Guerrila Girls - reinventing the "F" word: feminism!
A long tradition of masked avengers like Robin Hood, Batman, The Lone Ranger, and Wonder Woman was taken up by Guerrila Girls - "Girls fighting DISCRIMINATION with Facts, Humour and Fake Fur"
How it all began ????
In 1985, The Museum of Modern Art in New York opened an exhibition titled An International Survey of Painting and Sculpture. It was supposed to be an up-to-the minute summary of the most significant contemporary art in the world. Out of 169 artists, only 13 were women. All the artists were white, either from Europe or the US. That was bad enough, but the curator, Kynaston McShine, said any artist who wasn't in the show should rethink “his” career. And that really annoyed a lot of artist
s because obviously the guy was completely prejudiced. Women demonstrated in front of the museum with the usual placards and picket line. Some of these so called - "Guerrila Girls" who attended were irritated as they didn't make any impression on passersby.
On spending 5 minutes on research, it was found that: the most influential galleries and museums exhibited almost no women artists. Some said it was an issue of quality, not prejudice. Others admitted there was discrimination, but considered the situation hopeless. Everyone in positions of power curators, critics, collectors, the artists themselves passed the buck. The artists blamed the dealers, the dealers blamed the collectors, the collectors blamed the critics, and so on. That moment these girls decided to embarrass each group by showing their records in public. Those were the first posters Guerrilla Girls put up in the streets of SoHo in New York .
On asking Georgia O'Keeffe why did they come up with the word "Guerrila Girls"? She replies- "We wanted to play with the fear of guerrilla warfare, to make people afraid of who we might be and where we would strike next. Besides, 'guerrilla' sounds so good with 'girl'." Further, Frida Kahlo adds - "Calling a grown woman a girl can imply she's not complete, mature, or grown-up. But we decided to reclaim the word “girl”, so it couldn't be used against us."
These girls wear GORRILA Masks with short skirts, high heels and fishnet stockings. The mask helps in disguising themselves in front of the Press and get the publicity. They say - "We were Guerrillas before we were Gorillas. No one remembers, for sure, how we got our fur, but one story is that at an early meeting, an original girl, a bad speller, wrote 'Gorilla' instead of 'Guerrilla.' It was an enlightened mistake. It gave us our 'mask-ulinity'."
In 1985, The Museum of Modern Art in New York opened an exhibition titled An International Survey of Painting and Sculpture. It was supposed to be an up-to-the minute summary of the most significant contemporary art in the world. Out of 169 artists, only 13 were women. All the artists were white, either from Europe or the US. That was bad enough, but the curator, Kynaston McShine, said any artist who wasn't in the show should rethink “his” career. And that really annoyed a lot of artist
s because obviously the guy was completely prejudiced. Women demonstrated in front of the museum with the usual placards and picket line. Some of these so called - "Guerrila Girls" who attended were irritated as they didn't make any impression on passersby.On spending 5 minutes on research, it was found that: the most influential galleries and museums exhibited almost no women artists. Some said it was an issue of quality, not prejudice. Others admitted there was discrimination, but considered the situation hopeless. Everyone in positions of power curators, critics, collectors, the artists themselves passed the buck. The artists blamed the dealers, the dealers blamed the collectors, the collectors blamed the critics, and so on. That moment these girls decided to embarrass each group by showing their records in public. Those were the first posters Guerrilla Girls put up in the streets of SoHo in New York .
On asking Georgia O'Keeffe why did they come up with the word "Guerrila Girls"? She replies- "We wanted to play with the fear of guerrilla warfare, to make people afraid of who we might be and where we would strike next. Besides, 'guerrilla' sounds so good with 'girl'." Further, Frida Kahlo adds - "Calling a grown woman a girl can imply she's not complete, mature, or grown-up. But we decided to reclaim the word “girl”, so it couldn't be used against us."
These girls wear GORRILA Masks with short skirts, high heels and fishnet stockings. The mask helps in disguising themselves in front of the Press and get the publicity. They say - "We were Guerrillas before we were Gorillas. No one remembers, for sure, how we got our fur, but one story is that at an early meeting, an original girl, a bad speller, wrote 'Gorilla' instead of 'Guerrilla.' It was an enlightened mistake. It gave us our 'mask-ulinity'."
Another humourous Poster by Guerrilla Girls :: In US, Bus companies are more enlightened...
And the most famous poster and one of my favourites by Guerrila Girls...:
Today, there are millions of Guerrila Girls and supporters for this movement. I am glad to learn about this group at the "Tate Modern" Museum at London. Guerrila Girls Rock !!!!
posted by Vibrance ! @ 7:12 AM
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