Identity

Identity, an exhibition of eight Texas women artists including three with Austin roots, presented a variety of media: painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, video, and computer-generated images.

The open reception was held on July 9th from 6 – 8 p.m. and included an informal talk by exhibition curator, MaryRoss Taylor, and a screening of Womanhouse, which provided historical context on the origins of feminism as an art movement.

There was an accompanying lecture by Professor Ann Cvetkovich on July 23 at 6:00 p.m. entitled “Feminist Theory and the Politics of Identity,” which explored how the artists represented in the exhibition embody, extend, and transform the insights of feminist theory and politics through their work in visual culture.

The feminist art movement of the 1970’s introduced performance art as a medium for exploring the theme of identity and pioneered the use of commonplace or mass-production materials and techniques in the realization of complex works addressing the theme of personal identity. Identity was and still is an issue of interest to many artists as well as to the general public because of the emergence of virtual identities on the Internet, identity theft as a form of fraud, advances in plastic surgery and inter-species transplants, and the politics of “outing” notables whose ethnicity or sexual orientation was not part of their public identity.