November 11, 2007

'Domestic Departures' looks at women's conflicting roles
The exhibit at Cal State Fullerton examines the impact of domestic expectations.

By DANIELLA WALSH

When first I heard about the current multimedia art exhibition at Cal State Fullerton titled "Domestic Departures," I was not sure whether I'd find post-feminist, stereotypical women's art or a series of send-ups of domesticity as promoted by the much lampooned Martha Stewart.

However, given that the show is co-curated by Joanna Grasso and Jackie Bunge, who established herself as twentysomething wunderkind after curating the last OsCene at the Laguna Art Museum, expectations rose. Both curators are enrolled in CSUF's exhibition design program that has brought us some provocative shows over the years.

Thus, I was not surprised to see names such as Kara Walker, Kiki Smith and Ruby Osorio along with the immensely talented Christina Y. Smith (her dioramas crafted from sterling silver such as "Fiduciary Duty," 2006, and "Deities of Inanimate Human Likeness (War Vessel II)," 2005, are superbly crafted and visually complex), photographer Carrie Yury, installation artist Candice Smith Corby and the collaborative team known as Rosenclaire (Rosemarie Shakinovsky and Claire Gavronsky) along with their "special guest" William Kentridge.

The later trio presents a riff on Robert Rauschenberg's 1953 erasure of a Willem de Kooning drawing. "Vacuum I" and "Vacuum II" comprise an installation consisting of a child's vacuum cleaner and two charcoal drawings of a bound rhinoceros. In an accompanying video, someone runs the vac over one drawing until it is almost erased. The process takes roughly 25 minutes and raises faint ghosts of dadaists or, more aptly now, appropriationists past. However, their other entries left me puzzled as to where they fit into the exhibition concept. – "Academia," 2007, "Clues," 2007 and, "Back From Iraq (Mickey Sculpture) no date.

I did get into that groove after studying Smith Corby's multilayered installation collectively titled "Familiar Moments." It consists of 20 anonymously handcrafted items, some of which were altered by the artist. Pieces titled "Time Ties Us Together," 2007, "The Caged Bird Sings," 2007 or "So Tired," 2007, along with a hand-painted vintage housedress labeled "Nobody Makes a Sweet Jelly Roll Like Mine," 2006, address issues of women's physical self-esteem, sexuality and objectification, scant recognition for their contributions and feelings of entrapment. Then again, "Most Improved," 2005, points out how women (remember that high school yearbook?) can be the harshest judges.

By exposing both sides of domesticity, as embodied by the happy housewife and the trapped drudge, she is paying tribute to the generations of women that came before her. Yet, she also suggests that even though her generation has far more choices now, it often yearns for the simplicities of "the good old days"

Smith works in a similar vein. Describing herself as a "thing-maker," she elegantly recreates items women used to make for their families. In collaboration with the Fabric Workshop and Museum, she crafted "Star Quilt," 2002 and stuffed cloth figures as in "Owl and Pussycat," 2002. Her "things," evoke nostalgia for times when people actually made things for their children instead of trundling them to the mall.

Walker is represented by small examples of her acclaimed cut-outs depicting scenes from African-American history. This time she also assails racial and gender stereotypes in an angry video performance titled "Fibbergibbet and Mumbo-Jumbo," 2004. Once I got past some linguistic hurdles, I left the installation rather moved.

Overall, the show reflects an ambivalence that many young women feel toward feminism. Yury's unsettling series of interiors, dominated by a supine nude woman who has her head twisted on backward, is a vivid case in point. (Yury accomplished the Frankensteinian feat by combining two separate photographs into one.). After looking at a lineup of seven including "Back From College, 2007,""Newlywed Apartment," 2007 and "Baby's Dressing Room, 2007," "enough already" reverberated through my brain.

Yet, I also empathized with Yury's suggestion that women are thus twisted by the desire to be everything to everyone.

Osorio, on the other hand, leaves no doubt about how she feels about that sort of feminine claptrap. Her gouache painting "Offshore,"2007, depicts a world where fish devour women, and "One Flew Over," 2007, violently skewers illusions of home sweet home. Well executed and sentimentally honest, the painting depicting a woman raving atop a house perched on a broken birdcage from which the bird had not quite managed to escape, stayed with me for some time.

Even though the show at first struck me as overall thin, I determined that Bunge and Grasso basically had the right idea. In an age when surgically altered "real housewives" are garnering reams of publicity and the idea of a dysfunctional man falling in love with a plastic doll is no longer laughable, attention to real life issues by creative women deserves encouragement and support.

From the editor: Many of you have expressed concerns about some of the harsh anonymous comments from readers. To remedy that, we are introducing new features. You can create your own blog, publish your news and share your photos with the community. Once you fill out a simple form and leave a verifiable e-mail address, you can set up your profile page. It will display all of your contributions and allow you to track issues and easily connect with others.

We want our site to be a place where people discuss and debate ideas that foster stronger communities. We built this for you. Please take care of it. Tolerate broad thinking, but take action against obscene or hateful material. Make it a credible and safe place worth preserving and sharing.