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“dream.GIRLS” (I am not a good person…)
PURPOSE OF THE EXHIBITION
A woman alone, a woman without a family or without a man by choice is to this day regarded as a social taboo. Whether she has chosen to be alone, or is alone just at the moment or alone for life, she will most certainly be judged. To the outside, she is a damsel in distress, she is frigid, the mysterious stranger, the temptress, social pariah or Cinderella. Rarely is a woman alone viewed as just that, a woman alone.
On the contrary, the image of the individual woman in fashion or as portrayed by the media shows her to be provocative, placid or flirtatious, implying she has an already internalized concept of how to be a single woman. She stares at us from the page and sees nothing: offering everything, embodying nothing. This travesty in society, media and amongst women themselves is a far cry from women’s reality.
The sisterhood of womankind is rife with contradictions and conflict. We are capable of loving and hating each other with equal passion. Our closest girlfriends become the strength in our limbs, the air in our lungs, the love in our hearts. And yet there is no crueler judge than a woman considering her own faults or those of other women. Certainly, there is a unique vindictiveness, an unforgiving criticism that women reserve explicitly for their own kind.
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It is exactly this dichotomy upon which dream.GIRLS seeks to cast light: exploring this tempestuous love/hate affair that is equal parts comedy, satire, and tragedy.
The artists in dream.Girls present stories, dreams and fantasies concerning their relationship to other women, themselves, their loved ones and society. They draw from the collective unconscious, myths, taboos and their own lives to create a compelling new perspective on womanhood in contemporary culture. The artists do not wish to portray themselves as a feminist exhibition or movement, nor are the Dream Girls a political group or collective intent or interested in misanthropic attitudes. Rather, the group focuses on an honest and intimate portrayal of women.
The power of the work in dream.GIRLS is attributed to the originality of the artists. Ambivalence, and the sense of being pulled to and fro and emotional imprisonment have been long standing themes in modern art. The exhibition presents different women, women who know each other and those who do not know each other and are not related, those who are decadent or prosperous, at peace with themselves or lost, conventional or devious, floating in rapture or sunk in a liquor glass at age 40. The juxtaposition of these works as a group gives a rounded, impregnated full scope of what “woman” means to this group of individuals.
dream.GIRLS (I am not a good person) should be examined through and against the taboo that surrounds the modern woman in today’s world. When viewing the works, one gets involved in worrying about what might be troubling the woman and how she might be consoled. The works elicit empathy with the viewers, comic relief and a brutally honest look at the modern woman today.
Atsuko Arai, Minna Pyyhkala
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