate to the “birthing of  ideas.” The animus represents male energies in a females psyche which serves as, “. . . a bridge between a woman’s ego and her own creative resources” (76). Thus, virgin, mother, and animus are parts of a woman’s psyche that work together to enhance a woman’s integrity and independence. Fruit, coconuts, which is a seed, and bananas, which is a berry, intertwine with femininity to reveal other intriguing iconography.

The most obvious feminist meanings of my artwork is illustrated through the banana and the coconut quilts. One flagrant symbol of coconuts is that of women’s breasts. To comment on this cultural norm, I skinned the husks of the coconut and sewed them together on a vaginally shaped metal frame to simultaneously reveal the “internal” and “external” forms of a woman. Moreover, I created a quilt out of bananas skins not to emasculate the phallus but to enlighten viewers. Even though the banana is commonly linked with the phallus through its physical form, it is actually the female part of the banana herb. I wanted to expose the misconception of the banana and how our world view can still be implicitly male dominated.

Additionally, it is significant that I am only using the fruit peels and not the whole object. Firstly, the reason I don’t strive to use the whole fruit is that I feel that if I use parts of the object it will still trigger the whole and its significance. Secondly, I only use the peel because it is a skin. People use the phrase “have a thick skin” to ignore external hindrances that threaten individuality. The meaning of this phrase allows for the creative archetypes of the virgin, the mother, and the animus to strengthen the female experience through individuation and self-sufficiency. Thus, by sewing together fruit skins and interpreting my material through semiotics, I create a connection between feminist art predecessors and my own work, while being innovative simultaneously.
Victoria DeBlassie

This is a series of mixed-media acrylic paintings with charcoal drawings, collaged gel transfer images, and paper on canvas. The works, Broken Dishes I, II & III, address the idea of breaking free from traditional gender expectations and constraints. I am especially interested in the issue of nurturing through the preparation and serving of food-- is it empowerment or slavery? Why do I identify so strongly with this almost primal urge, and why does it affect my self-image and self-esteem so deeply? I love to prepare food, especially for my family and friends, but it brings up issues of expectations and abuse of power.

“...woman becomes a sorceress; by a simple movement, as in beating eggs.. She effects the transformation of substances; matter becomes food. There is enchantment in these
alchemies ...the housewife has caught duration in the snare of sugar; she has enclosed life in jars. Cooking is revelation and creation.” The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir
The themes running through these three pieces include marriage and divorce, motherhood; expectations and broken dreams; beginning, ending and starting over; nurturing others and oneself; and feminine beauty, the life cycle and the way all of these things interrelate with one another.

There is a narrative here, presented metaphorically through the image. There are layers and framing and integration of photographs of myself and my mother, still-life images from the everyday kitchen, circles, circling and rings, images of my wedding dishes-- whole and broken, a paper label, a coffee filter-- and butterflies, captured and freeing themselves. The story is about beginning a journey as a young bride, buying a set of beautiful everyday dishes, as a way to begin a life with someone else-- and how what was expected did not happen. Different understandings of roles and identity eventually create cracks and then schisms and finally breakage, breaking, breaking down. All the same, there is strength and nurturing and growth with children and friends, which becomes that which matters most.

Everything circles back around, everything connects to everything else. By looking both back and ahead, the image emerges from the layering-- and reflection is enriched and deepened both through the making and the viewing of this work.
Sarah Hartford

If each era recreates the muse in its own image, how does our society define muse?  One definition of muse relates it to the word mystery, or “to learn,” stemming from the Greek verb “muein,” to initiate someone into mysteries. The Nine Muses are daughters of Zeus, king of the gods and ruler of Mount Olympus.  They are water nymphs, igniters of the arts and sciences inspiring creativity in the human spirit.  In 700 B.C., Hesiod’s poem, Theogeny, the Nine Muses appear to the poet and his fellow shepherds as they tend their flocks in fields and tell them that without art and history, men are lost. The Nine Muses provide a thematic platform of symbolic and physical layering in this multimedia sculpture.  The significance of the pineapple, the hula and the anatomically accurate learning tool “the visible woman,” are all related in this piece.  These elements combine mystery and misconception, as does the concept of muse, and how she relates to the fascinating fusion of genius and passion.

