In closing last month's newsletter, I looked forward to writing about the state of art world at Art Basel in Switzerland and the Venice Biennial, but when sitting down to write another topic felt far more pertinent.
The overturning of Roe v. Wade this week is absolutely devastating. Repercussions of such a fundamentally sexist, racist, classist decision made by the court are heartbreaking, not only for women and in particular, marginalized women, but truly all people.
I, of course, feel angry and helpless, but I am also feeling passionate. Passionate to use this month’s newsletter as a platform and a space to provoke reflection and, hopefully, inspire even more collective action. This being said, I recognize my personal privilege, on so many levels, and do not want to center the narrative on me as a white woman living in Canada, so I feel compelled to do what always makes the most sense to me during moments of instability or distress — turn to the artists.
🌊 Deep Dive: A Demand for Choice
No matter the context, artists tend to be phenomenal storytellers and observers of our cultural conditions. Artists can create works imbued with themes and reflections of present society that we as particiapnts don’t recognize ourselves. These messages often become even more abundantly clear in retrospect, as demonstrated momentarily.
There is a reason for the cliche that a picture is worth a thousand words, so in accordance with that sentiment, I thought I’d share a group of artworks that allude to the critical nature of bodily autonomy and its ever-present relevance. I’ve also included a description of the works in order to provide another level of independent context.
Interestingly enough, I found when seeking artworks to illustrate our present context, the artworks created almost 40 years ago were alarmingly relevant. The content was almost indistinguishable from the pieces made in the past year.
Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Your body is a battleground), 1989
The year 1989 was marked by numerous demonstrations protesting a new wave of antiabortion laws chipping away at the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. Untitled (Your body is a battleground) was produced by Kruger for the Women’s March on Washington in support of reproductive freedom.
Text courtesy of the Broad Museum.
Guerrilla Girls, Guerrilla Girls demand a return to traditional values on abortion, 1992
The Guerrilla Girls is a collective of anonymous women artists whose work combines elements of theater, agitprop, and civil disobedience. Founded in New York in 1985, the group focuses on gender and racial discrimination in the art world… This injustice is one the Guerrilla Girls seek to expose through their various projects, particularly the dozens of posters they have produced over the last twenty-seven years, all originally intended for public spaces. Incisive, hilarious, and polemical, these posters combine facts and arresting visual design. They read like PSAs, advertisements, or the kinds of charts one might use in a sales briefing, motivational speech, or training session, all formats the Guerrilla Girls repurpose for very different ends.
Text courtesy Princeton University Art Museum
Lyle Ashton Harris, Billie #21, 2002
According to a 2021 study Black women in the United States are 3.5 times more likely to die giving birth than non-Black women. They are also less likely to have health insurance or easy access to health care, making obtaining birth control difficult. IUDS, one of the longest-lasting and most effective birth controls, are among the most expensive. Factor this into the social and economic determinants stemming from institutional racism faced by minority groups, and it’s clear women of color are the most imperiled by abortion bans.
Billie Holiday, featured here in a portrait by Lyle Ashton Harris, once recounted to a journalist her own harrowing experience with an at-home abortion as a teenager. Holiday, a jazz singer of a singular talent for expressing anguish, was a teenager in the 1930s, and in lieu of a licensed medical doctor performing a sterile operation, soaked in a bathtub of hot water and mustard to induce a miscarriage. You can only ban safe abortions, as the saying goes.
Text courtesy of ARTnews.
Jenny Holzer, Jenny Holzer: Messages to the Public, Times Square, Mar. 1-31, 1982
…in 1982, phrases such as “ABUSE OF POWER COMES AS NO SURPRISE” and “MONEY CREATES TASTE” were projected on a digital billboard in Times Square. Part of a body of work known as her Truisms, these succinct and unnerving assertions speak to deeper truths about the often-contradicting ideologies and values that undergird our society.
In addition to the Inflammatory Essays and Truisms, another work by Holzer in SAM’s collection is the cast aluminum plaque that reads: “DON’T WATCH THE UNDERCLASS, IT’S MORE LIKELY THAT THE WARLORDS WILL KILL YOU.” Her aphorisms poetically call attention to self-evident and often universal truths, in this case about power, propaganda, and its abusers. Subverting the traditional use of a plaque—designed to mark historic sites, events, and people—Holzer deftly shifts the plaque’s intrinsic power and authority in new directions. The work is as potent a message today as it was nearly thirty years ago, speaking to Holzer’s penchant for identifying lasting social and political issues.
Text courtesy Seattle Art Museum
Jenny Holzer, BODY, minted May 5, 2022
The chyron on Tucker Carlson Tonight on May 11, 2021, boldly proclaimed that MAKING AN INFORMED CHOICE REGARDING YOUR OWN BODY SHOULDN’T BE CONTROVERSIAL. This pronouncement called to mind the Truisms (1977–79), such as ABUSE OF POWER COMES AS NO SURPRISE and, perhaps most appropriateposters and later on T-shirts, postcards, LED signs, stone benches, and in many other media, function like chyrons: direct, emphatic, self-important, and as a whole, full of contradictions. These statements speak to the anxiety, humor, banality, tragedy, and urgency of modern life [more context on the Truisms series here]. Gillian Branstetter was kind to encapsulate the similarities between Carlson’s chyron and mine.
Broadcast on Tucker Carlson Tonight on May 11, 2021, and tweeted by Gillian Branstetter on May 12, 2021, an inadvertent happy collaboration.
Text courtesy of the NFT platform, Foundation.app
Laia Abril and Carmen Winant’s The Right to Choose, 2021
Ever since a United States Supreme Court opinion draft leaked to Politico this week threatened to overturn Roe v. Wade, artists and activists have been channeling their outrage through protests, artwork, and fundraising for abortion rights. Among them are Laia Abril and Carmen Winant, whose double-sided print created last year in response to a Texas law banning most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy has taken on a new and terrifying resonance.
The print, titled “The Right to Choose” and sold by New York’s Garage Gallery, depicts a silhouetted coat hanger on one side and obituaries of feminist leaders on the other, including that of Norma McCorvey — also known as “Jane Doe,” the plaintiff in the precedent-setting 1973 case.
Text courtesy of Hyperallergic
Ken Lum, How Am I Going to Take Care of My Children?, 2021
Artist Ken Lum captures some of the anxieties brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. In a new series called Time. And Again., Lum uses his characteristic image-and-text format to explore the intersections of work and stress, persistent concerns throughout our lives that came into extreme focus during the last two years.
Note: while this work by Ken Lum is not directly related to abortion, it appeared in my inbox in the form of an AGO newsletter announcement of his exhibition at the museum, shortly after the announcement was made. It felt so incredibly relevant, and while Ken is meditating on the effects of COVID-19, the sentiment is nonetheless applicable when it comes to the repercussions of forced pregnancy.
👋 Parting Words…
While there is only so much one can do by writing or re-posting content, I think it is also critical to back up statements with much-needed funds. I did some research and donated to the National Network of Abortion Funds — if you are so inclined, this network distributes funds across the U.S. in order remove financial and logistical barriers to abortion access.
Also, if the above has inspired you to continue reading and you haven’t already — I highly recommend the incredibly thoughtful and compelling insight articulated in this article in the New Yorker, truly a must-read.
XX, B
Didn’t know Ken Lum’s work thanks for the intro