Figure this Out

What are the rules you play by in your life? Of course, you have to eat, drink, and sleep. Those rules are simple. If you don’t play by them, then you won’t last long. Nearly all of us also play by society’s rules. We dress ourselves, obey traffic laws, get a job to make money, and buy things. After that we have some choices. When you log into your social media of choice to consume and post, you play by a similar, but different set of rules (X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc.). When you read a post, you understand what's happening because of the rules. You know the top left shows who posted it, you know underneath is the main image or video, you know underneath that are the creators’ description or thoughts on what they posted, and finally you know under that are comments from other users. These are rules that you follow in order to play in an online game or society.

The Age of Eco Horror

the genre that hasn't quite caught on

By Olivia Meurk

The disaster is here

The environment is changing around us. Everytime I turn on the news it feels like I am just scrolling through a sick apocalyptic catalog of disasters. From local fires to global floods, there is fear and hopelessness and death. And really, I don’t even need to watch the news; my teachers are melancholic and cathartic, they bemoan what the young will have to figure out while prattling on about how it all used to be. My mom apologizes to me for the world that her generation has left to mine. I mean, haven’t you heard? We’re boiling now.

THE FOUR TRUE RULES OF THE REAL-LIFE TERRORIST FILM

a lesson in genre

By Jenny Chen

They're all scary

There’s a whole range of true-life terrorist attack films. Here’s a list: Argo (2012), Hotel Mumbai (2018), Hotel Rwanda (2004), Patriots' Day (2016), World Trade Center (2006), The 15:17 to Paris (2018) and Flight 93 (2006). What’s fascinating about this genre is how the rules of the genre are so stable and are repeated over and over again throughout each film. It doesn’t matter if the attack is in France, India, or the United States; wherever, the same thing happens again and again, which is odd because we tend to think of terrorist attack films as being unique. But they aren’t, they’re as clichéd as love stories. They follow a set of rules that filmmakers repeat over and over again. It’s only because terrorist attack films represent something that feels unique and awful that we think what we’re watching a film that is unique and awful. But that’s not true: these films might be more rigid than love stories, and I'm going to show you how they are.

THE HAUNTING OF OUR IMAGINATIONS

the sudden appearance of liminal space

By Rubi Sanmiguel

What's wrong?

The definition of a Liminal Space is not a concrete one, but it builds off of the literal origin of the word liminal: the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of a rite of passage. When we apply the idea of a middle stage to a location, we get places like hallways, airports, and schools, in-between places that we pass through as we travel from place to place. The same concept can also be applied to the self and our experiences of passing through time, such as adolescence, where we’re uncomfortably between childhood and adulthood. We can assign other specific examples of these places such as homes, stores, malls, playgrounds, rural roads, gas stations, hospitals, and other places destinations where we spend small amounts of time. These places are not scary or eerie. They’re normally bustling with customers and employees, other children, people living their day-to-day lives, and it is this day-to-day context which makes them comforting.

Cho Giseok wants to grow up to be an Art Director

The Nostalgia dreams of a great artist

By William Choi

“When I was young, I wanted to be an art director.” It’s a funny statement and even funnier when you think that it comes from South Korean avant-garde photographer, Cho Giseok. I mean what kid dreams of becoming an art director? Born in 1992, he studied Graphic design at Kookmin University; however, he found the practice unsatisfying and, dropped out at the age of 20 to try to become an art director. As he learned more about the field, he started to build skills in many different fields such as set design and photography. “I wanted to create my own images, and I wanted to work through all the processes.”

WHAT A CHARACTER

the Joker is becoming the man

By Jason Chou

It's lonely being the one

The Joker, Batman's iconic nemesis, has transcended the realms of cheap 1940s comic books to become a magnetic figure in contemporary pop culture. He appeared in the first Batman comic book (1946) and was immediately popular, the perfect foil to the strait-laced and bat-tortured hero. Throughout the long history of comic books, it is always the Joker issues that sell the most and command the most money on the collectibles market. Still, that’s just a small corner of the culture industry and, for many years, one that no one took seriously.

