Woman: Self Portrait | June 1st – July 1st 2006
Shirin Aliabadi, Michal Chelbin, Christina Dallas, Dalit Gurevich, Naomi Harris, Erika Harrsch, Tiina Itkonen, Adela Leibowitz, Lynne Marie, Leemour Pelli, Astari Rasjid, Julieta Schildknecht, Ginna Triplett, Patricia Von Ah, Sonja Wyss, Amanda Seelye-Salzman, Gabrielle Senza (Red Collaborative)
Dalit Anolik – Curator
Woman: Self Portrait is a group exhibition composed of seventeen local and international women artists; offering a multi-cultural view of the contemporary female experience. As the title suggests, the artwork provides an insight into how women perceive themselves as artists, professionals, children, parents and members of society. In addition, it comments on how those self-perceptions might clash with their surrounding social and political environments.
This exhibition hopes to raise questions regarding roles, identity, responsibility and expectations related to gender, and most importantly — raise alertness to gender based violence. Above all, it hopes to welcome the viewer into one moment within the cycle of a woman’s life.
Although each artwork represents a personal and intimate experience of an individual artist, the issues raised here are very much universal. Whether the artist is from Iran, Indonesia, Israel, Mexico or the US — concepts such as female identity, sexuality, body image and sexual abuse (among others) are all translated into the language of art. Many of the participating artists have used art not only as a tool to express themselves, but also as an essential source of healing.
Woman: Self Portrait is a benefit exhibition to raise awareness and funds for the non-profit corporation V-Day (The ‘V’ stands for Victory, Valentine and Vagina). This organization distributes funds to grassroots, national, and international organizations and programs that work to stop violence against women and girls. This exhibition is part of UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS: NYC, a festival of theater, spoken word, performance and community events created to bring the issue of violence against women and girls front and center in the culture and the community. The festival will take place during June 12 – 27.
FREE Special Event — June 15th, 6:30pm:
In collaboration with V-Day’s campaign “Until the violence stops” —
Artist talk by Erika Harrsch followed by Dr. Danielle Knafo, a psychoanalyst who will give a lecture entitled: “Revelations and Rage — Violence against women in the work of female artists.”
*10% of all sales will be donated to V-Day
For more information on V-Day and complete schedule of festival events please visit vday.org
Gabrielle Senza, USA Artist-activist and Red Collaborative Founder, Gabrielle Senza, created for this exhibition “Walk Unafraid,” a site-specific installation presented in front of the gallery. Resembling a crime scene, “Walk Unafraid” aims to bring awareness to the trauma of child abuse and sexual assault – hoping to initiate a public dialogue for social change. “Walk Unafraid” makes the reality of abuse visible while raising consciousness of the life-long impact these crimes have on victims, survivors and families. On the back of the caution police tape are silencing quotes, cautionary phrases and empowering slogans, which give survivors of abuse an opportunity to publicly speak out against these devastating crimes. |
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| Walk Unafraid Installation |
| Ms. Senza courageously created an autobiographical yet universal installation in order “to blow the lid off silence, shame and secrecy…collaborating with other people who, like me, felt invisible and isolated.” For the same reason, Ms. Senza founded “Red Collaborative”, a non-profit arts initiative that gives voice to the voiceless, empowers participants (most often survivors of abuse) and raises awareness about the silent epidemic of physical, sexual and emotional abuse. |
Gabrielle Senza 