ART AND ARTISTS/U.S.
Half the Sky: Intersections in Social Practice Art Cultural Exchange and Exhibition China
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Art Juror Alma Ruiz
Educated at Middlebury College and Università di Firenze, in Florence, Italy, Ms. Ruiz has been with MOCA of Los Angeles for 29 years during which she curated numerous exhibitions of contemporary art including Lynda Benglis (2011) at New Museum, Suprasensorial: Experiments in Light, Color, and Space (2010) at MOCA of Los Angeles, and Basquiat (2005) at Brooklyn Museum. and art biennials in the United States and Latin America including the V Panama Biennial, the Tamayo Biennial in Mexico City, the Second Exhibition of Central American emerging artists in San Jose, Costa Rica, and Women Artists on Immigration (a Women's Caucus for Art project) in Los Angeles. She has served as a panelist for The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans and Creative Capital Foundation in New York, and is a member of the Advisory Committee for the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation in Miami, Florida. http://sites.moca.org/thecurve/category/alma-ruiz/
"One of the best ways to create good will among peoples from different nations is to bring them together on a common project. An undertaking that allows people to open up to a culturally different group can be an effective ice breaker, giving everyone an opportunity to connect through a shared purpose. In the case of Half the Sky: Intersections in Social Practice Art, the endeavor that unites women from the United States and from China is art. In addition to having art as their common denominator, the women also share gender and politics. They are all concerned with making art that contextualizes their life experiences in a contemporary world." — From Ruiz' Juror Statement in the Half the Sky: Intersections in Social Practice Art catalog
Educated at Middlebury College and Università di Firenze, in Florence, Italy, Ms. Ruiz has been with MOCA of Los Angeles for 29 years during which she curated numerous exhibitions of contemporary art including Lynda Benglis (2011) at New Museum, Suprasensorial: Experiments in Light, Color, and Space (2010) at MOCA of Los Angeles, and Basquiat (2005) at Brooklyn Museum. and art biennials in the United States and Latin America including the V Panama Biennial, the Tamayo Biennial in Mexico City, the Second Exhibition of Central American emerging artists in San Jose, Costa Rica, and Women Artists on Immigration (a Women's Caucus for Art project) in Los Angeles. She has served as a panelist for The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans and Creative Capital Foundation in New York, and is a member of the Advisory Committee for the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation in Miami, Florida. http://sites.moca.org/thecurve/category/alma-ruiz/
"One of the best ways to create good will among peoples from different nations is to bring them together on a common project. An undertaking that allows people to open up to a culturally different group can be an effective ice breaker, giving everyone an opportunity to connect through a shared purpose. In the case of Half the Sky: Intersections in Social Practice Art, the endeavor that unites women from the United States and from China is art. In addition to having art as their common denominator, the women also share gender and politics. They are all concerned with making art that contextualizes their life experiences in a contemporary world." — From Ruiz' Juror Statement in the Half the Sky: Intersections in Social Practice Art catalog
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A Window Between Worlds/Nina Jun, Cathy Salser & Barbara T. Smith
"I CAN: Requiem for I Can't" Video selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhibtion Los Angeles, California www.awbw.org A project by performance artist Barbara T. Smith, installation artist Nina Jun and Cathy Salser, founder of A Window Between Worlds. Harnessed to domestic objects, Smith leads participants dragging bags filled with shredded “I CAN’T” statements from interpersonal violence survivors. Shreds are released on a flaming burial mound while “I CAN” words adorn a second mound in Jun’s installation at SPARC in Los Angeles. At performance conclusion Smith passes her legacy of bringing awareness to social issues through art to Salser. |
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Susan Armington
" Talking Suitcases Project" Social practice art documentation selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhibition Minneapolis, Minnesota www.susanarmington.com Talking Suitcases is a social art project designed to evoke “deep talk in a diverse world.” It brings together community members to create simple art objects and tell personal stories about issues. In its fullest form, participants create and display objects in a suitcase and tell their stories in a public performance. The short form focuses on a single issue and results in a participatory community forum. The story-sharing circle process has its roots in feminist consciousness-raising groups of the 1970's. |
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Alli Berman
Participatory Art-Making Project shown on Cultural and Community Interactions page and on Delegates page Delegate Member of Project Fundraising Group, Publicity Group Woodmere, New York http://alliberman.com |
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Suzanne Beutler
