Ulrike Muller’s ‘Herstory Inventory’ At The Brooklyn Museum (PHOTOS, NSFW)

How did a bunch of drawings inspired by T-shirts at a grassroots feminist organization end up in an art museum? The story of how such an unlikely exhibition came to be is the subject of “Herstory Inventory.” The Brooklyn Museum’s collaborative exhibition, organized by Austrian-born artist Ulrike Müller, traces the forms that makeup the narrative of lesbian and feminist histories, while showing how these forms can translate into political action.

Müller found her inspiration at the Lesbian Herstory Archives in Park Slope, Brooklyn. After visiting, the artist used a number of descriptions from vintage T-shirts and disseminated them to 100 artists, who interpreted the words in their own work. For instance, one read: “A graphic of the island of lesbos with icons depicting different sites and tourist activities.”

There is a playful quality to the drawings, which combine stereotypically girly images like flowers and rainbows with traditionally masculine images of lightning bolts, horses and spears. The works define a movement and literally embody its transition from counter-culture T-shirt store to mainstream art exhibition.

allysonmitchell

The second part of the exhibition places the 100 drawings in conversation with 25 works from the Brooklyn Museum’s permanent collection. Although we rarely see images like these in major museums, by looking for flowers, rainbows, and spears throughout art history’s major works, Müller is able to find queer iconography within, even if it is unintentional.

Müller’s “Herstory Inventory” is part of the “Raw/Cooked” series at the Brooklyn Museum. It will show until September 9, 2012.

See a slideshow of the work below, and let us know your thoughts in the comments section.

Loading Slideshow...

  • Chitra Ganesh
    Two women in tropical dress (no tops) sitting in the middle of a clam shell, holding
    tropical fruits with a palm tree behind them
    Ink on paper
    8 1/2 x 11 in. (21.6 x 27.9 cm)
    Courtesy of Herstory Inventory

  • Kim Kelly
    2 amazons together on horseback with labrys all around
    Watercolor and pencil on paper
    6 x 9 in. (15.2 x 22.9 cm)
    Courtesy of Herstory Inventory

  • Robin Hustle
    Black White hands reaching across a pink triangle
    Acrylic and ink on paper
    12 x 9 in. (30.5 x 22.9 cm)
    Courtesy of Herstory Inventory

  • A.L. Steiner
    Inverted triangle with flames on top of it
    Digital print
    17 x 11 in. (43.2 x 27.9 cm)
    Courtesy of Herstory Inventory

  • Cauleen Smith
    Prancing Unicorn
    Collage, ink and gouache on paper
    18 x 12 in. (45.7 x 30.5 cm)
    Courtesy of Herstory Inventory

  • Georgia Syndey Lassner
    A volcano with fire coming out of the top
    Marker on paper
    12 x 9 in. (30.5 x 22.9 cm)
    Courtesy of Herstory Inventory

  • Linda Bilda
    Two women with guns
    Letraset transfer, ink and collage on paper
    8 5/8 x 11 5/8 in. (21.9 x 29.5 cm)
    Courtesy of Herstory Inventory

  • Math Bass
    Two female figures, one behind the other, the back one holds the hair of the front
    one
    Colored pencil on paper
    7 1/8 x 10 1/8 in. (18.1 x 25.7 cm)
    Courtesy of Herstory Inventory

  • Taylor Davis
    A lightening bolt going through the second ‘A’ in Amazon
    Watercolor on paper
    12 1/8 x 9 1/2 in. (30.8 x 24.1 cm)
    Courtesy of Herstory Inventory

  • Allyson Mitchell

Views: 0

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes