Upon reading Professor Alicia Gaspar
de Alba's critique on the CARA exhibit in Out of The House, the Halo, and
the Whore's Mask: The Mirror of Chicanismo, and then hearing the discussion in class reinforced to me how much
work still needs to be done within the Chicanx community and the arts. It was
so disappointing to read the Quantitative Analysis of the CARA Exhibition by
Gender, mostly because 28 years have passed and we still see the same type of
treatment toward Chicana artists. To me, the ratio of men to women artists exhibiting
work or asked to exhibit work is still very similar to then. The works that
were displayed in CARA’s Feminist Visions is viewed through a patriarchal lens because
of the curation and the works’ placement within the entire exhibit. Artists and
audiences, both male and female, should uphold the curators, in this case the
CARA National Advisory Committee, responsibility to be aware of the gender gaps
and to at least try to expose themselves to more female artists.
When reading about Malinches vs. Adelitas, there is
a sense of alienation that I feel many Chicana women experience when becoming
aware of what roles are presupposed for them. In its own way, it is a
dehumanizing way of making sense of oneself when all people are highly
multifaceted beings.
No comments:
Post a Comment