" Hope for India" Painting selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhibtion Ann Arbor, Michigan www.suzannebeutler.com In my India series of paintings, I used information from pictures I took in Pune and Bangalore, India. I have scenes of homeless people in makeshift shelters by the side of the road, along with Rotarian supported schools where I took pictures of enthusiastic students. I believe education is the hope for the many poor in India. I plan to show this hope with the school children in juxtaposition to the street scenes. |
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Elizabeth Bisbing
"Metamorphosis" Stop action video selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhibition New York City, New York ebisbing.com My work deals with the concept of the child through fantasy and play. This work centers on the character Little Betty Jane - a little girl who stoically faces many unexpected dangers and calamities. She represents my self as a small child, but more than that, she represents the vulnerable in all girls and women as we face the world of the unexpected throughout our lives. In Metamorphosis she rollicks freely through nature eventually becoming part of it in the form of flower petals. In this way she truimphs over her fears. |
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Jessica Burke
"Vanessa as Darth Vader of the Empire" Drawing Selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhibition Statesboro, Georgia www.jessicaburkeartist.com This work is part of the Pop Portrait series that explores the influence of popular culture on identity. |
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Chan & Mann (Audrey Chan + Elana Mann)
"Myths of Rape (2012)" Video selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhibition Delegates Members of Project Installation Group and Documentation Group Los Angeles, California audreychan.net, elanamann.com In 2012, Chan & Mann collaborated with artists Suzanne Lacy and Leslie Labowitz-Starus to reinterpret Labowitz-Starus’ Myths of Rape (1977), originally part of Lacy’s influential Three Weeks in May (1977). Myths of Rape (2012) featured thirty diverse performers, including women and men. The performers enacted compelling tableaux and spatial interventions, wearing presentation boards featuring current myths and facts about rape. Link to their video on Vimeo (with Mandarin subtitles) http://vimeo.com/89306297 |
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Sherri Cornett and Sandra Mueller
"Points of Many Connections" Participatory installation selected by Alma Ruiz Delegates Cornett is Project Director Mueller is Community and Cultural Events Director, member of Project Publicity Group, Installation Group Billings, Montana and Malibu, California installation http://www.sherricornett.com, http://www.scwca.org/profile/sandra-mueller This participatory installation offers a personal and communal framework for reflection and connection. Created as a collaborative project, it draws on a the dome as a sacred structure from ancient Rome to today’s geodesic versions. Covered by a translucent parachute with colorful woven intersections and painted shawls, participants can take refuge in this welcoming space to create a Journey Marker, symbolic of the many points of connection needed for women to “Hold Up Half the Sky.” |
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Laurie Edison
"Nakamura Fumiko" Photograph selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhibition San Francisco, California photograph laurietobyedison.com I met Fumiko Nakamura through Okinawa Women Act Against [US} Military Violence. In my women of Japan suite, I combine my artistic sensibility with my commitment to capture the person in the photograph: cultural, personal, environmental, and physical cues, what is and is not said or communicated. Centrally, I collaborate with the person in the photograph, who makes many aesthetic choices. Combined with extensive community work, this approach encourages communication across cultural boundaries. Fumiko Nakamura, filmmaker and peace activist, retired after 40 years as a school teacher to found non-profit Ichi Feet to document the horrors of the battle of Okinawa and the subsequent suffering. |
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Danielle Eubank
"Mozambique IX" Oil Painting selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhibition Tujunga, California www.danielleeubank.com As the majority of the world’s population, it is incumbent upon women to be guardians of the future. We need to look after our people, our natural environment, and our water. I am making a statement about the unifying preciousness of water by documenting it all over the world with my paintings. China is the world’s largest water user and contains 20% of the world’s population so I am especially interested in collaborating with socially engaged Chinese women on how to best safeguard the safety and availability of water. |
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Christine Giancola
"Eighteen Years Later" Photograph selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhbition Delegate Project Documentation Director Florrissant, Missouri christinegiancolaphotography.com These are portraits of women taken in Beijing China during the 4th U.N. World Conference on Women. Women from over 180 countries came together to improve basic human rights of women globally. This experience was life changing while creating a deep sense of responsibility and collective empowerment. Eighteen years later we still struggle for the same basic human right to control our own bodies and to keep them from harm. Until all women have this right, none of us are free. We continue to hold up our Half of the Sky. |
