Guerrilla Girls Promote Art of Resistance in Memphis
For release: Mar. 4, 2004
For press information, contact Rebecca Terrell, (901) 678-2153

On Friday, March 26 at 7:00 p.m. in UM's Rose Theater, The Guerrilla Girls, infamous masked avengers of the art world, will make their much anticipated Memphis debut. Fighting discrimination in an organized and very public way since 1985, these Girls have artfully combined humor, facts and fake fur to protest everything from the lack of women artists in major museum retrospectives to the Gulf War. Dressed in short skirts, high heels and gorilla masks, the anonymous and controversial activists will show slides, perform skits, and share stories of their harrowing, hysterical and highly effective efforts to resist discrimination and injustice.

Nineteen years after they formed in response to a major show at New York's Museum of Modern Art, in which only 13 of 169 artists presented were female, they continue to cause a stir. Just last month the College Art Association presented Girls with the 2004 Frank Jewett Mather Award for their "unique and evolving adaptation of art criticism as a vital, socially relevant, and transformative art form." Feminist Gloria Steinem says "their very anonymity makes clear that they are fighting for women as a caste, but their message celebrates each woman's uniqueness. By insisting on a world as if women mattered, and also the joy of getting there, the Guerrilla Girls pass the ultimate test: they make us both laugh and fight; both happy and strong."

The Guerrilla Girls appearance at the University of Memphis' Rose Theater is the closing event of a yearlong series co-sponsored by the Center for Research on Women, the Women's Studies Program and the Women's Consciousness Raising Coalition entitled Women, War and the Art of Resistance. Other series events included a lecture by author Catherine Lutz on domestic violence in the military, and a series of films on women and war by directors from Iran, Lebanon, the United Kingdom and the United States.

"Maternalism, feminism and other forms of gender-based solidarity are prominent in anti-war activism all over the world," says Dr. Allison Graham, Director of the Women's Studies Program. "We organized this project because we believe it is critical for our students to be thinking seriously about these issues at such a crucial point in our history."

Women, War and the Art of Resistance was funded in part by a grant from the University of Memphis' Academic Enrichment Funds and received significant support from the Student Activities Council. Additional sponsors include Delta Axis, and Malco Theatres, Inc.

The Guerrilla Girls appearance will be free and open to the public. For more information contact Rebecca Terrell, Community Relations Coordinator, Center for Research on Women at 678-2153, or visit the Resource 25 "Event Calendar" at www.memphis.edu.

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