Still I Rise: Feminisms, Gender, Resistance - De La Warr Pavillion

This exhibition explores the history of resistance movements and alternative forms of living from the perspective of gender. The work of a number of artists is on show and the exhibition certainly requires a couple of visits to get the most from it. I was mostly drawn to the work of the following artists:

Judy Chicago - Smoke Goddess. 1972 - colour photographs of an installation performance featuring naked women, coloured smoke bombs and fire in the desert. Chicago states that 'Smoke provides a liberation from structure, while its colour was intended to feminise and soften the environment'. To me these images are images of resistance to patriarchal norms in the art movements of the time such as overly grand landscape art mainly constructed by men.

Judy Chicago - Smoke Goddess. 1972.

Osias Yanov - Aoot. 2018 - This structure represents a stylised ladder and relates to key symbols and moments of queer and trans resistance. As a prop maker I found this work to be informative. I like the symbolism of a ladder to indicate time and progress. I always enjoy looking at physical pieces and find myself drawn more and more away from photography and painting into sculptural forms. 

Osias Yanov - Aoot. 2018.

Micha Cardenas - Becoming a Dragon. 2009 - This piece consisted of print outs of a piece performed entirely online in the 3D world of Second Life. Described as a mixed reality performance the viewer was able to watch online as the artists inhabited the world of Second Life for 365 days. This piece relates to the requirement for trans people to experience 'real life' as their chosen gender before receiving gender confirmation surgery. This was an interesting piece to think about. The print outs convey a real sense of performance, of which it is argued in Queer theory what gender mostly consists of - being culturally constructed. 

   Micha Cardenas - Becoming a Dragon. 2009.

Vali Mahlouji - Archeology of the Final Decade 2014 -2018 - Is a platform for recovering cultural memory. In the work at the De La Warr gallery we see 'Recreating the Citadel'. This piece consists of documentary photographs and writings from an archive pieced together over eight years. It is the only surviving record of the destruction of a red light district in Tehran in 1972. The photographs show a once vibrant and squalid urban neighbourhood inhabited by marginalised groups that had its own set of rules and values. The work is very poignant and reminds me of the destruction of the cultural life of the LGBTQ bars and neighbourhoods by the Nazis. These stories are almost always forgotten and glossed over by traditional historians.

Vali Mahlouji - Recreating the Citadel. 2014 - 2018.

There were many more pieces of work on display, most of it fairly non traditional and radical in nature. Lots of political posters from feminist and LGBTQ groups adorned the walls and a library of reading matter and a seating area was provided too. This was a very well thought out exhibition that gave voice to a wide range of marginalised groups.