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Sara Beth Goncarova
"The Bird Feeder" Four photographs selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhibition Woodbridge, Connecticua www.goncarova.com In The Bird Feeder, I sat in a sculpture made of bittersweet root suspended in a tree, holding birdseed either in my hands, or when it was too cold, a bowl on my lap. This piece is layered with meanings, but most importantly it is a reflection on the expectation of a woman to be endlessly selfless and giving, even when it means contributing to her own detriment. |
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Guerrilla Gowns
"Guerrilla Gowns: Orange County's Ghostly Performance Art by Evan Senn" Performance documentation selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhibition Costa Mesa and Los Angeles, California www.facebook.com/GuerrillaGowns http://www.kcet.org/arts/artbound/counties/orange/guerrilla-gowns-in-the-oc.html "Guerrilla Gowns" is a performance founded in the roots of relational art utilizing the elements of surprise performances. It's about women: women as dreamers, women as powerful creators. We engage femininity with a contemporary approach emphasizing a quieter aesthetic. In this performance, in which artists are clothed in bridal gowns, we create a metaphoric event that symbolizes a woman’s ability to manifest dreams transforming our past, present and future by tapping into a liminal state between thought and action. |
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Maki Hajikano
"Accumulation #1 C" Cast glass selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhibition Nacogdoches, Texas makihajikano.com The advances of science have given us a new perspective of the body. My piece suggests various cell forms and mutation process, which was inspired by the introduction of Ips cells. Through the phallic nature of this work I challenge and play with people’s notions about form and sexuality. A particular goal of art is exploring new perspectives and provoking discussion, which I attempt though this work; it not only provides for commentary concerning its subject but also how sexuality and sensuality are attached to the object. |
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Aram Han
"Grain of Truth" Installation selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhibition Chicago, Illinois www.aramhan.com I make slow work; I hand-stitch. Though tedious and often futile, I dedicate myself to patiently build a line, image, and surface, stitch by stitch. I achieve a slow rhythm of my hand piercing the cloth, pulling the needle up, piercing the cloth, and pulling the needle down. The core of these movements is an instinctive process, by which I become lost in a musical tempo. I work with an innate repetition, which expresses itself in each stitch. The spirit of the work is the labor of my hands. |
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Maxine Hess
" Binder of Women" Video selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhibiiton Woodstock, Georgia www.maxinehess.com A collaborative video with five diverse women using the corset as a metaphor for those women who are still bound by externally dictated societal, cultural and traditional images I consider my work to be visual sociology. My intent is to get women to share their stories with each other and to recognize connections and commonalities in their life experiences as they work towards their personal fulfillment. Through my art I seek to expose sexual violence and the exploitation of women and how women’s self-perceptions can be influenced by societal/cultural norms. This body of work tells a story of rape and restriction through fabric collages and film. Both media involve my collaboration with other women. |
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Kay Kang
"It's a Girl!" Installation selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhibition Delegate Member of Project De-Installation Group and Publicity Group San Francisco, California www.artspan.org/artist/kaykang It's A Girl!! is a celebration of the birth of a girl, which has been neglected too often in Korean customs. The piece is an altered representation of the Korean custom of announcing births. Traditionally in Korea, when a female is born, charcoal is attached to a hemp rope and hung outside the front door. In contrast, when a boy is born, red chili peppers, signaling joy, are hung in celebration. I speak in a voice which talks directly to the Asian feminine identity, and the experience of female submission in a male dominated society. |
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Mido Lee
"My Little, Little Wish" Four photographs displayed on Delegate Wall Delegate Member of Project Installation Group, Documentation Group and Catalog Group San Francisco, California |
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Louder Than Words (S. A. Bachman + Neda Moridpour)