Author Francine Prose poses some intriguing questions. “Does the idea of the muse reinforce the destructive stereotype of the reactive, productive, active male and of the passive female, at once worshipped and degraded, agreeably disrobing to model or offer inspiration sex? Are they an example of an unevolved sexist myth? A more generous solution might be to offer more choices rather than fewer, to give men and women equal opportunity to be either artist or muse or both.  Do women artists have muses, and are there male muses?”   

The Greeks were intent on promoting their celestial sisters as more intangible, private and aloof than the gods and goddesses who were involved in melodramas amongst them, or with their mortal lovers. In the classical Greek world, muses did important, mysterious inspirational work. As the ages have passed, present-day translations of muse have been explored.
Robert Graves, the poet, classical scholar, and interpreter of Greek myths, explains why a woman can never hope to graduate from muse to artist. “She is either Muse or she is nothing,” wrote Robert Graves, “This is not to say that a woman should refrain from writing poems, only that she should write as a woman, not as an honorary man… it is the imitation of male poetry that causes the false ring in the work of almost all women poets. A woman who concerns herself with poetry should, I believe, either be a silent Muse or inspire the poets by her womanly presence… or the muse in a complete sense. Impartial, loving, severe, wise.”
 The pineapple, the ultimate exotic fruit, is not a native Hawaiian plant. The pineapple represented hospitality and status in colonial America and continues to be a communal symbol of friendship and generosity in many cultures.  Pineapples are used for a variety of health remedies.  Pineapples contain the proteolytic enzyme, bromelain. In a scientific study, a concentration of bromelain enzyme solution proved sufficient to endure capitation (invasion of the ovum) of sperm in male mammals followed by incubation. Some couples are using the “pineapple diet” to promote conception.           

The Hawaiian hula dance is mysterious and complex and many people have no understanding of this significant dance.  The dashboard hula dancer is a favorite in kitsch car culture. The simple swaying of the little dancing ornament represents a definite contrast to the complexities of the ancient Hawaiian hula dance, so widely misinterpreted in popular culture. Traditional hula contains veiled or layered meaning with emphasis on the visible and the invisible. The veiled messages are conveyed only to those who have proficiency in the structure of the Hawaiian dance system and its sociocultural background and history. Hula has deep meaning, metaphor, and allusion where the choreographer can enhance or obscure concepts.      

The “visible woman,” an anatomically correct educational model, has intrigued children and adults since the 1960’s.  It serves as an inspirational object for this piece. The bodies of the figures contain layers of objects that are veiled and some forms inside of them refer to the individual qualities of the Nine Muses’ field of patronage.

The relationship of visibility and invisibility, what is or is not or cannot be seen, who sees it and who does not, and why is a very inspiring phenomenon to work with. These dynamic aspects have the potential to create an amazing interplay.  The performative dimension is addressed in this sculpture as an element that seeks to construct a re-creation of a very localized moment from somewhere else in time and space.  Perhaps the mystery of the muse remains in this realm.                                    
Julianne Harvey

The three mono-prints entered are a part of a series titled: The ABCs’ of WMDs’ (Weapons of Mass Delight). I believe the artwork functions in the tradition of feminist critique, i.e., it questions dominant status ideology. More specifically, the artworks' alliterative phrasing suggests the depicted weapons have intentions of their own - a claim weapons manufacturers always deny. Makers of arms are protected by the legal argument that a weapon, in and of itself, does not constitute intent. In the imagined, world of "Weapons of Mass Delight," I hear gun proponents cry, "Guns don't make people happy, people make people happy." Special thanks to Mr. Stuart Boydstun for his inspiration and collaboration in this work.
Topher House

As I create a piece of artwork, I consider its meaning and direction from a myriad of alternative viewpoints, but the singular aspect that is of utmost importance to me is a piece’s balance.  What colors, shapes, and placement occur must work in a harmonious way whether it is in regards to symmetry or a lack thereof.  I find that elements that contrast have just as much a bond and relationship as the opposition and solution I seek to offer my viewer.  Additionally, there must be a connection between inspiration and image object on a spiritual level for me, or the piece will not work.  I cannot draw, print, or paint subject matter that does not touch me in some way.