FREEDOM

my life in the Red Bull Rampage

By Ben Curtis

Ben (Me!) Hitting A-Line//Whistler, BC

On my bike is where I feel alive. I relish it. I crave it. I obsess about it. Once that front wheel leaves the ground and the adrenaline kicks in, it's all in the balancing, just like life itself. Feeling the pull of gravity, going beyond it, and getting that jolt of nervous energy, I panic and feather the brakes. No wheelie lasts forever, though, it sure feels like it could or at least that you wish it could. Some of us have a compulsion to ride, to embrace the air, explore the unknown, and take the trail that no one else has taken. That’s just the way it goes, like some mutant gene that skips a generation. I vividly remember the first extreme mountain biking film I watched, and boy, was 9-year-old me gripped. I would try to emulate the riders, be the coolest kid, skid madly and jump curbs. I wasn't that good, but I was having fun. What's important is that these films fueled my imagination. I was captivated, but I had no idea why.

A TAXI DRIVER BECOMES A COUNTRY

the Gwangju Uprising as political art

By Uijin Sohn

The uprising

The Gwangju Democracy Movement, also known as the Gwangju Uprising, began as a peaceful protest led by students and citizens calling for democratic reform and an end to military dictatorship, but the protests grew in size and intensity, leading to violent government repression, tragic confrontations and loss of life. The Gwangju Uprising was ultimately instrumental in South Korea's transition to democracy, sparking national outrage and spurring efforts toward greater political freedom and democratic reform. The movement is remembered as a symbol of the struggle for democracy and human rights.

HE SAW IT ALL

the visionary Hideo Kojima

By Riley Kuang

A visionary with glasses

Hideo Kojima once predicted that there would be a huge information system connecting the world in the future, through which people would be connected to each other, but that in the end people with ulterior motives would use it to control access to information. People scoffed at this, until today. Kojima once made a prediction that in the future, wars would become a business, and the system built by wars would only maintain the existence of that system. People scoffed at this, until today. Kojima once predicted a not-too-distant future in which people would huddle in separate worlds and rely solely on couriers to keep them connected. People scoffed at this, until today.

YOU HAVE TO HATE HER

the trickiest misogyny trope on tv

By Maeve Mckinney

Trapped in misogyny

I know that you think you’ve overcome your misogyny, but I’m here to tell you that maybe the old bigotry has a few new tricks, tricks so deep in the culture that you can’t see them and that you can only react to them. Everyone hates when someone gets in the way of what they want and in a number of recent television shows/movies the burden of being the blockade has fallen squarely on the shoulders of female characters. As one redditor put it so eloquently about Skylar White in Breaking Bad, “She's just so perfectly hateable. It's like they spent years developing the most annoying character ever.” It doesn’t matter how big a feminist you are, a woman who gets in the way of the hero is going to inspire hate, your hate, and it all goes out the window when a woman gets in the way of a man’s fun. We literally can’t help ourselves. While the literary trope in itself is not misogynistic, it finds its perfect form in misogyny.

WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL

Camus' search for freedom with meaning

By Kelsey Seo

The man himself

I believe that Albert Camus is the key to earning our liberation in today's society. Camus was acutely aware that we’re always in a state of degeneration at the same time that the world, the natural world, moves forward and grows in abundant ways. This gives our existence a whiplash quality: we’re always moving one way and the world is always moving in another. We’re creeping towards death, as the world keeps on bringing forth new life. It’s as if existence itself is suffering from its own meaninglessness. Camus understood this and in his strange, first novel, The Stranger (1942), gives us three deaths to contemplate and each of those deaths are represents a key to understanding how Camus wants us to live.

UNBOXING THE ART OF COLLECTING

is this what we want?

By Carolyn Kim

Do you want this?

Everyone collects something; you know, each to their own and all that stuff. From art, bags, shoes, books, sports to K-pop photocards and NFTs, collections take many forms that reflect people’s diverse interests, passions, and hobbies. Collections create new subcultures in which people find joy and community. Collections serve as a way to connect with others and as your collections grow, they become part of you. It’s a deeply personal art and a rewarding pursuit that brings joy, satisfaction, and a sense of connection.

IS HE THE GOD OF MANGA?

yes, Urasawa Naoki is

By Marshall Hu

Two pictures of God

Many fans and critics consider Osamu Tezuka one of the great figures in the history of manga. Without a doubt, Astro Boy and Black Jack have had a profound impact on manga aesthetics and culture. In order to commemorate Tezuka's outstanding contributions and to encourage subsequent comic talents to take up the mantle of Tezuka’s brilliant innovations and work, the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun created the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 1997 to recognize new and inspiring achievements in the field. The joking title for the winner is the “God of Manga.”

