Exposition
"Female Illustrations"
Artists:
Úrsula Ochoa, Jenny Patiño, Maria Isabel Naranjo, Ana Isabel Díez, Zinaida Quiñones, Evelin Velásquez, Carolina Henao, Milena Contreras, Margaria and Lina Rada.
Curators:
Jessica Rucinque and Tony Evanko.
Mounting:
José Marín and Karen Correa.
Date:
.
May 13 - June 3, 2015
Curatorial text
" Female Illustrations is the question of a group of people who dare to share their intimate searches about the role of women, within a society with a fictitious construct established on it; in which certain functions, tasks and stereotypes have been assigned , which differ from any possible identification of herself with her true desires as an individual and an active subject in society.
The works that make up this exhibition allow us to speak of the subtle and the soft as powerful creative forces inherent in all human beings, but present to a greater extent in the feminine essence. The sweet is intelligent, the docile has determination, the weak has great power. All this is reflected in the work of these ten artists who rethink themselves daily, from their own interests and ideas, as autonomous women who are capable of looking at themselves, recognizing their power and rearranging the social fabric of which they are part.
How to be a woman? What does it mean to be a woman today? How to be the woman you want to be? How to get away from external impositions to achieve it? What are women really fighting for? How can all human beings understand each other equally, without gender differentiations? Where do they take the courage to start a process of introspection that allows us to conclude that do all people share the same humanity?
Assuming that humanity is a first step to recognize that all people are possessors of great strength and power to transform. Power that these artists invite us to take on actively in the search to be the women, and the human beings, that we want to be ".
Artists, works and perspectives
Ursula Ochoa
Work: From the series "Reading women"
Digital image on photographic paper on MDF
17x25cms
2010 - 2013
http://ursula8a.blogspot.com/
"In my work it has always been an important point to analyze the roles of women in the construction of history from the revision of paradigms that condition the hierarchies of power in societies, which to a large extent, indirectly interfere in the making decision-making on the implications of being a woman and assuming an active role that contributes to culture.
My most important experience has been to verify during my creative processes, the polarization that has in the artistic field to approach subjects that investigate in properly "feminine" circumstances; ranging from the absolute rejection of this class of proposals by a medium that rejects "feminist art" on the one hand, or the lightness with which these types of proposals are accepted for the simple fact of deserving (historical) legitimation by part of the system. This aspect is partly dangerous because these problems are often addressed with very immediate speeches.
In my case, I do feminist art and I am not afraid of the term, but I also know how difficult it is to face the artistic medium from this perspective. It is a very shaky ground.
Reflecting on the roles of women has always been important, and it will continue to do so, especially since the social structure still has a tremendous imbalance and we continue to nurture absolutely closed and even unworthy cultural paradigms for women. The subject cannot be very pleasant and many critics, curators or artists will say that they are fed up with this kind of thing, but I consider that art is to a great extent, a thermometer for societies and should contribute to "annoying a little", this in order to open up some critical thinking about how we are and what we do as societies through culture ".
Maria Isabel Naranjo
Work: "Rush"
.
Digital printing
100x200cms
2015.
http://iamariaisabel.wix.com/artistamariaisabelnaranjo
"My projects materialize from various media such as written, corporal, object, visual, where the guiding axes revolve around the body, with special emphasis on the social representations of warfare, the female gender and eroticism.
Interdisciplinary dialogues have been fundamental for my artistic practice, from where I have been able to experiment with different languages, play with other places of production and in this way nurture proposals from graphic design, literature, costume design and the performing arts. for example.
The artistic internship at Hangar.org in Barcelona was interesting as a specific creative experience, as I was able to contrast my reflective bet on the female bodies of my city with the constituents of this other territory, being able to find similarities and characteristics that unite us conceptually compared to what we think this body type is. I was also able to share experiences with artists from other latitudes from where collaborations were generated, for example Syo Yoshihama from Japan wanted to include a song to the Virgin Mary sung by me in his video installation and thus play with art.
I believe that in global society, many of the voices belonging to both human groups and individuals are being heard with force, which in previous times did not feel present. One of them is the issue of genders, not only the feminine but the new and changing current genders. Women have always been as important as men, but as this genre had the unfortunate place of silence for so many years, from different contexts such as political, artistic, science, religion, technology, to name only Some, it is now that you can count on conditions that allow you to say and do what you have always said and done but out loud, without so many taboos or fears.I also think it important that we ask ourselves about the concept of our body with the awareness that this thought rests on some preconceptions that come from colonization, therefore they are borrowed and it is essential to begin to develop criteria that are more coherent with what we are in Latin America and in Colombia itself ".