Liaison to this, my current work draws from the notion that all beings are equal.  Period.  It is within the differences we hold dear that we must find commonality for we cannot exist without either pole.  I believe that the universe is as it should be.  Even as much as we may not like a condition or compass reading, it all exists for a purpose.  I explore this perception with each piece I create.  Resolvedly, more than polarity fleshes out.  In this work, I see the sacredness of the opposition and how we are all woven together within it.  As a woman, I have always seen myself as an equal to others.  However, in exploring the media influences around me, I see that others do not necessarily think this way, and there is still a great deal of prejudice breathing deep hot breaths around us.  Furthermore, I believe many people often think of our world as being disharmonious, but in fact, it is in that disharmony that the universe simply is.  There is no day without night, nor is there light without dark.

This work’s purpose is to bring into focus the strengths of the common ground upon which the feminine and masculine coexist. This body of work has helped me become more fully aware of my spiritual-level perspective regarding the ways we all are woven collectively, and, as a people, we ought to be employed against the vulnerabilities still experienced due to the fallacies inspired by overbearing influences upon those underserved or unrecognized.
Mara K. Pierce

I found Angela, the doll, abandoned in a thrift store and at once was attracted and repulsed by her strange form, the creation of some unknown craftsman. Intrigued by the feelings she induced I began a photo series of her, close ups of her particularly were catalysts for stories, and I began the book. As each angle of her revealed new traits, her story came to life. Some of her dialogue is based on real experiences, while other stories Angela tells are from women in the media and in books.  I have been working on a series of portraits of dolls that I find in the oddest of places, finding each one compelling, perhaps even  a bit scary at first, with a life story of its own and fascinating personalities that are revealed when each one is scrutinized before a close up lens. The inanimate is transformed to the almost animate when given loving attention. 

Angela the book is a response to our book arts class assignment, Embodied:  The Body as Metaphor in Visual Books….. for me Angela illustrates how women are perceived by the world and how we view ourselves, and how so much of our own personal self awareness is derived from what we declare as instruction from outside influences.  Angela is about how that perception affects how we are treated and ultimately how our lives play out. 

At one point in the semester I misplaced by book.  The woman in my book class thought Angela may have hitched a ride to Vegas or may have fallen into a bad scene and was lying low.  She had become a persona to us all, as we all have a piece of Angela within.  When I found the book the class felt a friend; edgy, unpredictable, bedraggled but not a victim, had come home.
Jill Rounds

I build composites made up of individual photographs that, viewed together, propose a narrative. Whereas one photograph can tell a story, a series of photographs increases the number of narrative possibilities. One image can disrupt the conventional interpretation of another image. Add a third and the reading of the whole is altered further. My photographic composites serve as equations with many viable outcomes.

Through this framework I have begun an inquiry into middle class American values. The individual images in my narrative equations conjure up American ideals such as childhood innocence, love, material wealth, beauty, and sexuality. When viewed in groups of three or four, however, the certainty of the individual images erodes into pathos and doubt. Avarice, violence, and self-indulgence are revealed as well as a narrative ambiguity that forces the viewer to reconsider her earlier relationship to the objects present in the photographs.

In Irene at the Beach a woman in a bathing suit smiles out of a vintage photograph. Around her are images of food that carry a crude association with feminine sexuality: cherries and pork. In the fourth panel is a naked doll, suspended in submission. Like the woman on the beach, her face is painted with a permanent smile. Whereas each individual image is void of controversy, the ensemble raises questions about the objectification of the female body. Hot Potato plays with idea of fetish in regards to breasts, feet, and, unexpectedly, a sprouted potato. The potato is not typically an object associated with sexuality, however, placed within the correct context it can adopt a sexually charged presence. 
Julia Sapir

My artist’s book, Care for the Girls, They Establish the New Culture of China, explores the cultural preference for boy children in China. As the adoptive mother of a Chinese girl, I have encountered many comments and questions from friends, family members and strangers about the abandoned babies and girls that end up living in Chinese orphanages or foster care. Many Americans are familiar with the Chinese government’s population control policies, notably the infamous (if over-simplified) “one-child” per family dictate. They may even believe the government promotes the rejection of girl babies, lumping together this practice with other human rights abuses associated with Communism and/or the current regime.

