Artists: Nancy Brooks Brody, Joy Episalla, Zoe Leonard, Carrie Yamaoka

Venue: Beeler Gallery at Columbus College of Art & Design, Columbus

Exhibition Title: arms ache avid aeon: fierce pussy amplified

Curated By: Jo-ey Tang, with Ian Ruffino and Marla Roddy

Date: October 2, 2018 – March 17, 2019

Note: Wall texts associated with each chapter of the exhibition are available to download as pdfs: Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Chapter Four. An archive checklist booklet is available to download here. Broad sheets are available to download here and here.

Click here to view slideshow

Full gallery of images, videos, press release, and link available after the jump.

Images:

Videos:

Joy Episalla, shadow vine, 2001-2018, digital video, 13:01

Joy Episalla, Removed (3 channel), 2001-2002, 3-channel video (excerpt 1 of 3)

Joy Episalla, Removed (3 channel), 2001-2002, 3-channel video (excerpt 2 of 3)

Joy Episalla, Removed (3 channel), 2001-2002, 3-channel video (excerpt 3 of 3)

Joy Episalla, Les Psychanalystes et le Marché, 2010-2015, 1-channel video, audio installation, aluminum benches, 78:29 (excerpt)

Images courtesy of Beeler Gallery at Columbus College of Art & Design, Columbus. Photos by Stephen Takacs and Luke Stettner.

Press Release:

Beeler Gallery dedicates Season ONE to the individual art practices of the four original core members of fierce pussy, the New York-based queer art collective – Nancy Brooks Brody, Joy Episalla, Zoe Leonard, and Carrie Yamaoka.

arms ache avid aeon: Nancy Brooks Brody / Joy Episalla / Zoe Leonard / Carrie Yamaoka: fierce pussy amplified tracks each artist’s work from the late 1980s to the present and draws upon their collective power, shared tactics, and diversity. Installed as four movements, each chapter includes works and new commissions, from the four artists in different constellations to amplify their art practices as living, breathing entities. Attuned to the notion of “slow programming” to foster new modes of attention and engagement, it is the first time their works are put into direct inquiry. A gallery containing artifacts and documentation of fierce pussy is on view.

Formed in New York City in 1991 through their immersion in AIDS activism during a decade of increasing political mobilization around gay rights, fierce pussy brought lesbian identity and visibility directly into the streets. Low-tech and low-budget, the collective responded to the urgency of those years, using readily available resources: old typewriters, found photographs, their own baby pictures, and the printing supplies and equipment accessible in their day jobs. fierce pussy was composed of a fluid and often shifting cadre of members. Four of the original core members — Nancy Brooks Brody, Joy Episalla, Zoe Leonard, and Carrie Yamaoka — continue to work together.

The season’s title — arms ache avid aeon — comes from Yamaoka’s A is for Angel (1991), which features words gathered from typewriter correction ribbons she collected from friends. This early text-based work serves as a powerful metaphor for making
visible what has been erased in our daily lives, culture, and society. It stands as a fortifying paean to resistance, intimacy, through grief, desire, hope, and time.

To contextualize their practices and affinities, Beeler Gallery works closely with the artists to conceive various public events. Trans-genre artist Mx Justin Vivian Bond performs a concert at the historic Southern Theatre on Nov. 15, 2018. A symposium with the artists takes places on March 2, 2019. Commissioned writing and participants include: Jill H. Casid, Jonah Groeneboer, Thomas J. Lax, Elisabeth Lebovici, Alhena Katsof, Ian Ruffino, and Jo-ey Tang. A publication dedicated to the project is forthcoming.

arms ache avid aeon: Nancy Brooks Brody, Joy Episalla, Zoe Leonard, Carrie Yamaoka: fierce pussy amplified is conceived and curated by Director of Exhibitions Jo-ey Tang, and co-organized with Assistant Director of Exhibitions Ian Ruffino, and Registrar Marla Roddy.

arms ache avid aeon: Nancy Brooks Brody, Joy Episalla, Zoe Leonard, Carrie Yamaoka: fierce pussy amplified travels to Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania (Sept 13, 2019 – Dec 22, 2019) as Chapter Five.

Link: arms ache avid aeon: fierce pussy amplified at Beeler Gallery at Columbus College of Art & Design

Tags: Beeler Gallery, Carrie Yamaoka, Columbus, Group Show, Institution, Jo-ey Tang, Joy Episalla, Nancy Brooks Brody, United States, Zoe Leonard

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