Femmexplicit Digitalia
Donativo protegido
Help support Femmexplicit Digitalia, a master's thesis exhibition featuring powerful, emerging female artists whose practices center on empowerment for women in post-internet society. Curated by Jasa McKenzie.
Exhibition Summary
Femmexplicit Digitalia is an exhibition that explores and celebrates how representations of explicit female bodies and sexualities are becoming a symbol of power in society. During a time of high-conservatism, Weinsteingate, and the #metoo campaign, asserting visibility for women and elevation of women’s expressions of themselves is paramount to asserting comment on the present moment.
Increasingly today, women presenting their femininity and sexuality unabashedly is revered in the internet ethos, leading to a more positive perception within greater society. Self-authorship steers the conversation away from objectification toward empowerment. A more recent approach in history leans toward a sex-affirming and sex-positive view by encouraging a culture of viewing sex relating to power and knowledge.
Who and Where
Femmexplicit Digitalia, thus far, will feature three boundary-pushing artists: Lindsay Dye, Tabita Rezaire, and Megan Wirick, along with a special collaboration with MATH Magazine, a feminist, sex-positive erotic publication.
Lindsay Dye is an artist based in Brooklyn. She is creating a brand-new performance especially for Femmexplicit Digitalia! In this performance, Dye will create a humanizing vignette on the IRL/URL experience of sex work, delivering humor, satire, and empathy.
Lindsay Dye, live performance, Image courtesy of the artist and Arturo Olmos
Tabita Rezaire is an artist based in Johannesburg, South Africa, who examines constructs of power on-and-offline using a unique new media aesthetic. Her video, Sugarwalls Teardom (2016), honors and remembers the crucial contributions of black women's’ genitalia and reproductive organs to gynecology and bio-medicine.
Tabita Rezaire, Sugarwalls Teardom, Video Still 13:07, 2016
Megan Wirick is an artist based in New York and Philadelphia. Her sensuous paintings draw their inspiration from ubiquitous internet porn. Using her expressive style, captivating color palette, and incorporation of succulent plants, she brings beauty back to the subjects. She portrays a variety of sexual expressions, demonstrating sexuality is fluid, like the paint it is expressed through on these canvases.
Megan Elaine Wirick, Endure Her, Oil on canvas, 2017
Molly Soda is a Brooklyn-based artist who works across a variety of digital and internet-based platforms including video, performance, and web imagery. She employs humor and satire to comment on the female experience in the online realm, using pop culture communication and self-presentation phenomenon to highlight the unique social sphere of the internet in this regard.
Molly Soda, Should I Send This?, 2015.
Faith Holland is a New York artist whose work addresses not only our intimate relationships with the content on our personal devices but also the physical relationships we hold with them. Her work highlights the simultaneous absurdity and naturalness of these relationships we have become dependent on, both visually and physically. She asserts that the internet itself is made of vaginas. Her piece, VVVVVV utilizes internet-aesthetic motifs of vulvas and vaginal canals. The piece addresses the obsessive use of women’s bodies in internet pornography. She states, "The internet is not a masculine domain."
Faith Holland, VVVVVV, Website, 2013.
MATH Magazine is a female-owned business based out of Brooklyn. Math is, “dedicated to the production of ethical, diverse, and sex–positive media.” Their publications present a wide variety of bodies and sexual expressions. MATH’s collaboration encourages an openness to approach erotic media and encourages its dialogue with art objects.
More to come! I'm currently in the process of confirming the participation of two more powerful feminist and new media artists! Stay tuned for exciting updates and announcements!
About Me
Jasa McKenzie is a curator based in New York City. In 2017, she curated My-Oh-My, an exhibition that focused on queer censorship and visibility, as well as The Map Is Not the Territory, a show that pushed back on misuses of language, defying arbitrary labels. She is the first-place recipient of the Apexart Franchise Award for 2017-18 and will be presenting the exhibition, You're Not Sick, You're Weak, in Nagoya, Japan in June 2018. Recently, she was nominated as a semi-finalist for a Fulbright Research Grant. Her curatorial practice is centered around social justice, feminism, and supporting under-represented artists.
The Exhibition will be held April 19th- May 4th, 2018 in the Pfizer Building at 630 Flushing Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. The Pfizer Building is an old pharmaceutical factory which now rents out its unused spaces to the arts! However, due to its warehouse environment, the gallery needs a lot of love and hard work put into it to make it art gallery-ready!
What the Funds Will Support
Any financial contribution that you can provide will go directly to one of these four things:
Materials and Labor: To prepare the gallery and exhibition, building materials such as drywall, wood, joint compound, and paint are needed. I will be performing most of the labor myself, but will need to hire assistance in order to build walls necessary for the installation. Materials for installation such as platforms, wire, nails, vinyl, etc. are also crucial to implementation.
