Clad in black attire and full-on gorilla masks, two women who have taken it upon themselves to raise awareness about sexism, racism and inequality in the art world spoke at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) last Thursday.
These women are from the Guerilla Girls, a group of feminists formed in 1985 in protest to “An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture,” an exhibit hosted in New York City’s Museum of Modern Art. The showcase highlighted 169 various artists, only 13 of which were female.
Protesting inequality in the art world became the Guerilla Girls’ mission. They have adopted the use of creative complaining to expose unjust sexist and racist practices within society.
“It’s been nearly 30 years since the Guerilla Girls started calling on all of us to pay attention to the injustices in our culture and political institutions and to be vigilant about trying to eliminate them,” said Gretchen Dietrich, executive director of the UMFA. “But it’s a message that is still unfortunately very relevant even now in 2013.”
For the entirety of the group’s existence, these ladies have remained anonymous, concealed behind secret identities and alluding to famous female artists.
The U was lucky enough to receive the presence of two of the seven original founding members of the Guerilla Girls. The two members mask their identities under the names Frida Kahlo and Käthe Kollwitz.
Many patrons who attended this event were not quite sure what to expect from the event. While some may have expected a rowdy occurrence, there was no chanting or flashy behavior. Rather, the Guerilla Girls maintained a very respectable veneer that, though professional, was steeped in humor and openness.
Audience members were taken on an educational journey across the history of the Guerilla Girls and given facts delivered in a most amusing slideshow, which highlighted what the Guerilla Girls stand for.
Many of the tidbits of information not only identified inequality in museums across the globe, but also within other communities, such as the film community.
The majority of work the Guerilla Girls produce is in the form of posters and billboards, which are posted throughout various cities in order to direct attention to these pressing issues.
One such project includes a poster created in 2007 which reads: “Do women have to be naked to get into U.S. museums?” With the byline, “Less than 3 percent of the artists in the [The Metropolitan] Museum [of Art] are women, but 83 percent of the nudes are female.”
Protesting inequality through original artwork is the method the Guerilla Girls have found to be fruitful in making their voices heard.
Ever since they have gained a viable presence in society, the Guerilla Girls have received countless letters and emails from women who have been inspired by this activism and have taken steps to banish gender biases from their own niches in society.
The Guerilla Girls are redefining what it means to be labeled a feminist and claim many people have a negative preconceived idea of what feminism is. To them, being a feminist simply means someone who is aware of gender discrimination and disagrees with it.
The main takeaway from the Guerilla Girls’ presentation was simply this: to encourage any woman or man who opposes racial and gender inequality to stand up and join the movement, while keeping in mind that humor is a potent weapon of self-expression that can be powerful when utilized properly.