Gallery exhibit essay 2!

Patricia Tonner-Mintier

12-01-2021

WW-12: a health survey 

The collective concept of the twelfth Wonder Woman gallery exhibition focuses on the health industry effects on individual female artists' concepts of health, wellbeing, and identity through the lens of health and femininity. Many of the women used the gallery exhibition to express pain, frustration, and sense of cultural and gender identity ties with their own health experiences. 

Two personal explorations in this exhibition I was drawn to felt personal, perhaps because I saw my own health frustrations reflected in the issues depicted.  

One from Christine Da Cruz, depicted embroidered photos and an interactive light up depiction of her own ultrasound with depiction of a feminine figure with the words “femi” in the negative space. Da Cruz uses the Word “femi” in another piece in the collection, which ties to her play with gendered terms. The embroidered photos show her in a natural setting with colorful animals mimicking her pose layered on top. For De Cruz, it seems that her cultural and gender identity are largely inseparable, as she depicts her journey of healing and caregiving of her mother, tone with her choice in animal and the gender it holds linguistically. 

The second piece I felt more intimately towards was the ceramic works of Dorris Cacoilo. Professor Cacoilo’s work depicted a ceramic bust with textural glaze held up with wire loosely like a torso or a cage. Dangling from red yarn, were two thyroid gland ceramic sculptures. This is to depict her struggle with hypothyroidism, something i can relate to being diagnosed with hashimoto's disease, the precursor to hypothyroidism, when i was in high school. At the bottom of the sculpture underneath the thyroid glands, is a cactus. This is not the only work Cacoilo displayed of her ceramic works. She also created ceramic pieces to fit almost like jewelry on hands, throat, and other areas of her (or the interactive viewer) body, to show the physical restrictions of her health issues. 

My personal health experiences came to mind when I saw both of these works. Specifically my own sense of female identity that connects to my health. When I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease I became more aware that my issues with weight and struggles between insomnia and sleeping to excess, the fact that I was always tired, my hands would shake sometimes had one root cause. I thought laziness and insomnia were just normal teenage behaviors. But then some of the other possible symptoms came into my consciousness. I could potentially have fertility issues. Knowing I wanted to be a parent from a young age, the thought that I may struggle to get or carry a pregnancy to term was very upsetting. It made me see my own feminine identity differently. Although it shouldn’t have, the concept of fertility has been so intertwined with feminine identity that the thought devastated me. Let me remind you, I am still quite a few years away from trying to be a parent. Fast forward to last year, when I unexpectedly got pregnant. I had such mixed feelings being pregnant when I couldn't care for and didn't want to have a kid at 21. But at the same time I took it as a sign that maybe I wouldn't struggle with fertility. I don't regret it and think it was still the right decision, but a little voice wonders, ‘what if I do have fertility issues, and this pregnancy won't happen again At the right time? This is a hard thing to talk about because of the taboo around talking about personal experiences with abortion. I was raised religiously, (which didn’t stick long term) but I'm a huge advocate for the right to choose. I'm not afraid to address the topic head on because it's something I believe strongly and would fight for, but there is something about taking it to that personal level that feels so vulnerable. In my own selfie inspired by the exhibit, I incorporated my ultrasound, which was something I really felt drawn to in Da Cruz’s work. 

The exhibit shows women expressing the struggle of health under patriarchal medicine. Women, especially women of color, are less likely to be believed by health professionals and less likely to be treated for pain. Exploration of medicine for women's health is shockingly underdeveloped in our time. Because so many women experience being ignored, dismissed and misdiagnosed, we often turn to our own healing, or more realistically, trying to adjust to a life of pain and frustration. What a small sample of women to explore so many struggles. Although it's not technically good scientific process, I think that this small sample shows just how common women's issues in the medical community are. 

In “the interventionist” a discussion on how social issues are conveyed in art has changed came to mind during the gallery visit. “…The lack of these methods (symbolically charged) does not imply that such issues are less important now, but rather that the methods for communicating these issues have changed.” Now, I know this quote might seem like a stretch I. Context and I’m having a lot of trouble finding it in the readings themselves, but the concept of a new approach to how we address social issues is certainly relevant for the WW12 exhibit. One of the biggest things I noticed all the women’s art had in common (besides the topic of the exhibit of course,) was the amount of installations that were interactive. The rise in interactive art is so much more important than we may realize. The reach to larger audiences is bridged by the invitation to experience and play. It quite literally engages your brain more. Although the space of a piece definitely affects the way it is interpreted or interacted with, I think it’s safe to say this exhibit has interventionist implications. Anotherquote from the interventionists discusses the artists shift from the traditional protest of art. “most telling point of departure for this “off the radar” political art would be the increasing emphasis on the tactics of intervention. Instead of representing politics, many political artists of the 1990s employ the techniques of art to engage real life situations.”( pg. 97 the interventionists) I would argue that the context of space gives the viewer more mindset to truly and openly consume the art. In the case of the WW12 exhibit, the use of interaction and multiple engaging mediums works quite in the artist's (and the viewers)  favor to convey multiple concerns on health and feminine identity.