Artistic Collaboration II - Guerrilla Girls - by yeeman

The Guerrilla Girls

Introduction of The Guerrila Girls

•A group of feminist artists established in NYC in 1985
•Incensed by an exhibition held by MOMA( which includes 17 female artists only)
•Create posters, write books, give talks
•Key issues: Role of women, film, politics & pop culture

•Wear gorilla masks to hide their identities

PURPOSES:
•let audiences focus on the issues
•Can speak without hesitation and ruining their careers

•Humorous presentation
•‘Our situation as women and artists of color in the art world was so pathetic, all we could do was make fun of it. It felt so good to ridicule and belittle a system that excluded us. There was also that stale idea that feminists don't have a sense of humor.’ --- Paula Modersohn-Becker

PURPOSES:
•Can get their ‘enemies’ interested in their work, think about it and gradually change their minds
•Feminists can be funny

‘Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?’

•The Girls conducted a count at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1989
•Count the no. of naked males & females & female artists
•Less than 5% female artists, but 85% of the nudes were female

•The Girls ran it as an ad. on NYC buses
•Bus company stopped running it by saying the figure is too suggestive and seemed to have more than a fan in her hand

•The poster is a success
•The Girls did a recount in 2005
•Fewer women artists, more naked males
•‘Women artists are underrepresented while women as models in male artists’ work are ubiquitous’ (---From Themes in Contemporary Art)
•Does it mean that women has to be naked in order to get maximum exposure in art museums ?

‘The anatomically correct Oscar’

•A giant billboard in the heart of Hollywood
•Displayed during March,2002
•Collaboration between GG and Alice Locas (a group of female film makers)
•Statistics: Best Director has never been awarded to a woman, only 3% of the acting awards have gone to people of color

•The girls transformed the original gold statuette into a pasty, fat, white, middle-aged man
•Resembles the winners of The Oscars
•“He’s white & male,just like the guys who win!” --- The GG

•The display of the billboard comes just weeks before the Oscars (which was held on 24March), and The Oscars is actually held just a few blocks away from the billboard
•Halle Berry : Best Actress
•Denzel Washington: Best Actor(both are African-American)

IDENTITY

•identity politics
•“Identity politics is a term used to refer to the beliefs and activities of those who target racism, sexism, and other forms of prejudice and work for social rights”(--- From Themes in Contemporary Art)
•The GG often engage with such kind of politics since they’ve been fighting equality over the years

LANGUAGE

•Language plays an important role in GG’s works
•Language can create strong impacts on viewers
•Declarative language: states its message bluntly & unambiguously
•The Girls illustrate such kind of language by using statistics & simple short texts

My opinions

•Humorous
•‘Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?’ is well-made (eye catching color, right information combined with right graphics to make the right statement)
•Direct representation
•Makes me more aware of the inequalities people face today & things we always take for granted

REFERENCES:

•Robertson, Jean, and Craig McDaniel. Themes of contemporary art : visual art after 1980. New York : Oxford University Press, 2005
•But is it art? : the spirit of art as activism. Edited by Nina Felshin. Seattle : Bay Press, c1995
•Walker, John. Art in the age of mass media. London : Pluto Press, 1994
•http://www.wikipedia.org/
•http://www.guerrillagirls.com/