THE GREAT APPLE STAIRCASES

and a few others of note

By Xinye Ju

Look at the missing C of craftsmanship

Stairs are often overlooked and underappreciated features of our daily lives. We ascend and descend them routinely, taking their presence for granted. Even when they exude a touch of grandeur, they're often reduced to mere functionality. However, as a designer, I've come to see stairs as more than just utilitarian structures – they are captivating, awe-inspiring creations that play a pivotal role in our lives. They hold secrets to understanding beauty, form, our relationship with the world, and the essence of moving from one place to another. Yet, there's a new breed of stairs that has taken the design world by storm, gracing Apple stores across the globe. These staircases possess a mesmerizing beauty so profound that it transcends visual brilliance to reach out and touch your very soul. Am I going too far here? Maybe, but why not, let’s keep on praising these unsung saints. Apple has reached the pinnacle of staircase design, and, bold as it may sound, I might dare to claim that they are the most extraordinary staircases ever conceived.

THE STATIC BECOMES DYNAMIC

the public art revolution at d'strict

By Evelyn Lee

The team

Imagine you open your window and you see the majestic sight of the entire solar system in front of you. Or, you walk down the street and the building in front of you is turning into water. Or, you’re in Times Square and a flatiron building becomes a waterfall. Moments of pure fantasy like these used to be strictly the province of a childhood imagination. And so, the question is what happens when you bring these types of fantasies to life. Well, D’strict,a South Korean art? advertising? branding? tech? company is giving it a try.

THE HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL MOVIES

Or, your life as the best movie ever

By Vrinda Bindal

Look at those two

It’s New Year’s Eve and you’ve just sung karaoke with someone you’ve just met but it’s love at first sight. You know it, they know it, the guy who set you two up to sing knows it. No, that’s too cheesy, too dreamy. Is it though? High School Musical, released in 2006, was the first of a trilogy of the cheesiest, dreamiest movies you could ever imagine. Based on the lives of six characters in their final two years of high school, the movie starts with Troy and Gabriella at a ski resort on New Year’s Eve, who get invited up to sing. Two weeks later, they find out that they attend the same school. Incredible!

The Revolutionary Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

or the future of art

By Andrew Chang

Beautiful, isn't it?

It has been a recognizable fact that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has become one of the most important milestones in video game history since its release in 2017. This game is the first of its kind to bring high art into a popular video game franchise. To understand this outstanding project from Eiji Aonuma and his team at Nintendo, we need to look back at other video game releases during that time. Major companies were releasing large-scale open-world games that people were getting tired of, and the indie game studio had artistic games that only appealed to a small audience. BOTW slipped into the gap between indie art and popular games, and in doing so, it broke out from each category into what might be the future of art.

THE TRICK OF LUXURY CONSUMPTION

Or, Bang and Olufsen reads the market

By Heather Lee

Oh, so cool

Luxury consumption and Bang and OlufsenThe luxury products market is growing so much that despite the economic recession sales are still strong. However, there are voices of concern that consumption of luxury products encourages overspending. This leads to why people think so negatively about luxury products. Of course, each person has different reasons for consuming them. Some people buy luxury goods because of the value-conscious consumption, the parade of wealth, the demand for bling, and the bandwagon effect. To be wholly honest, I currently own Bang & Olufsen's H95 headphones and I adore them. Traveling to New York in March, I visited the Bang & Olufsen Store for the first time and I was excited.

THE UNLIKELIEST ART TWINS IN THE WORLD

Hipster Director Martin McDonagh and Flannery O'Connor believe in a quite interesting God

By Zonghao Mo

Look at what that movie character is reading

We tend to think in differences, both big, small, and in-between, and this goes for artists, countries, people, everything. And so, we can miss connections that are sometimes staring us right in the face. On the surface, there could be no greater distance than that between Martin McDonagh and Flannery O’Connor. He’s a cosmopolitan Londoner, married to the equally cosmopolitan Phoebe Waller-Bridge and O’Connor was a hyper-religious Southerner from deep rural Georgia. You won’t find these two at the same party, but there are more than a few, fascinating connections between them, and they have to do with how they understand God and Man.

