The Contemporary Art Modern Project (The Camp Gallery) in collaboration with
Fiber Artists-Miami Association, (FAMA) announces their signature art exhibition to
commemorate American women winning the vote. Forty Women Pulling at The
Threads of Social Discourse - FAMA and Guests, will be held at: 350 NE 75th St
Space 109 Miami, FL 33138. On view from October 1- October 27, 2020. The opening
reception will take place on October 3, 2020 at 6:00 pm with a live virtual tour.
Artists: Aurora Molina, Alina Rodriguez-Rojo Damian Rojo, Alissa Alfonso, Amy Gelb,
Angela Bolaños, Carola Bravo, Cassandra Bozman, Colette Mello, Debora Rosental,
Evelyn Politzer, Erica Poy, Harvest Project, Jeanne Jaffe, Molly McGreevy, Karla
Kantorovich, Karla Mogna, Laetitia Adam-Rabel, Laura Marsh, Laura Villarreal, Liene
Bosquê, Lisu Vega, Maria Lino, Maru Ulivi, Marlene Kohn, Mary Ruden, Nancy
Billings, Nancy Mastronarvdi, Pip Brant, Regina Jestrow, Rosario Salazar, Shelly
McCoy, Silvana Soriano, Silvia Yapur, Sonia Baez- Hernandez, Sunny Marquez, Susan
Feliciano, Tom Virgin, Patti Virgin, Valeria Montag, and Yolanda Sanchez.
The themed exhibition: Women Pulling at The Threads of Social Discourse,
revolving around women and their social voices, was first launched in 2019, exploring
how women artists utilizing textiles as their medium subvert the social expectation of
crafting, and instead take this soft medium and lambast it with political and social
awareness. More and more, we see women taking to the streets, wether mourning or
screaming for a government to account for their lost children, or as they did, one
hundred years ago to insist on social and political equality to be able to cast their
own vote. The marriage of the female artist to the textile medium, both, outwardly
and socially expected to be weak - are in fact, in the hands of these artists - affirms
that strength lies in durability, pliability and resolve. For this year’s edition of the
exhibition, we are pleased to announce that it will also launch the newly formed
FAMA, a fiber artist organization based in Miami, Florida. FAMA, formed this year, and
during the pandemic, artists Aurora Molina, Evelyn Politzer, and Alina Rodriguez
united a group of creatives to organize and present their first exhibition honoring
the 2020 Women’s Vote Centennial and create awareness about our duty to vote.
Works have been assembled using mixed media and the fiber arts to ignite positive
social change. The exhibited works will be only flags, as the flag or banner is used as
a metaphor or symbol of solidarity with the women of the suffrage movement in this
exhibition.
The timeliness of this exhibition is not lost in the obvious, but becomes another rung
in the continual search for equality, begun with the women’s right to vote, carried on
through feminism and its theories, its internal struggles of inequality by race and
class to be united in this exhibition. The exhibition, focusing on ‘the feminist lens,’which seeks to be distanced from the language of the patriarchy towards a more gynocentric form of expression and placement in the canon of language, takes the
subject of voting, burdens it with real experience, with lived and documented and
translates the action of voting into the price paid by women in their struggle for the
fundamental right of equality. Artists such as siblings Damian and Alina Rojo, who
jointly create Justice Bell, a work that “spans several genres…” is based on the
Suffrage Movement and its message still rings true in the ever spiraling distances in
ideas of what is equality. Aurora Molina, ever a voice pointing out inequalities
continually clogging false realities of all is well in the world is immortalized in her
piece: I Go to Prepare a Place for You, looks back in time at founding women in the
movement, such as: Elizabeth Cady, Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman and Marie
Louise Baldwin and how their fight from different frontiers due to race, (showing of
the divide referenced earlier) and how their sacrifices have placed us today closer to
the ideal of equality.
The piece from Amy Gelb, depicts her great grandmother, the first woman in her own
family to vote, thus rendering the work not just a flag but a testimony to history and
experience. Shelly McCoy assaults the viewer with a rendition of the stars and stripes
that is unexpected; stars have been replaced by penises and the stripes are bras.
The interesting suggestion of the bras as stripes, likens them to bars, thus implying
that because of gender there is a notion on ‘being behind bars,’ and thus,
disenfranchised. Alissa Alfonso creates a flag from paper stating that “Earth Can’t
Vote” drawing attention to the vulnerability of our planet and how important this
year’s vote will be for the future of the planet.
