BALD GIRLS AT IBERIA ART CENTER | BEIJING
BY SANDRA MIRANDA PATTIN
The bald girls in this exhibition had all long hair until the day of the opening when they decided to shave their heads of in order to make a statement, they wanted to underline in a public space that they are feminist artists in China; a country that has been growing fast and has become a powerful nation but where the women rights issue is extremely dark. If you place this exhibition in the right context then you can imagine how revolutionary feminism can be in China today, it is indeed very brave to state you are a feminist, unfortunately there is nothing close to a Feminist Movement as the western had it since the 60’s on but Xiao Lu, Liny Jan and Li Xinmo accompanied by the curator Juan Xu are trying through art language to get a space for women voices to be heard, art has always been important in revolutions and this case is only another confirmation of it.
Two of the paintings by Jan Liny were censored by Chinese authorities one day before the opening, they said the paintings had to be taken down from the walls, I learned this happens often in China and government keeps a careful eye on the artists exhibitions, opposition to the orders would have meant to close the exhibition, so Jiny took them down, she didn’t want the exhibition to be closed. One of the pieces was a portrait of her looking like Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong’s wife an the other one the documentation of a performance where she literally kicked Ai Wei Wei ‘s picture not as her being violent to him, more underlying his situation by leaving a print of the written text : kick him to death, I believe this makes clear why the local authorities had something against this piece.
The biggest female artist in china is with no doubt Xiao Lu, in 1989 during the first international exhibition in the National gallery in Beijing she had exhibited an installation called Dialogue where a man and a woman are speaking on the phone, each one in a telephone cabin but the line between them is interrupted in the middle. During the opening she got inside and fired the sculpture, two gun shots that claimed to be the start of a revolution in terms of feminism. A lot of art critics define the episode as a strong statement she made regarding the fact that art world was owned by men, it was a social and political episode but to honor the truth what moved Xiao Lu to shot her piece was a broken heart and what made it a feminist statement was clear a few years later when she published the book Dialogue, another strong statement, another step of revolution shades. For a few years she shared the authorship of this controversial and very famous piece with her companion Tang Song whom she went to live with in Australia after been detained by police officers for the episode, in all this time she was silent about the episode even though this act actually made history. For love reasons she shared it’s success and authorship with her partner, because that is what women do, they give, they love, they sacrifice as she states.
The revolution she started was moved by love or by the consequence of it, I find it incredibly strong and beautiful, considering that in today’s world speaking about love, specially in art, is considered weak and soft and even ridiculous, one always thinks a revolution is a fight coming from other intellectual feelings. However Xiao Lu’s has now finally cleared up the story and she has been recognized as the sole author of the historical Gunfire Incident.
Li Xinmo is the other artist participating, a silent woman she seems but incredibly strong, she had a series of drawings made with menstrual blood mixed with ink and a video documentation of a performance, both works have such a strong reference to body but still so much beauty in them so much poetry and delicacy, they really embodied what a woman is, delicate, soft, feminine but strong, brave and present, Li Xinmo seems to be empowered of her been a woman, something that you actually perceive as soon as you look at her, she relates to her body in a different way from women generally in China.
As a performance artist myself the first perceptions from people come through body language and it strikes me the relationship Chinese people have with their bodies, it was then explained to me later that during the Cultural Revolution under Mao Zedong people went through a de-sexualitation process that it is still very evident in appearance, yet the 3 artists had such an empowerment of their bodies.
I was invited to give a talk for this exhibition about western feminism. Feminism was a very important phenomenon in the 60s in western society and artists where crucial to open the door for emancipation, indeed, a movement called feminist art was formed. In today’s scene we no longer call feminist art the work by women artists except for those pieces that specifically point out issues of women not getting their rights and space or that speak of women being oppressed.
Bald Girls exhibition opened a very interesting discussion, weather women artists in China are crawling for their positions and their rights both in society and in the art scene, now what Xiao Lu did in 1989 it’s history but what has changed since then? The statistics show that auction market, gallery representation, collectors and other institutions are still prominently for male artists both in China and it isn’t unfortunately very different in the Western side of the world as one can easily think.
When I was invited to this exhibition I first said, well feminism it’s in a way something from the past and we have gained so much from the 60’s until today, I don’t consider myself a feminist and I certainly must confess I underestimate the importance that it can have today. I decided to prove my thoughts with statistics and the results are very discouraging, the most important art publications as Vitamin P, Cream among others, only have between 27% and 30% of women artists included, among them almost none from the South or East of the world, the most important Biennales like the one in Venice has the same presence, 30% of women, Museums like the Metropolitan in NY has only 3% of artworks by women in their collection, only one Venice Museum has artwork by women and it is kept in storage and we can go on and on. Things haven’t changed as much as I thought.
