moonbeam@2007

The artworks that I chose for this exhibit were created by five different artists who all had a different approach to the same theme: female rage. For this exhibition, I chose a busy street in Manhattan lined with a row of billboards. Historically, feminine rage has been ignored and dismissed, which is why I wanted to put the artworks in a space that made them very visible and impossible to miss. I thought that big bulletin boards in one of the most populated cities in the United States would give them the attention that they deserve. After the beginning of the 20th century and especially with the more recent rise in the use of social media, more women have started to speak up and express their feelings and experiences pertaining to their view of men, femininity, gender roles or inequality. Even though speaking about these topics has become more common now, it’s still frowned upon and pushed away by many. I purposefully chose artworks that were older for this exhibition to give them the emphasis and attention that they might not have gotten when they were first painted. By placing them on something as big and public as a billboard, it's in your face, it's loud, it's unapologetic and it's seen by thousands of people everyday. The reason I titled my exhibit: “Don't Look Up,” was to critique the disregard for female rage and emotion throughout history. The only way you could miss these billboards on that street is if you are purposefully looking away from them, because they are right above you and massive. There are societies and cultures that prefer to pretend it doesn’t exist, rather than acknowledging the expression of these emotions, and most importantly, digging deep to understand the reasons they exist in the first place.

Feminine Rage