THE GREAT FEMINIST REVENGE FILMS OF 21ST CENTURY KOREA

The wild women of Korean cinema

By Fiona Xu

Served up cold

South Korea is going through a feminist revolution that is as quiet and subversive as it is radical. It’s a difficult cultural shift to actually pin down. Many aspects of Korean society achieve a real equality between men and women, but there are other aspects that are, how shall we put it, much less progressive. This makes for an interesting and volatile situation and what’s fascinating, besides the cultural and sociological ramifications, is how feminism is represented in art, and especially the movies. Almost any contemporary Korean movie you see will have interesting takes on feminism and women, especially young women. We could literally choose from hundreds, but these three are especially relevant: Park Chan-wook’s Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005); Cheol-soo Jang’s Bedevilled(2010) and Cho Nam-Joo’s Kim Ji-young, born in 1982 (2016).

MISINTERPRETATIONS ABOUND AROUND YU HUA'S THE SEVENTH DAY

Or, what Chinese and American critics get wrong

By Kellie Wu

In comparing the American and Chinese reviews of Yu Hua's The Seventh Day, we can see a number of interesting problems. One, there's something about Yu's novel that has the quality of a strange mirror. It reflects the world back at the reader, but what the reader gets is not a true reflection of the world, but one distorted by ideas of justice and care. It is a powerful literary vision, but one that generates misinterpretations, both in Yu’s home country of China and in America, and those misinterpretations say more about the critics and their countries than about Yu’s brilliant work.

MAGNUM OPUSES COLLIDE

Lawrence Argeant's Venus is more San Francisco than we could ever imagine

By Katherine Cooke

It makes you think...of many things

Part I:

Venus

This morning San Francisco woke again to begin its daily grind, unaffected by its current state of despair. Another day, another dollar; another man dead with a needle in his arm and no one is left to cry. The departed man’s face is frozen, his body motionless, strewn aside, cascading down the cold marble stairs that descend from ‘C’era Una Volta’ piazza, nestled within Trinity Place in San Francisco’s ‘Mid-Market’ sector. The man’s face hangs, stuck in a state of shock. Pallid and blue in complexion, any life left in his face is now long since flush. His mouth gapes open, once gasping for air; but in this moment, no breath fills his lungs, and none comes out. Only a crispfall zephyr sweeps across his sallow face, a reminder of how callous our city has become.

THE ART OF THE MONOGRAPH

Three beautiful pieces

By Jaden Fuhrer

Stunning Juxtopositions

In the world of photography, everybody has a story to tell, whether it is through photojournalism, fine art, or everything in between. One can find series online that people have carefully curated showcasing an artist’s body of work. But where else would one be able to tell their story or speak their truth? Photographic monographs tell stories and portray feelings in carefully curated editions. Any consumer of art should look to monographs for three reasons: curated inspiration, ease of access, and a storytelling experience unlimited by traditional cultural distinctions.

AN ESSAY ON JEFF GOLDBLUM

yes, really

By Eli Cather

He's fly

Since landing his first lead role as Dr. Seth Brundle in David Cronenberg’s The Fly (1986), Jeff Goldblum has been on a steady and escalating path to becoming “Jeff Goldblum”, a man who is more than “Jeff Goldblum” the actor, and the actor “Jeff Goldblum” who is approaching mythic status, or maybe I’m going a bit too far. He has starred in some of the highest grossing films of his era, including Jurassic Park (1993) and Independence Day (1996), along with a myriad of other lower-budget independent films such as The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) and Earth Girls Are Easy (1988). He has even been known to branch out into different forms of art making, like directing the short film Little Surprises in 1996, or into the world of music in the last few years with his own jazz band.

THE MOST HUMANE ANIMATION

the very human art of stop-motion

By Jiwon Kim

Stop-Motion People in action

Many people think that we are living in a world of choice and that as artists we can tell a story in many different ways and that the choices we make are neutral and relatively unimportant. This is certainly true in the world of animation. There are so many different methods, styles, and forms. At this moment in animation, the choice is between the overwhelming dominance of computer animation and everything else, especially what I think is the most sophisticated and human form of animation: stop-motion animation. As a result, I am going to not only be writing a defense of stop-motion animation but also how it is a deeper expression of what it means to be human than computer animation.