I recall an essay by art critic Joanna Frueh, written in mid 80’s where she explained how the art language, both in criticism and literature has been shaped by men and as consequence it fits the way men criticize, think and express themselves; academic structure for writing “serious” essays or criticisms has been established based on men’s reactions and mental structures, now, the feminists in the western society for years tried to adapt to this, women active in the culture embraced “men’s language” to express themselves. I believe that fact was, on one side necessary for only this structure was serious and accepted by society and only in this way women would have gained some recognition and consideration, but on the other side it is in the present time something to be stopped, women have to shape language differently, for we are women and we are different, feminist discourse can’t be involved in gaining power over the others anymore, that’s past, it has to be an empowerment process of becoming. I’d like to quote Joanna Frueh’s: “Once a woman owns her body, she will speak a different language. When the organ in her mouth belongs to her, we will know that all tongues, all words are flesh” she wrote this thinking of the bible sentence that dictate: “An the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…”
Maybe it is not anymore the case to rewrite history, as the artists in the 60’s and 70’s in western society tried to do, it was important back then to save from history all women’s names that had importance, like in the piece called “The dinner party” by Judy Chicago, it is important to find our own language and through that fight the still very well established system that has been shaped by men forever!!!
It is important to have activist artists like the Guerrilla Girls in USA that have been working for over 30 years anonymously and have contributed to reveal important and not always fear facts in the art system but on the other side I believe feminist artists do not have to be in revolution constantly or in a permanent complaint attitude, feminist art can also be simple and fun and communicate as strongly as other more intense languages of art.
Clearly art by women in China is not to be compared to women’s issues in the western society during 60’s, the research seem to be more on discovering an identity in their past and translating it into present. We do not need to call art done by women: feminist art, but we do need to bring out and discuss the situation of women artists in the art scene but most important of all, we need to underlined that it is art, the universal language, that knows no frontiers, that can break the walls of any gender division.
The exhibition will be opened until the 3rd of April in the Iberia Center for Contemporary Art Beijing Conference Center.
http://www.iberiart.org/EnIndex.aspx
Curator: Juan Xu
Academic Chair: Yong Tong Yujie, Juan Xu
Academic Guests: Christa Stolle, Sandra Miranda Pattin, Li Yinhe, Tao Yong Bai, Jia Ark, Zhu Qingsheng, Zhang Xiaoling,
Gao Lu, Liu Wen, XU, Qi Wang, Hao Qingsong, Island Son, Zhai Yongming, Yang Li Na,
Xu Zhen-Min, Zhang Ping, Mary Lou Song Ya, Songshao Peng, Xu Bin, Zhou Zan, Shenzi Chen, Wu Rong Rong , Yangzi Guang,
The bald girls in this exhibition had all long hair until the day of the opening when they decided to shave their heads of in order to make a statement, they wanted to underline in a public space that they are feminist artists in China; a country that has been growing fast and has become a powerful nation but where the women rights issue is extremely dark. If you place this exhibition in the right context then you can imagine how revolutionary feminism can be in China today, it is indeed very brave to state you are a feminist, unfortunately there is nothing close to a Feminist Movement as the western had it since the 60’s on but Xiao Lu, Liny Jan and Li Xinmo accompanied by the curator Juan Xu are trying through art language to get a space for women voices to be heard, art has always been important in revolutions and this case is only another confirmation of it.
Two of the paintings by Jan Liny were censored by Chinese authorities one day before the opening, they said the paintings had to be taken down from the walls, I learned this happens often in China and government keeps a careful eye on the artists exhibitions, opposition to the orders would have meant to close the exhibition, so Jiny took them down, she didn’t want the exhibition to be closed. One of the pieces was a portrait of her looking like Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong’s wife an the other one the documentation of a performance where she literally kicked Ai Wei Wei ‘s picture not as her being violent to him, more underlying his situation by leaving a print of the written text : kick him to death, I believe this makes clear why the local authorities had something against this piece.
The biggest female artist in china is with no doubt Xiao Lu, in 1989 during the first international exhibition in the National gallery in Beijing she had exhibited an installation called Dialogue where a man and a woman are speaking on the phone, each one in a telephone cabin but the line between them is interrupted in the middle. During the opening she got inside and fired the sculpture, two gun shots that claimed to be the start of a revolution in terms of feminism. A lot of art critics define the episode as a strong statement she made regarding the fact that art world was owned by men, it was a social and political episode but to honor the truth what moved Xiao Lu to shot her piece was a broken heart and what made it a feminist statement was clear a few years later when she published the book Dialogue, another strong statement, another step of revolution shades. For a few years she shared the authorship of this controversial and very famous piece with her companion Tang Song whom she went to live with in Australia after been detained by police officers for the episode, in all this time she was silent about the episode even though this act actually made history. For love reasons she shared it’s success and authorship with her partner, because that is what women do, they give, they love, they sacrifice as she states.
The revolution she started was moved by love or by the consequence of it, I find it incredibly strong and beautiful, considering that in today’s world speaking about love, specially in art, is considered weak and soft and even ridiculous, one always thinks a revolution is a fight coming from other intellectual feelings. However Xiao Lu’s has now finally cleared up the story and she has been recognized as the sole author of the historical Gunfire Incident.