"At first I had a particular interest in the landscape. But from 2010 I began to establish a parallel between Mother Nature (the Exterior Landscape) and Mother Woman (the Interior Landscape), one of whose works is present in this exhibition .
In this reflection I felt that just as the damage to nature worried me, the mistreatment of women was even more ignominious. That is why, from different media, I have tried to draw attention to the issue.
I feel that I am very colorful and that is why I preferred to express myself through painting and the landscape theme, which gave me a lot of freedom in this sense. However, since I began to explore the issue of mistreatment of women, freedom has been the selection of media that previously did not address, such as: video, book-object, sculpture, installation. At this moment I am one of the 8 nominees for the Luis Caballero Award with the work EN- BOLA- ATADOS. I think this is the most important thing in my career. This work aims to generate the work through art therapy workshops with women victims of violence. It is an installation that not only highlights the problem, but also seeks to address it from another perspective ".
Ana Isabel considers that it is important to make visible and reflect on the roles that women are now assuming in society "because it is the cultural schemes that allow the problem of abuse to perpetuate itself. We are ourselves many times, as the main thing to educate in the family, who allow this to continue to happen. It is necessary to break with traditional roles and these schemes to achieve true gender equality. This is the message immersed in my work for Luis Caballero. "
Zinayda Quinones
Work: "Smoke of genderless"
.
Digital photography printed on polystyrene.
50x90 cms
2010
"Monster beauty"
Analogous photograph printed on adhesive paper on MDF.
60x90 cms
2002
"Stinging caresses"
Analogous photograph printed on adhesive paper on MDF.
90x50 cms
2007
"When I think of myself as a woman, I cannot stop thinking of myself as another woman, in a different place, with another body, another voice, for this reason I am the one who acts in each photograph and the one who experiences being in multiple ways.
What is prototyped and what is established for being a woman has always caught my attention, since it encourages me to look for ways to get out of that armed box and transform it into different perspectives where the gaze finds the meaning of the work, exploring the feminine world without feminist claim, since I do not intend to detract from the value of the other or the other, but to make the viewer uncomfortable by showing something that they do not always want to see, such as women in various subjection scenarios, whether domestic, sexual, work or emotional, violating their being creative human and thinker.
In this exhibition there are three black and white photographs which make visible my position regarding what I want to communicate with my Art. The image The Smoke of Genderless presents a transvestite character, he is a man and / or woman, his face is dark, full of loneliness, in his hand he has a vice, a cigarette being consumed in the middle of the void, in this case the sex disappears, You are nobody in the midst of chaos, sadness did not choose you because of your biology, we are simply beings with the same desires, anguish and happiness. Monstrous Beauty photography exposes a mortal sin for women, being ugly is not allowed, you have to do the best job to comply with the canons dictated by the consumerist and dream-catching world, which only explores the surface and leaves the interior obsolete to the admiration of minds. Finally we find Sharp Caresses , showing a sore vagina by the traditions of the whole world, which deny and guillotine female desire, the natural rhythm that the body generates is stagnant in religions and in its duty to be a submissive woman, mutilating the mind and body.
As significant experiences, I consider that I have been very fortunate, since in my life there have been beings and moments that have left the most beautiful traces, be they painful, disastrous or of immense happiness, but they have helped to transform me and transform my environment; However, there is something that every day brings gifts and learning and that is being an Arts Teacher in a public institution, where I have the opportunity to be a Woman, an Artist, a Teacher, a Friend and a Companion, all at the same time, challenging myself to be better. person and transmitting my passion for Art and my Art, being myself with a touch of light and darkness (as a very close artist colleague told me) which I consider very accurate.
I am interested in making visible and reflecting on what I am, it is very difficult for me to talk about something that I do not know and by working with my Body, thoughts and emotions I manage to appropriate its symbolism; My work does not pretend to place women above or below, they do not want to walk backwards or stop loving their environment, it is a call to leave so much machismo, feminism, homophobia, to stop harmful expressions such as "weaker sex" and go against the established prototypes that only exist to market objects, my work seeks that women and men feel one, with the same opportunities, regardless of their sexual inclination, shapes or colors, that respect the personal living space, the intimacy and the public, free and thinking, dreamers and creators, who feel their voice of protest in the face of non-conformities, taking care of nature, taking care of eyes, nose, kisses and ideas, living the role of woman to the fullest every day and man ".
Evelin Velasquez
Work: "Bride" from the Ponientes series "
Photography.
120x80 cms
2013
Carolina Henao
Work: "Humans"
.