K-POP AND THE POLITICS OF SPEAKING OUT

The sneaky music videos of NCT 127

By Yuquin Lin

Here are the guys

Could there be anything more worthless than a K-Pop video, probably in my mind and yours these walking song advertisements are one of the most dispensable pieces of non-art you could possibly encounter. In the eyes of most people who do not know K-Pop, K-Pop music videos are all about young boys and girls wearing gorgeous clothes, singing and dancing in colorful backgrounds, and looking sad or happy for no apparent reason. The content of the singing is always young love, without too much of a demand for emotional engagement of any kind. But, I'm going to tell you that not only are K-Pop videos complex artistic creations, but also, and this is the important point, they make political and social statements that people would be afraid to make in any other forum.

SHIN YUN-BOK COULDN'T HELP HIMSELF BECAUSE HE SAW THE WORLD

And depicted it with bold strokes

By Jiwon Kim

Women on the move

Delicate lines, bold and colorful colors are the most prominent features of the paintings by artist Shin Yun-bok (1758-1813) from the late Joseon Dynasty. Shin painted people in everyday life, and he was especially interested in the social lives of aristocrats. His style was subtle and realistic and is still praised by many people to the present day. However, Shin’s paintings were not welcomed during his time, most likely because of the frankness of his depictions of the sexual lives of everyday people: a married gentleman meeting a prostitute; a man meeting his lover under cover of the night; and a monk secretly looking at naked women taking a bath. The question is why does Shin chose to paint scenes that he knew would make government censors upset: the answer is a complex relationship between his artistic upbringing and in his own artistic inclinations.

THE FILM THAT CHINESE AUDIENCES ALMOST LOVE

the strange case of Big Fish Begonia

By Huiwei Feng

A growing fish

Big Fish Begonia is an epic Chinese animation film directed by Liang Xuan and Zhang Chun (2016). The story is inspired by Chinese Taoist philosopher Zhuangzi. Xuan studied at Tsinghua University as a thermal energy major and had a dream about a small fish who went to the sea and kept growing. He loved his dream and told his classmate Zhang Chun about it. The two decided to make a short-animated film, which not only won a lot of awards, but also got the highest number of clicks on the Internet at the time. With this encouragement, they decided to make Big Fish Begonia into a full-length film.

THE STRANGEST ART FORGERY OF THE 21ST CENTURY, SO FAR

the Lee Ufan forgeries

By Hae Jeong Cho

Between a rock and a strange space

The Lee Ufan art forgery case (2016) is one of the strangest incidents that has ever happened in the history of art. Of course, art forgery is quite a fascinating subject that raises many questions: What is the difference between an original and a forgery? How are they distinguished? And who is the actual victim of a forgery? Is it a crime against the artist or the public or, maybe, merely money? Our concept of art and ownership originates back to the 18th century and on a basic level has come to mean that there is a strong, really, unbreakable connection between a piece of art and the person who creates it. With this idea, the protection of artists’ rights became an important issue and copyright law came to define the work as a product with known authorship and provenance, a fancy art market term for proper ownership.

THE BUSINESS OF SUBCULTURE

the haphazard genius of Jhonen Vasquez

By Kai Newquist

The artist at work

The story of one artist can easily become a case study of the effects of fame, and how it can affect the trajectory of a career. One such story, often portrayed as a success by his fans and peers, is the career of Jhonen Vasquez. Having created the cult classic comic series Johnny the Homicidal Maniac (JTHM), its multiple spinoffs, and the hit TV show Invader Zim, Vasquez is touted as the king of goth entertainment, and is celebrated as a genius by his fans… or would it be more accurate to call them followers? Vasquez’s work has certainly garnered a variety of reactions, and for good reason: his work advanced two separate mediums, and both JTHM and Invader Zim are solid pieces of entertainment. And yet, what else has Vasquez managed to achieve in his 47 years on Earth- and is he still worthy of the lofty title of ‘genius’?

WHAT IS IT?

Stephen King's brutal attack on inhumanity

By Mae Ware

The Original It

You wouldn’t think that Stephen King, master of horror, would also be the master of dealing with difficult topics like racism, child abuse, etc., but the truth is he’s a master at giving shape to what we barely can say. His 1986 novel, It, is a perfect example, as he shoves raw image after raw image into the reader’s mind with all the subtlety of a jackhammer attacking a flea. King’s books take an unfiltered look at difficult topics, showing his audience that a fictional monster is nothing compared to the horrors humans inflict on one another. There are severe forms of violence that are impossible to forget and these scenes force us to ask, what really is the source of the novel’s terror: monsters or people. Every scene seems to stick in your head no matter how important to the story it is, and that’s because of the way King approaches fear and horror. He takes mythical monsters and gives them power over real world terrors. As terrifying as it is, it’s only as terrifying as what people do to other people.