"Actions Speak: The Tyranny of Silence" Video selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhibition Delegates Additional participatory installation Los Angeles, California www.louder-than-words.org Gender-‐based violence is unrelenting and Actions Speak: The Tyranny of Violence focuses on the connections between brutality and public policy, and reconsiders the ongoing social problems of men’s violence against women and domestic violence. This video projection asks viewers to reconsider the ways silence amidst a discourse of brutality (whether state-‐ sanctioned, media-‐driven, or personally inflicted) disconnects us from the individuals (living halfway around the world or in our own neighborhoods) whose bodies and lives are affected. |
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Rosemary Meza-DesPlas
"Cry, Die or Just Make Pies" Hair sewn on canvas selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhibition Delegate Exhibition Installation Director Dallas, Texas www.rosemarymeza.com In the 21st century women have commandeered popular culture. Maternity and sexuality coexist with violence in an uneasy alliance for survival. The embroidery needle in my hand becomes a weapon to wield as I create these images. My artwork depicts the resilient, adaptable nature of woman to survive under patriarchal-contrived socio-cultural conditions. In my world woman is not only holding up half the sky but is protecting her piece of the pie. |
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Katie Morton
“Bridge” Painting included in the Delegate Wall Delegate Member of Project Installation/De-installation Group, Project liaison with the Academy Beijing, China and Palo Alto, California 71cm x 80cm oil on canvas Within The Bridge, two different views of the sky are reflected in the river—the salmon pink of the sunset, and the brilliant blue of the evening sky. Having lived in China for the past three years, I find that much of what I do is alien to those around me, and vice versa. What brings us all together, however, is that despite the apparent difference between the salmon pink and the brilliant blue, we are all reflections of one sky on one body of water. |
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Mary Neubauer
"Data Visualizations" Installation of Cast Metal Objects selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhibition Chandler, Arizona www.sculpture-digital.net Fifty small cast metal sculptures, their surface textures driven by streams of data, are three dimensional portraits of numerical information addressing environmental cycles, geophysical trends, and urban statistics. They represent a visual and tactile way of understanding global and metropolitan functions over time. The originals, output as rapid prototypes, were editioned as multiples with distinct patinas and finishes. Together, they become still-life arrangements of ephemeral information, artifacts of our surroundings. |
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Brenda Oelbaum
"The Sky is Falling" Installation of book tower and video selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhibitiion Delegate Member of Project Installation Group WCA President, 2014-2016 Ann Arbor, Michigan brendaoelbaum.me How can we women hold up our half of the sky if we are busy worrying about the numbers on a scale? 'Dieting is the most potent political sedative in women's history' Naomi Wolf There is so much hysteria about fat that women today in the United States obsess about their bodies and what they eat to the tune of 66 billion dollars a year. Dieting is not only counter productive, making a dieter's body better at storing fat, but it also dulls the mind so that we have little energy to do more then count calories. How can we hold up our half of the sky when we are busy worrying about the numbers on a scale? Scales are for fish! |
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Priscilla Otani
"Wind Traveler" Installation selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhibition Delegate Project Human Resources Director WCA President, 2012-2014 San Francisco, California www.mrpotani.com Wind traveler is an installation in memory of a good friend and journalist who died of untreated breast cancer. She documented works of obscure but brilliant women artists and artisans in remote corners of the world. Though hard-pressed financially, she never let the lack of funds stop her from traveling and writing about interesting people. This work is based on her article about the breast festival in Tono, Japan. The calligraphy is Basho's last Haiku which my friend quoted in a letter near the end of her life. |
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Min Kim Park
"Zummarella Maggie" Photograph selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhibition West Lafayette, Indiana www.minkimpark.com Zummarella is a caricature about women who have it all. The work deals with the status of empowered women in a rapidly globalized world. It depicts the mores of the contemporary women who battle to be super women. The challenges facing these women are heroic in proportion, whether it is self imposed or imposed from the outside even though the women are empowered. This work examines the tragicomic situations and contemporary women unable to escape from a self made predicament and social mores in the land of entitlement. |
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Eva Preston/Joanna Fulginiti
