News: 2/10/2010  

Girls to the Max

Call me crazy, or narcissistic, but I've been thinking a lot about women lately. This is partly (and obviously) due to my being a woman, as well as to my enduring and nearly concentrated intake of both Joanna Newsom and Carson Mcullers these past few months. But when Angella d'Avignon first approached me with plans of a girls art show, I think I was busy. I was probably over-communicating via Google. (That's really not key to this story, just a personal testament to how much time-wasting occurs on certain conglomerate websites.) Anyhow, when broached a second time, I was really thrilled not only with the theme of her show and the scope of her vision, but with the potential it presented. Girls Girls Girls! is refreshingly simple: seventeen artists examine womanhood in the modern world. There were no rules for the show; each artist was free to create to her heart's desire. "The way I see it," d'Avignon explained recently, "Girls Girls Girls! works like a composite eye: every girl has a facet of womanhood they're examining but we're all apart of one big beautiful idea - that while there's a lot to be said about women, it's best heard from the woman herself."



What was your aim in collecting a group of all women artists?

I firmly believe in the power of collaboration and I really wanted to explore that. When I first started conceptualizing this show I looked around at the gal pals that truly inspire me and realized that I had an incredible posse of talented women with intricate ideas on themselves and the world around them. The timing of the show seemed ideal as well - I really hate the Winter months, I won't lie. So an art show felt like a natural solution. In the past, projects like this always gave me something to work toward and an excuse to explore more ideas, styles, and concepts in creative work. So why not do it together and with amazing friends? And of course the girls I originally asked began telling their friends and soon I had an enormous email list of girls who were super excited to see this thing through. That was inspiring in and of itself. It worked outward from there and the enthusiasm grew and it became more of a group project than a typical curated art show which absolutely thrilled me.



How does having only female artists change the chemistry of an art event?

You know when you're around a big group of girls and it's either totally obnoxious or completely enchanting? I think that the combination has to be specific. Bringing an all women demographic to an art show is almost a science and has the power to be explosive. Whether that explosion is debilitating or mesmerizing is completely dependent on the individuals involved. I believe women are naturally sensitive - to each other and to the way they approach their lives. I never see that as a negative thing but rather a strength that will create a warm but powerful atmosphere. I by no means think women are the superior gender and this show has no intentions of pushing that, but being a woman myself I can attest that women have the unique disposition to a vulnerability that has invaluable depths. There's always something going on beneath the surface of a woman and artistic women have the ability to make that beautiful if it isn't already. Which it probably is. I'd say that having only female artists makes an art event more personal in the sense that they're leaping bounds to show you what's on their minds and in their hearts in detail and in color with an emotional quality that seems unique to girls. Cue that Madonna song, "What it Feels Like for a Girl". Just kidding.



What would say to people who would anticipate this as some sort of bra burning, man-bashing event?

Girls to the third is going to be FUN. I told someone last night it's more in the key of Cyndi Lauper than Alanis Morisette. When we're really honest with ourselves I think it's safe to say that we all can find something we like about girls and this will be no exception. We want to celebrate women at their finest - their most resilient, most exploratory and of course their most creative. We're not leaving out the boys by any means, we love our dudes! In fact, what's been impressing me most is the way our guy friends have been helping and supporting the show because they know they're as much apart of our lives as our girl-friends. So in a sense, if you wanna get omnigenous, this art show is about celebrating all of us, just one particular facet: Girls Girls Girls!
 

Girls Girls Girls! starts at 7pm on Saturday, February 13 at the Suture Loft (655 10th Avenue).

Tags: Lindsay Preston, Steph Walker, Girls Girls Girls, Angella d'Avignon, Suture Loft, Art Show, Jane Weibel

2 Comments

that hose/shuttle cock slideshow image is sooooo legit!
Zack NielsenZack Nielsen made this post on 2/11/2010 at 12:52 am
that`s lady hess for ya.
jordan made this post on 2/11/2010 at 6:27 pm

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