Sept. 28, 2009
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ATLANTA – Are gender roles a factor in today’s society? How do women expand and embody their identity? Is it possible to lose oneself?
Such questions are explored in a new Georgia State University exhibition, “Losing Yourself in the 21st Century,” sponsored by the university’s Center for International and Collaborative Arts (CENCIA).
Running Oct. 1 through Nov. 19, the exhibition showcases performative media by emerging, U.S.-based women artists who are exploring issues of identity and subjectivity in the contemporary age. It will be displayed in the Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design Gallery, located at 10 Peachtree Center Ave. in downtown Atlanta.
For the exhibition, women artists from across the United States were invited to submit postings that engage the theme of “loss of self” from any perspective, especially those that address the intersection of new media technologies.
“We found that emerging women artists are exploring gender roles in new ways, through social media and virtual platforms,” said Susan Richmond, assistant professor in the GSU School of Art and Design and curator of the exhibition. “Women continue to be underrepresented.”
Diverse in both expression and medium, the exhibition features the work of twelve women artists. An opening reception will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Oct. 1 featuring a talk by artist Saya Woolfalk about her work “Ethnography of No Place.” From 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov. 13, artist Ali Prosch will present a performance piece in conjunction with the closing reception.
The exhibition is free and open to the public. Free evening event parking is available at the United Way Garage, located at the corner of Auburn and Courtland avenues.
“This exhibition is not focused narrowly on aesthetic considerations in art,” said Ralph Gilbert, associate dean for the fine arts in the College of Arts and Sciences at Georgia State. “It’s cross disciplinary and looking at the place of women in culture and in the world of art.”
The exhibition coincides with the National Women Studies Association Conference in Atlanta, held Nov. 12-15.
Also, Susan Faludi, a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and best-selling author who focuses on feminism and the media, will be speaking in Georgia State University’s Speakers Auditorium on Nov. 2 for the College of Arts and Sciences annual Hellen Ingram Plummer Lecture.
CENCIA brings together creative writers, visual arts, composers, musicians, actors and playwrights, filmmakers and scholars engaged in arts-related research at GSU.
For more information, visit www.arts.gsu.edu or www.losingyourself.com.