“We wanted to have a women’s show that wasn’t polite or nice, one that expressed angry attitudes.”
“We want people to be upset.”
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Almost as soon as you enter, you’re confronted with the “fetus wall,” an area festooned with large pictures of fetuses that have been altered to exhibit spiky teeth and sinister eyes; one has a cigarette dangling from its lips, and some hold American flags. A backdrop is provided by the SisterSerpents’ Fuck a Fetus poster, with which the wall is papered. Headlined “For all you folks who consider a fetus more valuable than a woman,” the 19-by-24-inch poster depicts a fairly mature fetus on a black background amid mocking admonitions: “Have a fetus cook for you”–“Have a fetus affair”–“Go to a fetus house to ease your sexual frustration.” Large lettering on the wall spells it out: “Down With Fetal Supremacy.”
One member of the group, in a sort of official statement, explains: “Our poster points to the current fanaticism we call fetus worship, which preposterously elevates a fertilized egg to the status of ‘unborn child’ and relegates women to the role of parasitical host.” So much for the Penny Pullens of America. She’s one of those featured, as a matter of fact, in the show’s gallery of Wanted Misogynists, along with John Wayne, the Statue of Liberty, Gary Dotson, Cardinal O’Connor of course, and Jim McMahon. There are also God (and Adam) from Michelangelo’s Sistine ceiling, Nancy Reagan, Barbie (the doll), Andrew Dice Clay, JFK, Zeus, Clint Eastwood . . .
It is, in other words, and unabashedly, a propagandistic art show. Formalism, nuance, and ambiguity are out; a militant political content reigns supreme. The purpose, the collective says, is “to liberate women and threaten misogynist men.”
“Showing violent acts against men–that’s a necessity. . . . Because women need to take revenge, on some level.”