Carola Bravo, through her use of video projected on textiles and the notion of a
virtual reality on a continuum, in her work brings us back to the school room and
rewriting, over and over again until learned that the vote is the right of all Americans.
Artist Evelyn Politzer focuses on the connections and interdependence of society in
her flag of strings showing that we all are connected, whether we know it or not and
that the only path is one mutual equality. Jaffe McGreevy projects, made up of
Jeanne Jaffe and Molly McGreevy presents a flag full of dualities, both teetering on
the lines of aspects of a woman’s life ascribed by society and its expectations. The
Assemblage flag by Karla Kantorovich: Time after Time, heralds that we have always
succeeded when we come together and are united arguing that the only thing that
matters is unity. Laetitia Adam - Rabel, in Red, White and Pink: The Color of Politics,
speaks of the divide still in feminism when it comes to women of color that where
the white woman enjoys a closer sense of equality with the man, the women of color
are “still waiting” as her flag states. CAMP artist Laura Marsh, known already for her
flags and banners, in her work calls us to remember why woman fought for the vote
and that we met vote, and not just be totems of resistance - action brings results and
that action is the act of voting.
Laura Villarreal, picks up her needle and thread and quilts a map of The United
States, but because of the different fabrics we are left with the realization that we are not really all that united bringing to mind : United we Stand, Divided, we fall.” Liene Bosque, reminds the viewer of the price paid by women in the struggle for the vote
and how that fight and protest led many to be behind bars, something we have often
seen when a body of people come together for equality with the patriarchal order,
their first reward is not equality, but a jail cell. Remembering this truth, and works like
Bosque’s scream that it is not enough to have the right only, it must be used. Lisu
Vega’s Los Caminiantes, bemoans the struggle of peoples living in a repressed
society and what the reality often is when they flee in hopes of a better future,
instead of that hope, her work confronts our comfort as we are face to face with a
mother and a wailing child. The power of the work does lie in the child, but also the
expression of the nameless mother who looks out at us - both valiant and defeated.
Maru Ulivi, in her mixed media flag: Callar Duele Mas, hones in how some avoid the
struggles and realities facing those oppressed and forces the realization that turning
a blind eye, does not stop suffering. Taking a traditional practice of textile arts, Mary
Ruden creates a sampler honoring the women of the Suffragist movement, using
shades and tones of purple thereby elevating these women to the realm of royalty,
and thus worthy of honor. Amendment 19, by Nancy Billings, a hand dyed work of
velvet questioning why it is still uncomfortable and difficult for many in the patriarchy
accept the equality inherent in all people. Referencing the actual movement and
experience of the Suffragist movement, Pip Brant quotes Inez Milholland and a
poem she wrote from her first march: “Forward through the darkness/ Forward out
of terror/ Leave behind the night/ Forward into light,” imagining the fear these early
feminists experienced yet never faltered renders them among the most courageous,
even though they are ‘just’ women. Regina Jestrow in Suffrage Quilt utilizes a
traditional practice and emblazon it with meaning; the pattern of a log cabin, the
colors used all to position the layers of years that women have been striving not only
for the vote, but equal representation. Questioning what it means “We, the People,”
artist Silvana Soriano quilts her version of We, The People, identifying who exactly are
the people and their varied cultures and identities that make up the country we call
the United States, and how that history and the souls of the folk have built and died
for what we have today. Women of Essence, by Sunny Marquez traces the history of
the fight for the vote by incorporating symbols that identify the strength of the
woman. Going underneath the armor of a woman, Valeria Montag creates flags from
garments initially associated with restraint, today often seen as garments of
seduction arguing how the definitions affixed to the woman, either control or
objectify her. My Body is a Fiesta by Yolanda Sanchez presents a myriad of colors and
shapes in transparent fabric, suggesting that both the women seeking equality and
their goals are to be celebrated, and once again they will be achieved through unity.
As we mourn the passing recently of Justice Ruth
Bader Ginsburg, this exhibition and its message - the right to vote, and the action
and responsibility of everyone voting is more important than it was a week ago.
The voices of these artists, and women such as Bader Ginsburg, fighting the ‘good
fight’ are the foundation from which we can all aspire, are the present day warriors
still carrying the torch first lit over one hundred years ago.
