Helen Day reclaims the female spirit

From the Helen Day gallery walls, soft eyes, introspective eyes, determined and piercing eyes look out at the audience standing before them, some of the pierces mirroring the contemplative view cast by the onlookers.

The bodies of these women are not thin and sensual. Their forms are not passive, as often portrayed in art history. The ages of those portrayed range from young girl to elder.

“This is an exciting exhibit to put forward. The content is strong and important, especially now,” said co-curator Rachel Moore, executive director of Helen Day.

“Each piece is really entangled in the identity of being a woman, their race and class. The artists use the emotionality of the figure,” co-curator August Burns said.

Burns indicated two pieces by Hung Liu, a Chinese artist who grew up under the Maoist regime and uses her work to challenge the documentary authority of historical Chinese photographs. Her pieces are awash with dripping paint to symbolize the passage of memory into history and her work uncovers the personal narratives that lie beneath the photos.

More recently, Liu dove into the American plight. In her piece entitled, “Cottonfield” the African-American woman portrayed seems to look through your soul. Her eyes are both sad and determined; her clothing printed with the same cotton blossoms she was sent into the field to pick.

The work in the exhibit — all of them are paintings of women painted by women — “is not just about the portrait,” Burns said. “It’s about movement, about bringing back figurative painting with a contemporary flare at a time when women are rising and pressure is coming down on their heads.”

As she speaks, an image of a young, African-American girl, face painted white, with anime in the background, offers a hard stare over Burns’ shoulder.

“The Artist,” by Margaret Bowland, signifies how the world tries to obliterate the image of women or turn them into something they are not, while staring back at you is still a very real individual, a human being.

African-American women are never portrayed in anime, but could be, just as a young girl could be boyish with a pixie haircut but also be unapologetically female, as in Erin Anderson’s piece, “The Candidate,” painted with oils on copper.

Her work speaks to the objectification of women in art and life.

“The metal substrate and the paint work in concert to communicate layers or levels of reality: one that is easily perceived and directly in front of us, and one that can be felt and is dynamic and changing,” Anderson said.

The copper changes the light and offers an almost surreal feel, even as the girl’s figure in the fore is still very realistic.

Lee Price’s work takes a very different approach, exploring the relationship between women and food by creating self-portraits with food as the main subject. Price says eating disorders are primarily women’s issues that don’t get enough air time, because they are women’s issues.

Price’s pieces are meant to be humorous “anti-portraits” telling women that they don’t have to look attractive for others, and you can enjoy food.

In each piece, Price’s clothing is the same color as the background so as not to draw attention to the body.

“The body is not a decoration,” Price said.

One artist, Sylvia Meier, depicted the mothers of racial-bias victims, including Sabrina Fulton, Mother of Trayvon Martin; Kyrin Hobson chose to represent a young girl wielding a sword in “Innocent”; and artist Daryl Zang, struggling with motherhood and guilt in “Wonder,” suggests that pregnancy is not always seen as a miracle, when some women wonder how their families will survive.

And in many cases, the bodies of older women can be seen as just as attractive as those of younger women, regardless of their shape and size as portrayed by Aleah Chapin in two pieces, “Auntie” and “And we were birds”.

Along with the paintings, each week Stowe Story Labs will present a different woman-directed film in the West Gallery. At the opening reception, a film on sexual orientation and the issues surrounding gay marriage and divorce was presented. The film, “Wedlocked,” directed by Puppett, explores the federal law limiting gay men and women who marry in one state from getting divorced in a state where gay marriage is not legal.

“Reclamation” will remain in the Helen Day Art Center until Sept. 8, with an accompanying TedX-style talk on Saturday, Aug. 4 at Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center. The talk will explore the topic of women and power, including body positivity, media literacy, art history, and how gender bias impacts women’s lives, with the art world as one arena.

Editor’s note: The Stowe Reporter is a media sponsor of “Reclamation,” and Publisher Greg Popa is on the board of directors.