Mixed media on paper
Variable dimensions
2013 - 2014
"My work, being introspective and being linked to a personal search for who I really am, explores and reflects on my life experiences as a human being. It contains my fears, dreams, dilemmas, thoughts, certainties and questions. facing love, feminine ideals and the "invisible" way as they are imparted, growing up and what implications of the stages of life, death, the cyclical condition of everything in the universe: birth / death, beginning / end, contraction / expansion, human emotions and behaviors.
Being able to work for several years on projects where art is not a product, but a tool capable of transforming human beings, made me understand the true and immense power that art can have in people's lives, when it is more beyond the traditional functions within the art circuit.
I have seen how art changes the reality that surrounds us, allows us to know ourselves internally, discover ourselves, communicate what we are not capable of saying in words, resist what is established, heal ourselves, establish bridges between human beings, affirm ourselves in what we are or want to be , and above all to become creative and creative beings in whatever we want to perform.
On the other hand, this experience, by expanding my concept of art, made my attitude towards what I do change completely, to the extent that I value and enjoy the creative process more than the artistic product. This has given me more freedom and sincerity in my work.
In less than a century there have been more changes in the female condition than in entire millennia. With so many and profound changes in the female condition, the concept of femininity, the relationship of women with the opposite sex and their social roles, is fundamental for the construction of society, reflecting on everything that happened and where it is pointing.
Thanks to all these new roles and that they are also becoming visible, women have been gaining greater autonomy in the construction of a life project, in the empowerment of our capacities, in making decisions, which little by little ( there is still much to do) greater equity and compliance in any area, of our fundamental rights.
Men and women are existentially different and it is necessary that it be like that to complement each other in the world, but I do believe that throughout history we have been violated and removed from our fundamental rights (to life, work, study and etc.) so in that sense we deserve equality, we still have a long way to go, but the constant reflection and visibility of the new roles of women, contributes immensely to achieving it ".
Milena Contreras
Work: From the series "Celebration"
Photography with digital intervention
80x50 cms
2014
"In my work I am interested in exploring topics such as the family album, as a domestic, subjective and unfinished archive through the reinterpretation of analog photographs through digital media, and the possibilities of these.
The most significant experience in my artistic career so far has been the invitation to be part of this exhibition, in the company of other women that I admire.
I consider that it is important to make visible and reflect on the roles that women are now assuming in society, because the concept of equity needs to be reinforced in order for it to become a reality and this is achieved by reflecting on the role of women in society. Today and how it is an essential part in the development of any society ".
Lina and Margarita Rada
Work: "A day by bicycle"
Mixed media on paper
16x21 cms
2015.
"The themes that we have worked on are all the things that surround us: the informal economy, historical and popular figures, everyday objects, travel diaries, inventories of objects bought on buses in Medellín, among others.
The Drawing Rally in 2008 has been the most significant experience in our artistic career, as it tests the hand in connection with the mind and spirit in a few minutes.
We believe that it is important today and always to make visible and reflect on the roles that women are now assuming in society, until a role is achieved on equal terms with all human beings ".
Jenny Patino
Process in the CuBO.X: "Analysis and plastic proposal on the journalistic language that is used to deal with topics and news that involve the gender approach".
Process in the Cu BO.X
Experimentation
2015 (May)
"One of the significant experiences of my artistic career is within the dOCUMENTA 13, which took place in 2012, there was a program in which different art academies in Europe were invited to participate in an educational program, which It consisted of taking a group of students from each academy to live in an old hospital during the three months that the dOCUMENTA lasted so that they could actively participate in the event.
All the students who participated were linked to different projects in which they interacted with the visiting public, but we also had access to the different activities that were carried out: conferences, talks, film cycles, various artistic activities such as happenings and performance, and to a series of talks in which different artists and curators were invited to speak with the students at the hospital where we were all staying. It was a really enriching experience due to the fact of being for three months participating in an event in which current topics in art were discussed and there was the possibility of interacting with the artists and the works that were presented there and at the same time with young people. artists with whom it was shared daily.
There is a very strange phenomenon in which the contributions that women have made in different fields of society tend to be forgotten or skewed. For this reason, when speaking of current roles, I consider them to be taken up but not new. I believe, then, that these current processes of visibility can help to recall those past contributions of women to society and to reflect on the fact that they are forgotten and because their spaces and roles within society are constantly being redefined. ".
Inauguration - May 13, 2105
Conversation
.
The artists ask themselves and share: "How to be a woman? What does it mean to be a woman today? How to be the woman you want to be? How to get away from external impositions to achieve it? What are women really fighting for? How can all human beings understand each other as equals, without gender differentiations? Where do they take the courage to begin a process of introspection that allows us to reach the conclusion that all do people share the same humanity? "
