Femme ’n isms: Exhibits Are Fluid

Zach Terrillion Staff Writer

One of the artworks presented in “Femme n’ isms, Part I: Bodies Are Fluid,” the first in a series of exhibitions planned by the Allen Memorial Art Museum, is a work by Swiss artist Meret Oppenheim. It is a screen-print depicting the mythological cyclops, Polyphemus. This androgynous depiction of the creature is accompanied by a quote from Oppenheim, who claimed that art reflects “the entire human being, which is both male and female.” Her art offers a direct challenge to the gender binary: how can art, in its subjectivity, deconstruct the roles of gender, particularly among femmes?

This is the primary goal of the Allen Art Museum’s new installation, which takes up ¾ of the upstairs Ripin Gallery. This exhibit explores feminist art from the perspective of intersectionality, observing liminal identities based on non-whiteness, non-cisgenderism, and non-heteronormativity. The title “Femme n’ isms” implies traditional feminine pre - sentation, but also something more. A celebration of women but “also femmes and the feminine.”

Contemporary art curator Sam Adams, student assistant Fudi Fickenscher, and multiple community advisors served as the main organizers. The community advising present ties this exhibition closely to shared authority; people in and outside of the curation world created it. If I could use a word to describe the works on display, it would be “shedding.” Shedding all barriers around, whether for womanhood or modern art itself. For the first piece you encounter in the exhibit, you see pretty literal “shedding.” An animated video installation by Korean artist Heesoo Kwon depicts women in a bathhouse leaving behind their human skins to become gigantic snake people. In removing these skins, they remove the gendered labels and roles that hold them back. It is uncanny, frankly terrifying, but ultimately profound as hell. It sets the tone for the whole exhibit.

The objects in the Ripin invites visitors to shed their skins like the women in Kwon’s digital bathhouse, queering and abstracting their identities to create “-isms.” A watercolor piece by second-wave feminist painter Hannah Wilke claims to be a selfportrait. Still, its abstract, almost labial presentation makes an “-ism” of the human form itself.

The exhibit also creates “-isms” of art, playing with our definitions of it. I was particularly fascinated by a scattered series of polaroids depicting various Black American women in ordinary situations. They are feminine forms for sure, smiling in teeny sepia-toned corners and ruminating on secluded black and white beaches. They have lives that aren’t too extraordinary, which makes them more so. These women’s marginalized identities are allowed a space to be authentic, creating an unconventional archive. In viewing them, the visitor “sheds” their vision of art being auteur-driven. It can just be simple bits of humanity for us to appreciate.

The exhibit organizes itself by broad themes rather than by chronology or artist. We start with “body parts and impossible wholes.” These explore the human form, separating and mixing it with concepts like labor, patriarchy, and psychology. A highlight here is multiple pieces by contemporary artist Kiki Smith, who often uses unconventional material to deconstruct images of the female form. See, for example, a woman’s pregnant belly made out of plaster titled “Shield.”

The following section covers themes of the divine. Feminine forms interact with icons of religion and mythology. It’s here we see the Polyphemus silkscreen by Oppenheim. A piece by Betye Saar, noted for her depictions of Black Womanhood, shows two breasts and other human features arising from an ocean framed in a rainbow. It channels “mysterious transforming gifts by which dreams, memory, and experience become art.” It is another example of this exhibit embracing ambiguity, in this case, within dreams.

You also find the subjects of pop culture and aging. There are various works of pop art playing with how the media depicts female forms. It tinkers with iconography, though not quite the same type as “the divine.” For aging, the final piece of the whole exhibit is surprisingly simple. It is a pair of photographs showing off the abstract works of before. Titled “Three Sisters,” the first image depicts three Chinese women in their youth, while the second portrays two survivors in their old age. It introduces mortality to feminine expression. Overall, this exhibit adheres well to its goals. It is quite possibly the queerest exhibit I’ve ever encountered. It’s the first time I’ve stepped into an art museum and found my inner gender crisis projected onto canvas. It plays with feminine forms ranging from kitschy monuments by Andy Warhol to liberatory work for marginalized groups. They say art is subjective, and this exhibit expounds on how art’s fluidity can help illustrate gender’s fluidity, abstracting itself to “-isms” as it picks itself apart.

