Woman Made Gallery (WMG) is excited to announce Word of Mouth, juried by Rosalyn D’Mello (feminist writer, editor and international art critic). Word of Mouth is a group exhibition featuring the artwork of 30 women and non-binary artists exploring food through an intersectional feminist lens. The exhibiting artists have subverted socially conditioned, gendered conceptions of an ingredient, a kitchen, a worm, or even a plate. As an exhibition, Word of Mouth asks us questions of what nourishes our collective soul and how gut relates to emotion. What makes an orifice a mouth and if there is a difference between hunger and satiation, gluttony and greed, miracles and grief.
In her jurors’ statement, Rosalyn D’Mello writes: “‘Word of Mouth’ has been a notion I have lived with for many years. I have delighted in the orality the phrase connotes, as well as the effusiveness of lips parted open for the ‘word’ to emerge, and the ensuing connection with feminist irrepressibility. I was overwhelmed by the responses from artists to my provocations and was particularly charged by the queer intonations that were embedded into so many of the entries. Going through each one made me feel less alone in my subjectivity. I felt a warmth and companionship with so many artists who were using household materials, reflecting on the dynamic, metabolic nature of the kitchen table, commenting on ceremonies relating to eating and table fellowship, as well as weaving intergenerational artistic practices, thus expanding and even blowing open the title, subverting it, reveling in it, engaging in a kind of delirious dance between concept, technique, medium, and subjectivity.
To say it was challenging to arrive at a final selection would be a gross understatement. What will form the display, however, is work that radiates an urgency and that is an extension of practices of embodied artistic living. They will invariably enable the viewer to evolve daring new conceptions of a ‘queer universality’. I am humbled by the intimacies they further and the futures they propose.”
Exhibiting Artists:
ASSABINIDICA, Jamie Bernstein, hannah bevens, H Boone, Katherine Burling, Helena Calmfors, Emily J. Casella, Pritika Chowdhry, Hannah Cofer, Cathie Crawford, Christina Dietz, Allie Ellis, Guta Galli, Nicole Godreau Soria, Allison Green, Shahrbanoo Hamzeh, Charisse Harris, Mikel Ibarra, Jen McGowan, Alison Mclaughlin, Natalie Novak, A Oksner, Meirav Ong, Megan Roethler, Jada Russell, Belen Santamarina, Margit Schmitt, Debbie Silberberg, Emily Zarse, and Chunbo Zhang.
About the Juror:
Rosalyn D’Mello (she/her) is a feminist writer, art critic, columnist, essayist, editor and researcher. She is the author of A Handbook for My Lover. She writes a weekly feminist column for mid-day, a fortnightly one on contemporary art for STIR, and regularly contributes to OPEN. She is an Ocean Fellowship Mentor for 2021. She is presently working on a book for Oxford University Press based on her visits to South Asian artists’ studios, thanks to an India Foundation for the Arts research grant. Her freelance writing has been internationally published and anthologised. She is represented by David Godwin Associates. Having grown up in Mumbai and having lived in Delhi for almost a decade, Rosalyn is now based in South Tyrol, Italy, where she braves harsh alpine winters by harnessing her sensual memories of Goan sunshine.
