Tuesday, April 18, 2017

WORLD BOOK DAY, NEW, INC., FEARLESS GIRL, and upcoming tours to LA and PAMONA!

April 18, 2017

Sunday April 23 is World Book Day! With Guerrilla Girls On Tour’s new foray into the world of books, we hope you will join us as we share why we #LoveToRead. From April 17 to the 23 post about why you #LoveToRead on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  Share them here:

All week we will be posting about women authors and updates re UN/MASKED, Memoirs of aGuerrilla Girl On Tour by Aphra Behn


WEST COAST TOUR COMING UP:  Act Like a FeministArtist – A Guerrilla Girl Unmasks” at Cal Poly Pomona – May 3, 2017 at 3PM. Also check our FB page for an update about appearances in LA.
 

NEWS from our lunch at NEW,INC.!
On Friday, April 7th, Aphra Behn joined artist, Sophia Wallace, for an informal talk with the members of NEW, INC.,
founded by the New Museum in 2014 and the first museum-led cultural incubator dedicated to supporting innovation, collaboration, and entrepreneurship across art, design, and technology. Aphra shared the Guerrilla Girls On Tour’s tactics and herstory with members and mentors of NEW, INC. over lunch including a show-and-tell of the last remaining Guerrilla Girls “Spy Kit” – part of the Guerrilla Girls contribution to the 1999 New Museum’s exhibit UBRAN ENCOUNTERS. The GG “Spy Kit” included projects directed at the theatre world, i.e. a postcard to the  Roundabout Theatre suggesting they must be incredibly embarrassed about their lack of knowledge of women playwrights (because they did not produce any!) FYI, The Roundabout’s record on producing women lags far behind the rest of NYC theatres – out of 9 current plays only two are by women and only one is on their main stage. Sticker campaign anyone?

Guerrilla Girls' SPY KIT for URBAN ENCOUNTERS at the NEW MUSEUM 
The artist, Sophia Wallace, was Aphra’s co-presenter and her presentation of the evolution of her work was amazing, especially her Cliteracy Project. Please check out her web site for info on her and her work. You can watch her TEDx talk here: http://www.sophiawallace.com/tedx

Sophia Wallace and Aphra Behn
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We feel the need to comment on Fearless Girlthe bronze sculpture by Kristen Visbal depicting a girl facing the well-known Charging Bull statue in the Financial District of Manhattan. Fearless Girl was commissioned on the first anniversary of State Street Global’s “Gender Diversity Index” fund, which has SHE as it’s NASDAQ ticker symbol. Next to Fearless Girl is a bronze plaque that reads: Know the power of women in leadership. SHE makes a difference. Yes, “SHE” makes a difference not “She” makes a difference. The statue’s placement was an advertisement for SHE. In the weeks that followed Fearless Girl’s installation, the sculptor of the “Charging Bull” statue (Arturo Di Modica) came out to insist she be removed because her presence changes the original intent of the bronze bull. An article by Greg Fallis supports Di Modica’s charge because, as he states in his blog post, Fearless Girl has appropriated the strength and power of Charging Bull.



Well…Fearless Girl may not have started as a work of guerrilla art...it is what it has become. Fallis writes "If it were placed anywhere else, Fearless Girl would still be a very fine statue — but without facing Charging Bull the Fearless Girl has nothing to be fearless to."  Um….yes she does -- Trump, the world, patriarchy are three I can think of off the top of my head. Fearless Girl is facing the symbol of a charging bull and that is what many women feel as thought they have been facing forever. I disagree she has nothing to be fearless to without the bull. She represents the attitude women have adopted to exist. Fearless Girl is a work of art that has morphed from her original intent - it is sort of cool how that happened. And for this reason, if you move her, she will still represent the same thing to many. So go ahead. We will remain inspired by her!

Until next time! Thank you for reading.

Love, Aphra Behn

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