In reality, the rationale behind the abandonment of female babies and girls in China has centuries-long cultural and societal precedents. Care for the Girls presents several factors that influence the difficult decisions faced by hundreds of thousands of Chinese birthparents when their first (or more typically, second) child is born female. I present excerpts from Lessons for a Woman, written by Ban Zhao, a female author who lived 2000 years ago. In this work, the author instructs women on their role in the Confucian order emphasizing humility and obedience to the mother-in-law. I’ve included early poetry decrying the unfortunate lot of being born female, and a poem by Han-Shan (Cold Mountain) that advises readers to “raise girls but not too many.” These historical writings are contrasted with the words of contemporary birth mothers describing the pressure exerted by paternal grandparents to produce male heirs. I’ve added a quotation from a doctor who refuses to identify the sex of babies during ultrasound procedures (for fear that girl babies will be aborted), billboards promoting the value of girl children, photographs of abandoned children, and passages written by Western adoptive families.

By merging historical and present-day documents and images I hope to increase an awareness of the complexities behind the abandonment of girl children in China. While my artist’s book has aesthetic value as an accordion fold book (a traditional book form in early China) it has educational worth as well. It is my hope that viewers, given the chance to turn these pages, will emerge with a deepened understanding of our Chinese sisters, and of Chinese culture in general.
Nina Stephenson

My mother grew up in the Great Depression in Los Angeles.  My mother’s mother was divorced and had three daughters to raise.  My grandmother was fortunate to have a job as a telephone operator because even most men had difficulty getting jobs.  Unfortunately, due to the Depression, my grandmother had to give up one of her daughters to be raised by her “spinster” sister.  Times were tough.  My grandmother remarried and he was a photographer.  He was also an alcoholic.  My grandmother endured it but eventually divorced him.
My mother was an athlete in high school.  She got married and was a mother by the time she was twenty-one years old.  When she was twenty-nine she had me.  My father was having an affair with another woman when I was in my mother’s womb.  My mother divorced my father when I was three years old.  My father didn’t want to help pay child support so my mother hired an attorney.

My mother got a job at the telephone company and worked her way up to a management position.  Her male colleagues made more money each week because they were men.  My mother was involved in one of the first law suits filed in the United States during the Sixties for equal pay for equal work.  Happily, they won the lawsuit.
I was a teenager in the Sixties.  I remember some of my male friends referring to the Women’s Liberation Movement as “women’s lip”.  I have lived with two men and never married because each relationship required that I subordinate myself when significant decisions were to be made.  I was also fearful of having children because I either lacked a college education or feared ending up like my mother and grandmother, struggling to support my child alone.  I chose to travel and be independent.

I completed my Masters Degree in Art from the University of California at Irvine in 1989.  I was thirty-nine years old.  While I was in graduate school I explored video, theatre, dance, printmaking, drawing, photography, and painting.  I liked to create metaphors using the dog as a primal representative of the men in my life.  The mixed media work I did in graduate school was an artistic catalyst and a form of shamanic healing.  I tried to put in concrete, visual form the pain, the agony, the ecstasy, and ultimately the duality of being a woman and coming to terms with the primal urges in life.  This work also addresses the objectification of women and their bodies.  I believe in a genetic memory and the retablo format is appropriate to the sacredness of these issues.

This work was completed when I was thirty-nine years old.  I am now fiftynine years old.  I have been teaching for the last twenty years.  I am currently taking care of my beloved, eighty seven year old mother.  She has been the source of much of my strength.  She has taught me how short and fragile life is.  I am also writing a screenplay about a girl that transforms the world through her poetry.  I hope that my retablos can help do that.
Jean Stevens

My work and life have been heavily influenced by feminist movement. From Sesame Street episodes which featured female construction workers and astronauts encouraging girls to do and be anything they wanted in the world, to adult years spent advocating for the end of domination, feminist action has shaped my thinking. In recent years I’ve witnessed a return among many young Americans to traditional sexist values within their marriages, careers, and personal lives. I’ve been most encouraged during this time to discover writer/activist bell hooks and her description of a visionary feminism outlined in Feminism is For Everybody.
The Dream was of replacing that culture of domination with a world of participatory economics grounded in communalism and social democracy, a world without discrimination based on race or gender, a world where recognition of mutuality and interdependency would be the dominant ethos, a global and ecological vision of how the planet can survive and how everyone in it can have access to peace and well-being.

As an artist I make sculptures that question the relationship between material culture and identity. As art historian and social critic Mary Douglass says, “Objects are not passive.” Material culture both imposes and reflects values concerning race, class, sexuality and gender. Our music, food, clothing, and home décor are ways we attempt to represent and project our identity.