Equipment: As the exhibition is mainly tech-based, a small amount of equipment such as speakers, lights, and devices need to be acquired.
Transportation: The artwork will require transportation within the city of New York from the studios to the gallery. I will be joining forces with my cohort to rent a vehicle and the rental fee plus gas is necessary for the imperative, proper art handling and transportation of the work.
Pay the Artists: Artists work hard and perform labor the same way as others go to a day job, usually on top of other occupations. I fully believe in supporting these artists.
Why You Should Consider Donating
This exhibition goes beyond a thesis project. Femmexplicit Digitalia has an opportunity to support extremely talented, thought-provoking artists who are just at the beginning of their careers. The concept comes at a critical time in history, especially for women. This exhibition provides an opportunity to put critical critique into the public about ways in which society views and treats women. It also provides a point of celebration for the elevation of women and the female form in its essence.
Every creative undertaking comes with risks in the amount of hard work it takes to implement a show- racing the clock to build walls, paint 2300 sq. ft., and install large video pieces, for example. It is also a risk to exclaim female agency, but one that is absolutely necessary, especially in the state we currently find ourselves. Among a great many, the main challenge is to present these works in the most beneficial manner to their message and to the artists themselves.
Ways You Can Help
I understand that everyone has financial obligations. If you aren’t able to contribute, I continue to appreciate your time and investment in reading about the project! Please, consider benefitting the exhibition in another way, which I will be exceptionally grateful for!
Consider making a donation: Your generous contribution will go directly making this project possible so it may convey its message to the public and support the artists’ careers!
Share the campaign page: Perhaps someone in your network will be interested in the project, the artworks, and/or the artists themselves! Please, post the campaign link on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and any other platform you use! To put a more personal touch on sharing the project, or direct it to someone individually, please share the campaign link via email!
Come to the exhibition: The opening will be held on April 19th from 6- 9pm at the Pfizer Building in Brooklyn. Please come to view the exhibition, experience the live performance, and meet some of the participants! I welcome viewings by appointment through May 4th.
Support the participants: To support the participants in long careers to come, follow Lindsay Dye, Tabita Rezaire, Megan Wirick, and MATH Magazine on any and all of your social media platforms! Don’t forget to sign up for newsletters!
If you have any questions about any of this or are simply interested in learning more about the project, please reach out to me!
THANK YOU!
Exhibition Summary
Femmexplicit Digitalia is an exhibition that explores and celebrates how representations of explicit female bodies and sexualities are becoming a symbol of power in society. During a time of high-conservatism, Weinsteingate, and the #metoo campaign, asserting visibility for women and elevation of women’s expressions of themselves is paramount to asserting comment on the present moment.
Increasingly today, women presenting their femininity and sexuality unabashedly is revered in the internet ethos, leading to a more positive perception within greater society. Self-authorship steers the conversation away from objectification toward empowerment. A more recent approach in history leans toward a sex-affirming and sex-positive view by encouraging a culture of viewing sex relating to power and knowledge.
Who and Where
Femmexplicit Digitalia, thus far, will feature three boundary-pushing artists: Lindsay Dye, Tabita Rezaire, and Megan Wirick, along with a special collaboration with MATH Magazine, a feminist, sex-positive erotic publication.
Lindsay Dye is an artist based in Brooklyn. She is creating a brand-new performance especially for Femmexplicit Digitalia! In this performance, Dye will create a humanizing vignette on the IRL/URL experience of sex work, delivering humor, satire, and empathy.
Lindsay Dye, live performance, Image courtesy of the artist and Arturo OlmosTabita Rezaire is an artist based in Johannesburg, South Africa, who examines constructs of power on-and-offline using a unique new media aesthetic. Her video, Sugarwalls Teardom (2016), honors and remembers the crucial contributions of black women's’ genitalia and reproductive organs to gynecology and bio-medicine.
Tabita Rezaire, Sugarwalls Teardom, Video Still 13:07, 2016Megan Wirick is an artist based in New York and Philadelphia. Her sensuous paintings draw their inspiration from ubiquitous internet porn. Using her expressive style, captivating color palette, and incorporation of succulent plants, she brings beauty back to the subjects. She portrays a variety of sexual expressions, demonstrating sexuality is fluid, like the paint it is expressed through on these canvases.
Megan Elaine Wirick, Endure Her, Oil on canvas, 2017Molly Soda is a Brooklyn-based artist who works across a variety of digital and internet-based platforms including video, performance, and web imagery. She employs humor and satire to comment on the female experience in the online realm, using pop culture communication and self-presentation phenomenon to highlight the unique social sphere of the internet in this regard.
