Events

Events to consider attending for your Reflection Paper #1
*Class visits arranged for these exhibits (see Announcements)

*Elles: Women Artists for the Centre Pompidou, Paris
At the Seattle Art Museum
October 11, 2012-January 13, 2013

Elles: Women Artists from the Centre Pompidou, Paris is a landmark exhibition of more than 130 works of art made by 75 women artists from 1907 to 2007. Organized by the Centre Pompidou in Paris, home to the Musée National d’Art Moderne—the largest collection of modern and contemporary art in Europe—this exhibition is an unforgettable visual experience that will challenge visitors’ assumptions about art of the past century. This survey of daring painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, video and installation by pioneering women artists offers a fresh perspective on a history of modern and contemporary art. With humor, disdain, sensuality and ambiguity, these women represent the major movements in modern art—from abstraction to contemporary concerns.

*Social Order: Women Photographers from Iran, India and Afghanistan
At the Photo Center NW
October 26 – December 15, 2012

Social Order: Women Photographers from Iran, India and Afghanistan features five contemporary women artists whose work explores the role of women in the context of cultural constructs, religion, censorship, and the media. Each of these artists has left an important mark on the world of contemporary photography through their courageous and relevant work. This event is free.

*Tooba
At the Seattle Asian Art Museum, Volunteer Park
September 1 – December 2, 2012

The work of internationally-recognized, Iranian-born artist Shirin Neshat probes the cultural, psychological and political aspects of women’s experiences in contemporary Islamic culture, a subject she revisits in her photography and video work. Tooba, an allegorical tale re-told by the artist in this spellbinding video, takes the viewer into an absorbing landscape where men and women are drawn in procession, to a tree of paradise, or Tooba. This symbolic garden in which Tooba is set references the Qu’ran, where the tree is represented as a feminine force. The disquiet of Neshat’s hypnotic film comes from her ability to build suspense through image and sound. Inspired by Shahrnoush Parsipur’s novel Women without Men, Tooba brings to light traditional representations of women filtered through a contemporary perspective. Tickets are: $5 (with student ID)

Amelia Jones
At the SAM Downtown, Plescheeff Auditorium SAM
Wednesday, October 24, 7pm – 8pm

Amelia Jones, Professor and Grierson Chair in Visual Culture at McGill University, practices a queer, anti-racist, feminist history and theory of twentieth- and twenty-first century Euro-American visual arts, including performance, film, video, and installation. Join Jones for a conversation in conjunction with Elles: Women Artists from the Centre Pompidou, Paris. Tickets are $8 (with student ID)

Painting Sita’s Garden: Mithila Artists Portray Their Lives
At the Seattle Asian Art Museum, Volunteer Park
Thursday, October 25, 7pm – 9pm

Anthropologist Carolyn Brown Heinz introduces Mithila villages and women’s painting traditions in Bihar, India, in connection with the exhibition Women’s Paintings from the Land of Sita. RSVP to boxoffice@seattleartmuseum.org or 206.654.3210. Tickets are $5 (with student ID)

Women and China’s New Documentaries
At the Central Library (Level 1, Microsoft Auditorium)
Sunday, October 28, 2:00pm – 4:30pm

Self-Portrait with Three Women
Director: Zhang Mengqi
Language: Chinese with English subtitles
Year: 2010
Length: 70 minutes

Part of a new generation of documentary filmmakers from China, a young woman weaves together memory, oral history and performance in a poetic and fierce style.

“This year I turned 23. This film began with my own search, then delving into my mother and her mother, where blood has flowed through three generations. As a victim of an oppressive marriage, my grandmother held hopes for my mother to enter a perfect marriage. When my mother became a victim herself, she turned those hopes to me. Marriage may be every girl’s dream, but it is also the murderer of those dreams.” – Mengqi

James Tweedie, associate professor of Comparative Literature and Cinema Studies at the University of Washington, will introduce the film. Following the screening, a panel discussion with UW scholars will feature Jennifer Bean and Shuxuan Zhou.

Library events and programs are free and everyone is welcome. Tickets and reservations are not required. Parking in the Central Library garage will be available for the regular $6 Sunday rate. Doors will open at 1:30 p.m. This event is free.

Inscribed in Light: Women Artists from the Middle East
At the SAM Downtown, Plestcheeff Auditorium
Friday, November 2, 11am – 12pm

Sarah Berman, Research Associate for Ancient Mediterranean and Islamic Art, speaks about women artists—including Shirin Neshat, whose work is included in Elles: SAM—from the Middle East, discussing their work in light of both gender and art historic movements. Tickets are $11 (with student ID)

Artist Introductions: Wu Mali and Navjot
Stimson Auditorium, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Volunteer Park
Wednesday, November 14, 7pm – 9pm

Conceptual artist Wu Mali (Taiwan) and Navjot (India), an artist of many media, each present their art practices, feminist perspectives and process in working with communities. Tickets are $8 (with student ID)