The two sculptures included in my submission for Through Feminist Eyes reflect my interest in ceramic collectables (knick-knacks, porcelain dolls, etc). On a recent trip to Buffalo, NY to visit family my Nana and I took a trip to Jenss Home Décor. Throughout the store glass cabinets house ceramic collectables depicting white slender prepubescent girls in lavender and pink robes, young white slender men and women embracing, and young white pregnant women posed both with and without children. For female children, dolls and teddy bears are donned in pink and purple satin and soft cotton. From a visionary feminist perspective these objects are problematic for the constructed ideals they impose and the realities they make invisible.
As a sculptor I use my materials and scale to draw comparisons between my work and such collectables. My sculptures eschew human impersonations for more inventive creatures with stronger narrative and imaginative potential. My insect-like creatures have unique anatomies and tell individual stories. My sculptures leave room for viewers to bring their own memories and desires into their interpretation of these narratives.

All on Her Own is a bold sculpture that incorporates ceramic parts and soft knitted interior parts. Painted bright pink with red details the creature has an oversized head, large eyes, and a tail that threatens to pierce its own soft opening. The creature is adorable and menacing, childlike and sexual. These dualities call into question our culture’s fascination with all things cute and our sexualization of young girls, social behaviors both men and women are complicit in. The materiality and anatomy of this sculpture also speaks to another important human duality- that of power and vulnerability.

This same human duality is present in Battle Scar, a sculpture that combines soft cotton knit, wood, clay and other found materials. This sculpture was inspired by Wendell Berry’s offering, “We are what we are given and what is taken away”. (From Collected Poems, “the Gift of Gravity”) While aspects of culture aim to shape our identity around sexual appeal and gendered behaviors, this truth from Berry is a reminder that our life experiences are most important; that we can tie our identity to what we’ve encountered and lost. This figure is missing a limb- an obvious green stub holding its memory. The creature is detailed with the marks of age and makes visible the experiences of loss, difficulty, suffering, and survival. While these experiences are central to human life, they are apparently absent from the figures and collectables sold, collected, and inherited throughout the country.

Hook’s assertion, feminism is for everybody, gives me hope for feminist vision which seeks to alienate none and uplift all. My hope is to see feminist movement end domination and injustice wherever it exists, and to know and share our own stories in the process. I believe my sculptures, which question stereotypes and fundamentalisms regarding identity and allow viewers to consider their own stories, are an important contribution to this exhibit.
 My work and life have been heavily influenced by feminist movement. From Sesame Street episodes which featured female construction workers and astronauts encouraging girls to do and be anything they wanted in the world, to adult years spent advocating for the end of domination, feminist action has shaped my thinking. In recent years I’ve witnessed a return among many young Americans to traditional sexist values within their marriages, careers, and personal lives. I’ve been most encouraged during this time to discover writer/activist bell hooks and her description of a visionary feminism outlined in Feminism is For Everybody.

The Dream was of replacing that culture of domination with a world of participatory economics grounded in communalism and social democracy, a world without discrimination based on race or gender, a world where recognition of mutuality and interdependency would be the dominant ethos, a global and ecological vision of how the planet can survive and how everyone in it can have access to peace and well-being.As an artist I make sculptures that question the relationship between material culture and identity. As art historian and social critic Mary Douglass says, “Objects are not passive.” Material culture both imposes and reflects values concerning race, class, sexuality and gender. Our music, food, clothing, and home décor are ways we attempt to represent and project our identity.

The two sculptures included in my submission for Through Feminist Eyes reflect my interest in ceramic collectables (knick-knacks, porcelain dolls, etc). On a recent trip to Buffalo, NY to visit family my Nana and I took a trip to Jenss Home Décor. Throughout the store glass cabinets house ceramic collectables depicting white slender prepubescent girls in lavender and pink robes, young white slender men and women embracing, and young white pregnant women posed both with and without children. For female children, dolls and teddy bears are donned in pink and purple satin and soft cotton. From a visionary feminist perspective these objects are problematic for the constructed ideals they impose and the realities they make invisible.

As a sculptor I use my materials and scale to draw comparisons between my work and such collectables. My sculptures eschew human impersonations for more inventive creatures with stronger narrative and imaginative potential. My insect-like creatures have unique anatomies and tell individual stories. My sculptures leave room for viewers to bring their own memories and desires into their interpretation of these narratives.