Molly Soda, Should I Send This?, 2015.Faith Holland is a New York artist whose work addresses not only our intimate relationships with the content on our personal devices but also the physical relationships we hold with them. Her work highlights the simultaneous absurdity and naturalness of these relationships we have become dependent on, both visually and physically. She asserts that the internet itself is made of vaginas. Her piece, VVVVVV utilizes internet-aesthetic motifs of vulvas and vaginal canals. The piece addresses the obsessive use of women’s bodies in internet pornography. She states, "The internet is not a masculine domain."
Faith Holland, VVVVVV, Website, 2013.MATH Magazine is a female-owned business based out of Brooklyn. Math is, “dedicated to the production of ethical, diverse, and sex–positive media.” Their publications present a wide variety of bodies and sexual expressions. MATH’s collaboration encourages an openness to approach erotic media and encourages its dialogue with art objects.
More to come! I'm currently in the process of confirming the participation of two more powerful feminist and new media artists! Stay tuned for exciting updates and announcements!
About Me
Jasa McKenzie is a curator based in New York City. In 2017, she curated My-Oh-My, an exhibition that focused on queer censorship and visibility, as well as The Map Is Not the Territory, a show that pushed back on misuses of language, defying arbitrary labels. She is the first-place recipient of the Apexart Franchise Award for 2017-18 and will be presenting the exhibition, You're Not Sick, You're Weak, in Nagoya, Japan in June 2018. Recently, she was nominated as a semi-finalist for a Fulbright Research Grant. Her curatorial practice is centered around social justice, feminism, and supporting under-represented artists.
The Exhibition will be held April 19th- May 4th, 2018 in the Pfizer Building at 630 Flushing Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. The Pfizer Building is an old pharmaceutical factory which now rents out its unused spaces to the arts! However, due to its warehouse environment, the gallery needs a lot of love and hard work put into it to make it art gallery-ready!
What the Funds Will Support
Any financial contribution that you can provide will go directly to one of these four things:
Materials and Labor: To prepare the gallery and exhibition, building materials such as drywall, wood, joint compound, and paint are needed. I will be performing most of the labor myself, but will need to hire assistance in order to build walls necessary for the installation. Materials for installation such as platforms, wire, nails, vinyl, etc. are also crucial to implementation.
Equipment: As the exhibition is mainly tech-based, a small amount of equipment such as speakers, lights, and devices need to be acquired.
Transportation: The artwork will require transportation within the city of New York from the studios to the gallery. I will be joining forces with my cohort to rent a vehicle and the rental fee plus gas is necessary for the imperative, proper art handling and transportation of the work.
Pay the Artists: Artists work hard and perform labor the same way as others go to a day job, usually on top of other occupations. I fully believe in supporting these artists.
Why You Should Consider Donating
This exhibition goes beyond a thesis project. Femmexplicit Digitalia has an opportunity to support extremely talented, thought-provoking artists who are just at the beginning of their careers. The concept comes at a critical time in history, especially for women. This exhibition provides an opportunity to put critical critique into the public about ways in which society views and treats women. It also provides a point of celebration for the elevation of women and the female form in its essence.
Every creative undertaking comes with risks in the amount of hard work it takes to implement a show- racing the clock to build walls, paint 2300 sq. ft., and install large video pieces, for example. It is also a risk to exclaim female agency, but one that is absolutely necessary, especially in the state we currently find ourselves. Among a great many, the main challenge is to present these works in the most beneficial manner to their message and to the artists themselves.
Ways You Can Help
I understand that everyone has financial obligations. If you aren’t able to contribute, I continue to appreciate your time and investment in reading about the project! Please, consider benefitting the exhibition in another way, which I will be exceptionally grateful for!
Consider making a donation: Your generous contribution will go directly making this project possible so it may convey its message to the public and support the artists’ careers!
Share the campaign page: Perhaps someone in your network will be interested in the project, the artworks, and/or the artists themselves! Please, post the campaign link on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and any other platform you use! To put a more personal touch on sharing the project, or direct it to someone individually, please share the campaign link via email!
Come to the exhibition: The opening will be held on April 19th from 6- 9pm at the Pfizer Building in Brooklyn. Please come to view the exhibition, experience the live performance, and meet some of the participants! I welcome viewings by appointment through May 4th.
Support the participants: To support the participants in long careers to come, follow Lindsay Dye, Tabita Rezaire, Megan Wirick, and MATH Magazine on any and all of your social media platforms! Don’t forget to sign up for newsletters!
If you have any questions about any of this or are simply interested in learning more about the project, please reach out to me!
THANK YOU!
Organizador
Jasa McKenzie
Organizador
New York, NY