THE QUESTION OF THE WEATHER

the incredible artificial vision of Olafur Eliasson

By Shannon Chung

This man is thinking of something big

As soon as a piece of art goes public, everyone's a critic: the general public, critics, administrators, everyone, even the artist’s family. But interpretation, specifically, the artist’s or museum’s interpretation is always suspect to other possibilities. This is certainly true of one of my favorite artists, the Icelandic-Dutch phenom Olafur Eliasson. His sculptures and installations are intensely beautiful. If you have the luck to see any of his works, you will not only be overwhelmed by how great they are, but also, rather strangely, you will be subject to Eliassson’s, his curators, and critics telling you what they’re about. He claims and his many supporters do, too, that his main subject is climate change, but the question is: is it really, or is it about something else? I’m going to choose something else, but with a caveat. Of course, it’s about climate change. However, it’s more about the process by which art attempts to address the most memorable concerns of human consciousness than whatever subject matter it supposedly addresses.

SUSHI OR JAIL?

the story of Ufan Lee and Hyong-Keun Yun

By Hannah Kim

A Korean Story

Once upon a time in Korea, there were two friends, Ufan Lee and Hyong-Keun Yun. They both wanted to be Artists. But even though they both got what they wanted – they are famous artists – one ended up in a fancy Sushi bar in Tokyo and the other in a Seoul prison. Here are two of their paintings...

MULTIPLE SELVES

the problem of identity in Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis

By Yao Wei

The real and the comic

How we think about our lives sometimes seems a mystery. Most of us just live day by day, week by week, decade by decade, and don’t think about what’s happening as having any greater meaning than that we’re living a life. But that’s not always true, sometimes we’re living in the midst of radical political change that has the power to change how we live and the way we live. Now, does that mean that our lives are inherently political; well, that’s a good question and I’m not prepared to answer it, yet.

APPLE FAILURES

the brilliant mistakes

By Brian Bohan Yu

A Meeting of Minds

Apple is one the most successful design technology companies in the world. They have had so many successes and breakthroughs in the past decades that we tend to simply just list their accomplishments. Their ability to merge high level electronic products and cool design is unparallelled. Their Industrial and User Experience Design make their competitors seem like children. After all these years, the company is still the overall leader in technology today. But what I’m interested in is not Apple’s great successes, which are many and incredible, but Apple’s failures. Because it is precisely in those failures that we can see the true genius of the company.

NATURAL BORN ARTIST OR SELLER

the Jeff Koons Experience

By Madison Brooks

The man and his creations

The name Jeff Koons has buzzed through the art world for nearly two decades. He is distinguished for his sculptures that depict pop culture icons like Michael Jackson, his Neo-Geo and Neo-Pop installations, as well as his work with his porn star wife, at the time a member of the Italian parliament. Fundamentally different from his peers Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Sol, Eric Kesha and Francesco Clemente, Koons is first and foremost a businessman or an artist who thinks that an artist is first and foremost a business. And on the level of business, well, Koons pieces have sold for record auction prices: $58.4 million for Balloon Dog (Orange) in 2013 and $91.1 million for Rabbit in 2019. Koon’s financial success has brought him many detractors and critics, almost all of whom start with accusations of Koons’ previous career as a commodity broker on Wall Street (1979-1984). The question becomes: Is Jeff Koons a natural born artist or natural born seller?

BACK TO CHICAGO

the show that presaged a movement

By Jaya Reddy

Judy Chicago

Judy Chicago is an American feminist artist born in Chicago, IL, 1939. She is known for her gallery and museum installations as well as being involved in one of the first and most important feminist art exhibitions: “Womanhouse”. As a young woman in the 60’s, Chicago recounts being told that “she couldn’t be a woman and an artist, too.” But even as a little girl, she decided that she was not only going to be a feminist artist, but that she would also contribute to its history. Believing strongly in a feminist pedagogy to educate women artists, Chicago started the first Feminist Art Program at California State University, Fresno in 1970. She and her students embarked on a series of experiments that would come to be recognized as the foundation of feminist art and philosophy. And with that, they came up with "Womanhouse."

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