Susan Hiller
(Image from here)
Reminder to self: go see the Susan Hiller exhibition at Tate Britain before it ends on the 15 May.
Sarah Moon
Suzanne aux tuileries by Sarah Moon
Don’t miss Sarah Moon’s exhibition at Fotografiska in Stockholm if you happen to be in Sweden this month.
Guerrilla Girls
Guerrilla Girls is a group of anonymous women who use dead female artist names as pseudonyms and wear gorilla masks in public. But that is not all they do. They are feminists who are trying to make the world aware of the sexism and racism in the art world through posters, stickers and different actions. This year the Guerrilla Girls are focusing, among other things, on the sexism in the Irish art world. To read more about this project and see their funny and thought provoking posters click here.
Sara Ramo
At the moment you can find the photographer Sara Ramo’s work at the Photographer’s Gallery in Soho in London. The exhibition is called Movable Planes and is supposed to be “inspired by the innocence of childhood and magical realism.”
It’s not an exhibiton that makes you go “wow!” at first glance and just looking at the pictures doesn’t make much sense since they’re not aesthetically appealing (except for the picture above), but Ramo has put much thought in her art which makes it interesting. Originally from Spain, Ramo went to university in Brazil and is now based in Paris.
The paper balls are supposed to represent thoughts that were never followed through, but that are still there invading your space.
Marianne North
In the 19th century Marianne North travelled all around the world painting exotic plants. She never married since she didn’t want to be someone’s “maid”. Darwin was a friend of her and it was he who suggested that she should go to Australia and New Zealand which she also did. During her travels she painted beautiful artworks like the one above and they can nowadays be found in The Marianne North Gallery in Kew Gardens in London.
Diablo Cody
In this month’s issue of Frankie Magazine (a pretty and awesome Australian based mag run by Lara Burke and Jo Walker) we can read about the very talented script writer Diablo Cody. The woman behind Academy Award winning Juno has written a new film called Jennifer’s body which was released in the UK last week. This time Cody’s left the quirky comedy genre and thrown herself into High School Horror. The film is about Jennifer, a possessed cheerleader who has returned from the dead to haunt and eat (!) her male classmates. It’s up to her friend Needy to put an end to the horror.
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Wetlands
There are no taboos in Charlotte Roche’s book Wetlands. Everything’s allowed and the more disgusting it is the better. At least according to the main character Helen. I’m halfway through the book now and I find it fascinating, repulsive and absolutly brilliant.
Helen is in hospital after an anal surgery and while she’s recovering she leads us through her weird mind and memories. There are chapter long descriptions of her body and bodily fluids. She likes tasting and smelling everything that comes out of her body. She’s a regular at a brothel. She’s into avocado pits. She’s only 18.
At times Wetlands can be erotic but the detailed way that Helen describes everything makes it more disgusting and also funny.
I find the book liberating. A nice change from all the “dirty” minds of male characters. I bet a lot of people haven’t managed to finish this book. Sometimes in the middle of some of her toilet routine descriptions I look away in disgust. But I still continue reading. Wetlands is one of a kind and an absolutly hilarious read.
Read this article with Charlotte Roche in the Guardian.
This is a great quote from that article: “Men think they can be disgusting and sexual and stuff, and now I’ve shown them that women can do the same. When I walk into a pub now, and I see men saying, ‘Look, that’s Charlotte Roche’, it’s as if I’ve stolen something from them. I like that feeling.”
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Elles@pompidou
I will be very sad if I don’t get the chance to go to Paris and see the elles@pompidou exhibition before it ends in May next year. The Pomidou is exhibiting 500 works by 200 women artists.
The Bauhaus Women
In the Observer magazine on Saturday Jonathan Glancey wrote an article about Bauhaus art school. The school opened in 1919 and both women and men were free to join classes. Even though the intention of the school was equality between the sexes that was never really the case. The women were mostly only allowed to do weaving while the men attended painting and carving classes. Even though many of the female students were forgotten about Ulrike Muller has written a book called Bauhaus Women which is about the all the talented women who thrived at Bauhaus art school.
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Women and art 