Ninth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

Silence is not golden — anymore. An outpour of female anger propelled the movements Women’s March and #MeToo: visceral impacts of these 2017 social movements are reflected in art exhibitions staged in 2017 and thereafter. Historically, the adjective angry plus the noun woman add up to negative gendered connotations. In the year 2017, women found their voice and began to emphatically enunciate in all caps. An examination of the imagery from several of these art exhibitions, staged in galleries and museums, will reveal homogeneous imagery, metaphorical visuals for the angry woman, and a collective consensus of gendered injustices in society. By delineating the connections between specified social movements and the visual arts, a case will be made for the concept of female anger as a tool for change. This discourse will address historical ties of commonality between art exhibitions stemming from the social movements Women’s March and #MeToo to their predecessors of the late 60s through the 1970s. The discussion of current exhibitions will reveal their advocacy for intersectionality and a commitment to social engagement in the visual arts. 2017 may be remembered as the year women got angry; it was also the year women artists proactively organized exhibitions, fast and furiously, in response to an unrest and urgency bubbling up in our society. The angry woman artist is channeling her rage in a directed manner by promoting awareness of gendered social inequities, raising funds for political and charitable organizations and stimulating impactful change.