Women Pulling at the Threads of Social Discourse: We Got the Power

In a year of violence begetting violence, we at The Contemporary Art Modern Project look towards Aristophanes and Lysistrata for the sixth edition of Women Pulling at The Threads of Social Discourse as the solution to stop this behavior by calling on the power of women in an exhibition entitled:  We Got The Power. 

The harnessing of the power of the woman over the man is also the focus of Spike Lee’s film Chiraq which, like Lysistrata, calls on women to unite and hold sway over their men. Central to both the original play and the film is  the power of the woman; what she can achieve when united with other women, her sisters. In both renditions of the play, not only do the women unite and stop the Peloponnesian War and gang violence in Chicago, but they posit solutions that hold the ability stop this ugly behavior from ever returning.  One of the goals and intents of this exhibition, as with 2023’s This is Not A Doll’s House, is to combine fiber art with the literary arts and have works that speak to the topic of the play. In this case, war and violence. We also strive to highlight that the conversations and reactions to society are what artists, across the arts, respond to as well as how society would do well to pay attention to voices that often hold true our better selves. 

Artwork Submissions

We are asking fiber artists to create a proposal responding to the play and/or the film through textiles and text, focusing on one of the sections of the play: 

• The Divided Chorus of Old Men Vs Old Women
• The Strophe and Antistrophe
• The Agon. 

We ask artists to create horizontal work or works measuring 12 x 24 inches in fiber works that will be installed to read as a ancient frieze through out the gallery space. We ask artists to focus on women they admire, who have effected change—be it home, at work, in the public sphere, or imagined—as in the play and film. We aim to start a conversation grounded in how uniting renders power, and how power (when not selfish) can better life. Just as our 2020 Flag Show was held during an election year we believe that this exhibition can and will resonate, and hopefully project the possibility of a more humane and caring society. 

Free access to Lysistrata, courtesy of Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/7700/7700-h/7700-h.htm

Exhibition Dates
October 11 - December 20, 2024 

Artwork Delivery Deadline
October 1, 2024

Artwork Pick Up Deadline
December 27. 2024