Li Xinmo is the other artist participating, a silent woman she seems but incredibly strong, she had a series of drawings made with menstrual blood mixed with ink and a video documentation of a performance, both works have such a strong reference to body but still so much beauty in them so much poetry and delicacy, they really embodied what a woman is, delicate, soft, feminine but strong, brave and present, Li Xinmo seems to be empowered of her been a woman, something that you actually perceive as soon as you look at her, she relates to her body in a different way from women generally in China.
As a performance artist myself the first perceptions from people come through body language and it strikes me the relationship Chinese people have with their bodies, it was then explained to me later that during the Cultural Revolution under Mao Zedong people went through a de-sexualitation process that it is still very evident in appearance, yet the 3 artists had such an empowerment of their bodies.
I was invited to give a talk for this exhibition about western feminism. Feminism was a very important phenomenon in the 60s in western society and artists where crucial to open the door for emancipation, indeed, a movement called feminist art was formed. In today’s scene we no longer call feminist art the work by women artists except for those pieces that specifically point out issues of women not getting their rights and space or that speak of women being oppressed.
Bald Girls exhibition opened a very interesting discussion, weather women artists in China are crawling for their positions and their rights both in society and in the art scene, now what Xiao Lu did in 1989 it’s history but what has changed since then? The statistics show that auction market, gallery representation, collectors and other institutions are still prominently for male artists both in China and it isn’t unfortunately very different in the Western side of the world as one can easily think.
When I was invited to this exhibition I first said, well feminism it’s in a way something from the past and we have gained so much from the 60’s until today, I don’t consider myself a feminist and I certainly must confess I underestimate the importance that it can have today. I decided to prove my thoughts with statistics and the results are very discouraging, the most important art publications as Vitamin P, Cream among others, only have between 27% and 30% of women artists included, among them almost none from the South or East of the world, the most important Biennales like the one in Venice has the same presence, 30% of women, Museums like the Metropolitan in NY has only 3% of artworks by women in their collection, only one Venice Museum has artwork by women and it is kept in storage and we can go on and on. Things haven’t changed as much as I thought.
I recall an essay by art critic Joanna Frueh, written in mid 80’s where she explained how the art language, both in criticism and literature has been shaped by men and as consequence it fits the way men criticize, think and express themselves; academic structure for writing “serious” essays or criticisms has been established based on men’s reactions and mental structures, now, the feminists in the western society for years tried to adapt to this, women active in the culture embraced “men’s language” to express themselves. I believe that fact was, on one side necessary for only this structure was serious and accepted by society and only in this way women would have gained some recognition and consideration, but on the other side it is in the present time something to be stopped, women have to shape language differently, for we are women and we are different, feminist discourse can’t be involved in gaining power over the others anymore, that’s past, it has to be an empowerment process of becoming. I’d like to quote Joanna Frueh’s: “Once a woman owns her body, she will speak a different language. When the organ in her mouth belongs to her, we will know that all tongues, all words are flesh” she wrote this thinking of the bible sentence that dictate: “An the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…”
Maybe it is not anymore the case to rewrite history, as the artists in the 60’s and 70’s in western society tried to do, it was important back then to save from history all women’s names that had importance, like in the piece called “The dinner party” by Judy Chicago, it is important to find our own language and through that fight the still very well established system that has been shaped by men forever!!!
It is important to have activist artists like the Guerrilla Girls in USA that have been working for over 30 years anonymously and have contributed to reveal important and not always fear facts in the art system but on the other side I believe feminist artists do not have to be in revolution constantly or in a permanent complaint attitude, feminist art can also be simple and fun and communicate as strongly as other more intense languages of art.
Clearly art by women in China is not to be compared to women’s issues in the western society during 60’s, the research seem to be more on discovering an identity in their past and translating it into present. We do not need to call art done by women: feminist art, but we do need to bring out and discuss the situation of women artists in the art scene but most important of all, we need to underlined that it is art, the universal language, that knows no frontiers, that can break the walls of any gender division.
The exhibition will be opened until the 3rd of April in the Iberia Center for Contemporary Art Beijing Conference Center.
http://www.iberiart.org/EnIndex.aspx
Curator: Juan Xu
Academic Chair: Yong Tong Yujie, Juan Xu
Academic Guests: Christa Stolle, Sandra Miranda Pattin, Li Yinhe, Tao Yong Bai, Jia Ark, Zhu Qingsheng, Zhang Xiaoling,
Gao Lu, Liu Wen, XU, Qi Wang, Hao Qingsong, Island Son, Zhai Yongming, Yang Li Na,
Xu Zhen-Min, Zhang Ping, Mary Lou Song Ya, Songshao Peng, Xu Bin, Zhou Zan, Shenzi Chen, Wu Rong Rong , Yangzi Guang,