If you’re in the Bay Area, you won’t want to miss the Alien She exhibit at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (here until January 25, 2015). Curated by Astria Suparak and Ceci Moss, it is “the first exhibition to examine the lasting impact of Riot Grrrl on artists and cultural producers working today.”
About-Facers sure do love some ’90s riot grrrl jams, and the lasting impact the movement continues to have on women and girls today. When I recently heard about Alien She and that it will be leaving town soon, I jumped on the opportunity to check it out.
Upon entering the exhibit, you are faced with a huge wall of posters and fliers from shows in the ’90s and early 2000s.
You will also find a reading area with plenty of zines to poke through, photography, video interviews, and interactive projects.
There are even headphones with playlists to serve as the soundtrack for your browsing, blasting songs by Bikini Kill, Dominatrix, Catcall, Bratmobile, Switched at Birth, and many more iconic and lesser-known riot grrrl bands.
One display I loved was Bay Area photographer Tammy Rae Carland’s series of photos, Untitled (Lesbian Beds). The photos feature unmade beds of lesbian couples, without additional details (or even visuals) of the couples themselves.
It was fun to speculate about the lives of these mystery women based on their crumpled bed sheets, as well as the artist’s intentions with the quiet images.
You can read the curators’ statement about Alien She for the full scoop, or to get more insight on riot grrrl itself, if you are unfamiliar.
The next stop for Alien She is the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach, California, from Feb. 15 – May 24, 2015. After that, you can find it at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon, from Sept. 3, 2015 – Jan. 9, 2016. Don’t miss it!
Stacey is a bookworm who loves nature and making people happy. She enjoys utilizing the tools she gained from her Women and Gender Studies degree to critique media and the world around her from a feminist perspective.
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