All on Her Own is a bold sculpture that incorporates ceramic parts and soft knitted interior parts. Painted bright pink with red details the creature has an oversized head, large eyes, and a tail that threatens to pierce its own soft opening. The creature is adorable and menacing, childlike and sexual. These dualities call into question our culture’s fascination with all things cute and our sexualization of young girls, social behaviors both men and women are complicit in. The materiality and anatomy of this sculpture also speaks to another important human duality- that of power and vulnerability.

This same human duality is present in Battle Scar, a sculpture that combines soft cotton knit, wood, clay and other found materials. This sculpture was inspired by Wendell Berry’s offering, “We are what we are given and what is taken away”. (From Collected Poems, “the Gift of Gravity”) While aspects of culture aim to shape our identity around sexual appeal and gendered behaviors, this truth from Berry is a reminder that our life experiences are most important; that we can tie our identity to what we’ve encountered and lost. This figure is missing a limb- an obvious green stub holding its memory. The creature is detailed with the marks of age and makes visible the experiences of loss, difficulty, suffering, and survival. While these experiences are central to human life, they are apparently absent from the figures and collectables sold, collected, and inherited throughout the country.

Hook’s assertion, feminism is for everybody, gives me hope for feminist vision which seeks to alienate none and uplift all. My hope is to see feminist movement end domination and injustice wherever it exists, and to know and share our own stories in the process. I believe my sculptures, which question stereotypes and fundamentalisms regarding identity and allow viewers to consider their own stories, are an important contribution to this exhibit.
Jennifer DePaolo VanHorn           

The nature and expectations of masculinity, at first glance, seem clearly defined.  But as with most issues, the deeper you delve into situations’ inner-workings and origins you find that many original perceptions become inadequate.  Such is the case when gender roles and expectations are defined within limited and limiting parameters.  Expectations are lowered; stereotypes are created and passed along as truth until they become ingrained in the fabric of our experience.  A concerted effort is necessary to avoid the pitfalls inherent in this process but the effort can be rewarded with understanding about oneself and others.
It may seem odd to some that an artist concerned with issues of Masculinity Theory would consider himself a Feminist or his work conducive to a Feminist Paradigm.  I consider both to be possible and more importantly to be a desirable situation to exist within as a man and an artist.

As Feminists already know the idea of Feminism has taken an intellectually dishonest and emotionally frustrating beating in the last few decades or so.  The absurdity of these attacks never ceases to astound me as they primarily come from male critics.  I think it is important to state that it is impossible for me to know what it is really like to exist on this planet as a woman and I would never suggest that I know what is better for women then they themselves do.  I believe my role as a man, as it relates to Feminism, is to listen, be supportive, give advice from the male perspective when necessary and honor, respect and love the women in my life.
Just as I will never truly know what it is to be a woman I believe that it is impossible for a woman to truly know what it is like to be a man.  Masculinity Theory does not concern itself with the apportioning of blame or guilt within a cultural or individualized context, but focuses on how to create a more fulfilling and emotionally rich male experience.  Traditionally, Masculinity was defined in black and white terms, not on a wide range of emotions.  Masculinity Theory seeks to widen that discussion by understanding how this narrow conversation began and how to correct this inadequacy.  Men and Women experience great pressures and unfair expectations daily and to trivialize either struggle, I think, misses the point of what it means to be human.   

My recent work, The Cult of Man Series, seeks understanding within the gray areas of what makes a man, what is accepted and acceptable male behavior, and how can men free themselves from societal pressures and lowered expectations that perpetuate a systematic squandering of potential experience.  In my work the unabashedly phallic Femur has become a signifier of a male presence.  The sculptures resonate meanings and questions by challenging assumptions concerning what we as a society deem accepted and acceptable male behavior.  Also included is the Mandible or Jaw Bone, which has come to signify Communication or lack thereof.  Engaging in communication is vital to everyone, be they individuals or Nations.  When this communication is limited or prevented disastrous consequences can occur.

My work seeks to understand these issues, communicate them to others, and aid in the change of past behavioral patterns.  Just as Feminism seeks to understand and challenge preconceived notions about women, equality and humanity, Masculinity Theory does the same for men in a way that is concurrent with and as a companion to Feminism.  My work aims to expand the communication between the sexes to create deeper understandings and experiences for myself and hopefully others.

John Zimmerman