- courtesy of the artist
- Friendship by Frances F. Denny
While assembling “Feminism (n.): Plural,” her new show for Woman Made Gallery, Claudine Isé, the gallery’s new executive director, used Roxane Gay’s discerning essay collection Bad Feminist as her inspiration. The result is a display of work by 35 artists that encompasses various feminist themes. I recently interviewed Isé about the show and her thoughts on the role of feminism in the art world.
My intent with “Feminism (n.): Plural” is to engage artists and viewers in a conversation about what feminism looks, acts, and sounds like today, certainly not in a prescriptive way but rather as an invitation to participate. All of the works in the exhibition were selected by me through an open call process, so the resulting exhibition is intended not as my own personal curatorial statement about what feminism should or should not be, but instead, as a snapshot of a variety of artists’ take on what feminism means to them. I do agree with Hooks that feminism at its core must be about changing the culture—and to do that, we humans have to be open to changing ourselves.
There are works by very young artists who are still in MFA programs alongside artists who are middle-aged and/or postmenopausal. I would have loved to receive more culturally diverse submissions than I did, but even so, there are artists in the show whose works open up discussion of the experience of black feminists, feminists hailing from the Middle East. One thing I also want to point out is that the public programs we’ve scheduled throughout May and June are very much a part of the “Feminism (n.): Plural” exhibition. Those talks, performances, and symposia are meant to continue the conversation that the individual works in the show start. An art exhibition can only do so much.
You refer to feminism as being an ever-evolving concept. Where do you think it is in society right now?
What are your goals as WMG’s new executive director?
