09.26.2019-11.30.2019
STREIK !
group exhibition
Grob Gallery is proud to present STREIK !, a group exhibition showcasing the works of 6 international female artists, introduced once more from the place Bourg-de-Four with Sophie Le Meillour’s window screenings.
On June 14th 2019, all over Switzerland, hundreds of thousands of women protested against the confederation’s recurring delay in reaching equal rights between the sexes. International eyes were drawn on a somewhat never-ending and conservative approach towards women. Directly inspired by this national event, Streik! showcases a group of works by female artists from various horizons, with one middle ground: the creative expression of the female body.
This emancipation is revealed in varying manners throughout the exhibition. In the first room, a full-size Sylvie Fleury car, covered in pink nail polish, sets the tone. What is usually pictured as a male stereotype is bluntly awarded female attributes, claiming upfront Fleury’s strong advocacy for women’s rights.
A smaller sculpture by the artist is installed further in the second room, accompanied by three photographic prints by Lisa Holzer. This time, the focus is more organic. Guts, Flush and Head of a Partisan depict abstract shapes that start out as pure documentations, but that are magnified through photoshop manipulation, divulging what can be interpreted as representations of desire in various forms.
Accompanying her peers, Sue Williams’s painting delves further into feminism by exploring social constraints and violence, between abstraction and a form of figuration. Behind her work, personal elements surface: although the painting’s green and red tones seem bright and almost joyful upfront, when taking a closer look, one depicts introspective memories questioning the artist’s identity.
Pauline Beaudemont, further down the room, contrasts the pragmatic recounting of her sexual dreams with the intimacy and sensuality of the large-scale curtain onto which they are marked. Still, she remains straightforward when she accompanies this installation with a concrete slab onto which a composition of Mexican votive Milagros medals depicting body parts is openly displayed.
Also conveying a poetic touch, Nan Goldin captures two young lovers, Suzanne and Philippe, shamelessly kissing on a public bench, with a raw and innocent humanity. Known, among other things, for her documentation of the female condition in harsh settings, Nan Goldin’s piece, dating back to the eighties, celebrates freedom of action.
The 1972 film Consumer art by the Polish artist Natalia LL culminates the exhibition. Recently temporarily removed from the walls of Warsaw’s National museum by museum and culture officials, because it was judged too provocative, it supports this timely feminist strive and openly expresses freedom of the female body—divulging young women amusingly and provocatively enjoying bananas in a documentary-like manner.
Co-Curated with Kasia Michalski
image
NATALIA LL
Consumer art, 1975
DVD (original material 16 mm), 16'01''
Edition 10 + 2 A.P.
Courtesy: lokal_30 Warsaw