Feminine Expression
30 August – 20 September 2012
Sofia Arsenal – Museum of Contemporary Art (SAMCA)
Curated by Hitomi Kammai and Nia Pushkarova
Feminine Expression will look at the nature of femininity in our contemporary society. It will ask what it means to be a woman today and consider the importance of liberating female expression from male-dominated ideas of greatness.
As the art historian Linda Nochlin argued in her influential 1971 essay Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?, the experience of women has always been different from that of men and as a result there must always have been some kind of uniquely feminine art style. Yet the value of work by female artists was never fully appreciated.
The feminist movement between 60s and 70s brought considerable improvements for women’s lives. Women have come to take a greater role in work and other parts of society. However, they still have difficulties. Writing in 2002, 30 years after her original essay, Nochlin observed that “women artists are still forced to adapt to male directed greatness”. According to The East London Fawcett, only 31% of the represented artists are women among 134 commercial galleries in London, which collectively represent 3163 artists.
Being a female artist should not be a disadvantage in art society. In addition, The unique experiences of women do not only include marriage and raising children.
Nochlin wrote “Women artists are more inward-looking, more delicate, and nuanced in their treatment of their medium.” However, in her text mentioned above, any examples of what is feminine style concretely with the works of artists are given.
More words about feminine style appear in the text of another feminist historian. Lippard writes in 1976 some works of female artists are about sexual images as an object for men. Some female experiences such as pregnancy or menstruation, others worked more on materials and colours formerly designated as “feminine,” or symbolic images of veiling, pressures, sensuous surfaces or moving from the inside outward. Many of these characteristics are outlined in her essay. Yet, her essaie was written 28 years ago and women’s lives have been changing.
It is necessary to rethink what female expression is and to give credence and more value. With this goal, the exhibition examines women’s thought and existence after the 1970s, as expressed through the work of several female artists.
24 February 2012
Modified on 3 November 2013
Hitomi Kammai
Artists
Nia Pushkarova
“I am your balance”
Nia is a painter, photographer and founder and organizer of the Water Tower Art Fest in Bulgaria. Her works refer to each individual’s place in maintaining the balance in the universe.
http://www.watertowerartfest.com/english.php
HUR Kyung-Ae
“ Canvas – N° 83 ”
Kyung-Ae resides in France, but works in several countries. She works with paint, applying it in thick layers of color to the canvas. She then subsequently slashes the canvas with a knife, experiencing this as inherent to the pleasures of breaking with her previous mode of working and reconstructing.
http://www.hurkyungae.com/index.html
Haruko Yamada
“A head with a flower”
Haruko used to use organs for motif of her piece to explore where and how the emotion occurs.
That is because she had read a book which makes an assertion that emotion reflects the condition of organs, and the author also thinks that organs are like plants.
In this work, the flower appears from the head at the place of organs, which represents both her emotion and thought.
http://harukoyamada.net/
Sabrina Osborn
“Look both ways split”
Sabrina works mainly with video, installation, photography and mixed media assemblage. Since her move to London in 2007, dislocation and isolation have become central themes in her work.
According to the artist, ” The title of the work”Look Both Ways” comes from the road signs in UK, which tell the pedestrian to look in a certain direction when crossing the road. On the contrary, when one is back home in India, you can even expect something falling from above without any prior notice, in the notorious ordered-chaos manner. “
Her personal experiences of migration and integration, mixed with a nostalgic longing for her Indian origins, touches upon wider issues concerning our contradicted self-identification in a mixed society.
http://www.sabrinaindia.com/index.html
Susan Moretti
“Forever and for now”
Susan’s work is elliptical and metaphoric in nature and aims to awaken a place in the imagination, beyond prescribed cultural conventions, to evoke a sense of wonderment. By employing the element of mystery and paradox she seeks to subvert preexisting stereotypes of identity and gender as a means to reinstate and elevate the human, interior self to a place of wholeness and order within a fragmented cultural context.
http://www.saatchionline.com/panther21
Hitomi Kammai
Video installation“ Ecstasy ”
Hitomi’s work in this exhibition is inspired by the story of Eve, who after eating an apple from the forbidden tree was banished from the garden and into this world because she had acquired wisdom. The images in the video represent forbidden love and humanity, reflecting the ecstasy in Eve’s head and the hormones that create these feelings in the mind. The sculpture of a rose by the projector shines from Eve’s dream inside.
http://www.hitomikammai.com
A light from the East
curated by Hitomi Kammai
Panos Antonopoulos
Road to Mandalay
At Bond House Gallery ASC Studios
20-32 Goodwood Road,
London SE14 6BL MAP
Open PV Friday 6 Nov 6-9pm
Saturday 7 Nov 3-7pm & Sunday 8 Nov 3-6pm
Artists: Foale | Durkin, Frikkx, Hitomi Kammai, Panos Antonopoulos
This exhibition features 4 young artists whose works are strongly connected with the East.
Nowadays, the work of many Western artists is influenced by Eastern culture, and Eastern artists also base their works on their origin.
For example, since the early period of western art history, light and shadow have been taking an important role in paintings. They are used to give the perspective or make the circumstance dramatic.
However, in China, the image of Yin and Yang was devised to describe the entire Universe. The symbol of circle and subtleness also comes to be often found in the expression of artists as a result of their influence from East.
All this has changed the expression of light and shadow in contemporary art.
In the works of the exhibiting artists, light and shadow is not just a matter on the surface of an object any more. The artists spot light on social issue, internal aspect or it’s characteristic. They evoke, control and play with them.
Hitomi Kammai
Girl 1955
About the curator
Hitomi believes that the art scene in London has been shifting to the new generation of more international taste British art after the home style YBA movement. She curates her shows without depending on the university professor’s recommendation.
With her keen eyes, the artists who had been included in her shows have been growing to be successful: gaining international gallery representation or exhibiting at major Museums even they are NOT graduated from Gold Smith University.
Due to the augmentation of the University fee: about £10,000 for UK or EU students and £20,000 for international students each year, many artists who can not afford the tuition are facing difficulties to be recognized. Even being luckily graduated from famous universities does not promise anything.
Hitomi’s current mission is to change this unfairness and make a new movement in art.
Cosmic Theatre 2: Memories of the planet
curated by Hitomi Kammai
11-13 Sept 2015
At Bond House Gallery
ASC Studios
20-32 Goodwood Road,
London SE14 6BL
Artists: Hitomi Kammai, Kaori Homma, Yuuco
The exhibition features the works of three Japanese artists who are describing the nucleus of existence and searching for a positive human development.
The dream of futurists was perhaps brought into question after the invention of the Nuclear warhead and its first unleash. However, through many accidents including Chernobyl and, more recently, the fallout at Fukushima plants, a shadowy side of the development of our human history has been revealed.
Artists make their approach to such a monstrous issue by making art works. Although futurist dreams might have been remained only as lost beautiful memories, artists still seek new life.
Hitomi Kammai
Melted Pollock Painting 16 – details
Hitomi Kammai
Solo show
Cosmic Theatre 1: A Tale Under the Moonlight
Open: Saterday 11 Jury 3-7pm
Sunday 12 Jury 3-7pm
Bond House Projects
20-32, Goodwood Road,
London SE14 6BL
The exhibition will be constructed on the combination of her drawings which forms a literal story as a whole that people can travel into.
It is an eastern version of the “The Little Prince” that charm people with a little bitter boy meets girl story.
In Hitomi’s tale, people can find her humor and nostalgia toward the eastern purity.
Guest artist: Yuuco
Funny Monk
UT Praxinoscope Projector