"Ties That Bind" Photograph selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhibition Philadelphia, Pennsylvania http://dumpsterdivers.org/?s=eva+preston Physical, mental and emotional ties bind a woman to her trafficker and commercial sexual exploitation. We claim that we are not part of the problem, but our judgments of her strengthen these ties. How can she escape when she is bound by so many? When a society ignores the suffering of its weakest in an age of instant interconnectedness, unspeakable acts that have been contained in corners overflow into our homes. Our ties to each other cannot be removed. Do you pull her ties tighter or embrace her beauty and strength? |
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Jaye Phillips
"Composing" Photograph selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhibition Arlington, Massachusetts My image Composing is part of my ongoing montage series which arose from my photography of books....books as vessels containing traces, messages, shards, openings, awakenings, and voices. The construction site raw space worked as a concrete canvas, a stage for moving characters through a story. The words juxtaposed are from a personal journal and may be read as runes of a long lost civilization. Through deconstruction and reconstruction of figures in spaces I am exploring what endures and what thrives. |
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Marjorie Durko Puryear
"Ancestry: Address Book 2" Textile Collage selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhbitiion South Dartmouth, Massachusetts mardurpur.blogspot.com/ My trompe-loeil digitally woven, hand-collaged textiles are symbolic of the often-undervalued importance of searching and interpreting personal heritage and preserving family. A link to past generations is often missing among families whose ancestors immigrated to far reaching countries as children or young adults, forfeiting their homeland for hopeful but unknown futures. As a woman, mother and grandmother, I encourage knowledge of family background as an essential and deep-rooted need that defines one’s reason for being. |
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Sinan Leong Revell
"Vamp/Goddess" Lenticular Photograph selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhibition Pacific Palisades, California sinanrevell.com Transmigration refers to the passing of the soul into another body after death.My lenticular photos combine two images of the same person in different incarnations.This implies the transmigration of beings across time,space,cultures in an imaginary context. The pictures fuse times,cultural icons and aesthetic ideals. The lenticular technique gives the illusion of depth and motion using magnifying lens set at different angles. The metaphorical implications collides ideas, appearances,control and history. |
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Wendy Simmons
"Kaokoland region (Himba tribe), Namibia" Photograph selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhbitiion Brooklyn, New York www.wendysimmonsphotography.com My photographic style is mindful, quiet, honest, compassionate and straightforward. I strive to maintain the integrity of the original scene – nothing is orchestrated, no one is posed and there are no alterations or embellishments to my photographs. My belief is that it is this simplicity that allows the true soul of the subject to be revealed.I aspire to convey an authentic, intimate and revealing view of the subject – its energy, spirit and personality from a different point of view. |
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T' Alyne
"Sunshine" Fabric Installation selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhibition Golden, Colorado www.studiotalyne.com In physiology, body water is the water content of the human body, approximately 60%. Each day humans must consume a certain amount of water to survive. The unique qualities and properties of water are what make it so important and basic to life. The cells in our bodies are full of water. The excellent ability of water to dissolve so many substances allows our cells to use valuable nutrients, minerals, and chemicals in biological processes. Water is a precious resource that we all need to protect. |
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Virginia Tyler
"Ten Hours' Work for Abena Duffee" Installation selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhibition Durhan, North Carolina soho20gallery.com/virginia-tyler-work/ Abena Duffee is a girl in Ghana, West Africa, who breaks granite stone by hand using a small sledgehammer. At 14, she is expected to break approximately 480 lbs. of gravel every day. Abena's family is proud they kept her in school as long as they could. She is a bright girl, as you can see from her photo. Sadly, when she became strong enough to break stone, they needed her to work to help feed her younger sisters and brothers. Her grandmother was just too tired to go on breaking stone. |
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Margi Weir
"Antimacassar 2" Tapestry-like composition of oil industry logos selected by Alma Ruiz for the Exhiition www.margiweir.weebly.com Using adhesive-backed vinyl, I group images of related things or repeated objects in stacked rows that suggest tapestries, rugs or Southwestern Pueblo pottery decoration. This stacking of unranked layers of mirrored imagery is a visual metaphor for the way that bits of information are thrown at us daily, with only occasional in depth coverage. I piece together these fragments of imagery relating to a topic that is important to me such as ecology or politics with the hope that the viewer can make personal meaning. |
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