Got a Light? An Inside Look at Pearl Tolliver-Shaw’s Wondrous Lighter Collection

Max Miller Staff Writer

“Got a light?” It’s a sentence frequently uttered on this campus, no matter the time, location, or weather. If you haven’t been asked it, you’ve at least heard it being asked, casually at times and desperately at others; I imagine some readers have been that desperate asker in a time of need. It is possible that you have asked Pearl Tolliver-Shaw to help light your cigarette. If so, you have been lucky enough to borrow one of her many elaborate lighters, even if only for a feeting moment.

Pearl frst agreed to give me a sneak peek into her lighter collection around October with the condition that she frst bring back some of her favorite lighters from her home in Brooklyn, New York. After four-ish months, we fnally met up to discuss her famed collection.

Last Tuesday, Pearl led me into her room in Keep excitedly, moving a drying paintby-numbers of of a chair so that I could sit comfortably. The walls were artfully decorated with an Aubrey Plaza baseball card, a maroon Oberlin College Lanes t-shirt, and a poster advertising the aptly-named Pearl Lager Beer, among other funky little knick knacks Pearl seemed to have garnered in one place or another.

She began gathering lighters from various locations in her room, seemingly procuring them from thin air. Once she had exhausted hiding places, Pearl began lovingly placing them on her gray shag rug, telling me about the history of her collection. She told me that she, “had more at home but had to force myself to only bring one bag of them.”

When asked about her ideal lighter, Pearl said, “I really want one that’s a joint holder with either Aubrey Plaza’s face on it or Megan Fox’s face on it. I would actually love a lighter that has a case that has Megan Fox in Jennifer’s Body on it. That would be pretty sick.”

She said her love for lighters partially stemmed from the “journey of a lighter.” Pearl said, “Muscle memory: you put a lighter in your pocket. And then, next thing you know, it ends up in someone else’s pocket and then someone else’s pocket. You never know where it’s been.” Pearl told me, “I want this collection to be at my funeral.”

Though it may seem odd to place a mundane, disposal object on this emotional level, it is clear that Pearl’s lighters are almost inherently emotional. Each piece of her collection takes strength from the context around it, whether it’s the people Pearl is with, the place that the lighter was acquired, or the memories that have been made with the object. Each lighter is inseparable from its emotional content; every piece captures moments in time.

Pearl viewed her lighters fondly while answering questions, showing each treasure equal attention. She became visibly disturbed when I asked her to pick her top fve lighters to form her personal lighter all-star team. After some deliberation, here’s what Pearl decided on:

Love’s Lighter

“One thing about me is I love Love’s. Love’s is a gas station and an awesome place. My sister, when she went on her road trip, became obsessed with Love’s. She and her friend would stop at every one. She got the logo tattooed on her leg and sent a picture of the tattoo to the manager of Love’s. They sent her a ton of free merchandise, including lighters and a JBL speaker that says Love’s on it. So that’s from that. But I also just love Love’s.”

Miss Marlboro

“This one actually doesn’t work. But it’s pretty amazing and it comes with a case, which I’m a big fan of. It’s beautiful. Feel how heavy it is. I love its little case. I got it for my birthday. I’m not sure how it works. I tried to put fluid in the bottom. Didn’t work.”

Las Vegas

“I like this one because it lights differently than others. It has a really nice texture. It’s just fun. This was also a gift. My sister got it in Las Vegas. I haven’t been to Las Vegas, unfortunately. It’s on my list though. Isn’t it on everyone’s? This one is just really chic, you know?”

J

& M 4eva

“This is my sister in a bikini on a lighter. She got these for her girlfriend for Valentine’s Day. This obviously has to make the all-star. It feels like I’m carrying my sister around in my pocket. It would be insulting to not have that in the allstar.”

Whiskey South Carolina

“These are kind of annoying because they’re not actually the best lighters. But it’s not always about the ability. I feel like I have to put this in there because it’s just awesome. This one’s from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It’s about three and a half years old. This one is definitely from a souvenir shop.”