Guest Artists: Senga Nengudi-Fittz, Margaret Kasahara, Carol Dass and Melanie Yazzie and other participating artists
Guest poets: Lourdes Gil and Iraida Iturralde
Curator: Andrea O'Reilly Herrera
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| Guerra, Camelia |
**The closing of woman.embodied will be marked by a poetry reading with the participating poets Lourdes Gil and Iraida Iturralde at 7:00 p.m. at the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center in the Magic Carpet Theatre on Friday 30 September, and a discussion by several of the participating artists.
This exhibition highlights primarily the work of contemporary female Cuban poets and visual artists who work from various geographical sites and cultural vantage points. It also includes the artwork of several non-Cuban, local guest artists, suggesting the manner in which the Cuban artist roots herself wherever she is located, as well as the way in which Cuban art resonates with other artistic traditions and with the work of artists from other cultures and backgrounds. The participating artists utilize a broad range of media including painting, sculpture, installation, photography, video, and performance.
- A round table discussion and poetry reading featuring Lourdes Gil and Iraida Iturralde, as well as several of the artists, will be held at the Pikes Peak Library East Library on Sunday 2 October at 1:30 p.m. and will also include several local poets.
- A solo theatrical performance Rum and Coke by Cuban author and actor Carmen Peláez will be presented at UCCS on Monday 3 October at 4:30 p.m. in Dwire 121. For more information, see: http://www.carmenpelaez.com/CARMEN_PELAEZ/BIOGRAPHY.html.
- woman.embodied will feature Kate Horsfield, Nereyda Garcia-Ferraz, and Branda Miller's acclaimed film Ana Mendieta, Fuego de Tierra
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| Flores, Black Madonna |
In addition to contemplating the relationships among written, spoken, and visual expression, woman.embodied features a series of works that reveal the artists' feminist concerns and political activism. In addition to critiquing the traditional patriarchal construction of gender and sexuality, many examine the role of various institutions in oppressing the individual, the relationship between power and oppression, and the consequences of physical and psychological entrapment and emotional isolation. Others envision the female body as the site at which the cultural past and present converge--a place where memory, imagination, and desire intersect, and woman acts as creator, progenitor, and guardian of culture. Several pay homage to the domestic and exalt woman's complex and multivalent role as source of creativity and energy.
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| Delgado, The Beauty Dancer |
Exploring more aesthetic concerns, a number of the artists dispute the boundaries between high and low art by evaluating the meaning of folktales and popular traditions. Many emphasize the symbolic value attached to ordinary objects and the activities of everyday life. Presenting an anthropological approach to cultural expression, other artists pursue an interest in their multi-layered heritage by infusing their work with indigenous and Creole cultural forms and specific references to Taino, African, and Asian spiritual practices. By drawing on these fundamental sources of iconography, they forge a symbolic vocabulary that reflects their interest in religion, nature, and women's spirituality. Others reinterpret and transform archetypal Western and Eastern religious symbols, thereby linking their art to other cultural signifying systems.
Although the art presented in this exhibition does not represent a unified or single aesthetic, collectively--and at some fundamental level--it treats the themes of loss, displacement, cultural continuity, transformation, and survival.
**Special thanks go to UCCS Radio, Marge Mistry, and David Baay for editing the poetry recording with Lourdes Gil and Iraida Iturralde.
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