Sorcha Dallas

In the CAG’s street front vitrines, we will open “Keep the IS in FEMINISM” a collection of new Feminist slogans. For this project we commissioned prominent feminist artists along with emerging artists both female and male to “reinvent the “f” word: feminism,” a directive taken from the Gorilla Girls. We would like a new round of slogans to capture a sense of urgency by inflecting the very notion of Feminism back into a contemporary conversation. It’s not only that women are under represented in politics and over represented as objects, it is that women, young and old, no longer identify themselves as feminists. Even with the best of intentions there has been a slow fading of “feminists” as we watch them slide into the history books as something that is no longer relevant. How did feminists and feminism get such a bad rap so quickly? In the last two years there has been an active looking back to feminist art practices of the 1970s. Two prominent references include the traveling block buster WACK: Art and Feminist Revolution, which is currently in Vancouver, and Frieze magazine’s 2007 feminist issue. The return of Feminist discourse to the contemporary art table is not a surprise since we do understand that the time is ripe to lay new attention on this now forty year old practice, to rejuvenate the terms of feminism to better understand what it has effectively achieved and lay out what still needs to be done. The title of the exhibition is taken from the list of slogans and is by Jeanne Randolph. Artists include: Kate Davis, Dave Dyment, Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby, Myfanwy Macleod, Kelly Mark, Randy Lee Cutler, Micah Lexier, Isabelle Pauwels, Kristina Podesva, Hadley + Maxwell, FASTWÜRMS, Jeanne Randolph, Martha Wilson, and Elizabeth Zvonar.

The Contemporary Art Gallery is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the City of Vancouver and the Province of BC through the BC Arts Council, the BC Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch and the BC Arts Renaissance Fund which is administered by Vancouver Foundation. We are grateful for the support of Vancouver Foundation and our members, donors and volunteers.

Contemporary Art Gallery, 555 Nelson Street, Vancouver, BC, V6B 6R5, Canada www.contemporaryartgallery.ca. Gallery Hours: Wed. - Sun. 12 – 6 pm. Admission is free by donation.