NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Judy Chicago, author, feminist, educator and mother figure of the women’s art movement, will present "At Home in Kentucky" on Thursday, Feb. 26, at Vanderbilt’s Sarratt Student Center.
The event is free and open to the public. Chicago’s appearance is in conjunction with the opening of an exhibit of her collaborative project "At Home: A Kentucky Project" in Vanderbilt’s Sarratt Gallery. The exhibit opens on Feb. 26 at 4 p.m. with remarks by Vivien Fryd, Vanderbilt professor of art history. A reception with Chicago follows at 4:30 p.m., and her lecture and slide presentation are scheduled for 5:30 p.m. in Sarratt Cinema.
Chicago’s work spans four decades and has earned her a reputation as one of the most prominent woman artists of the 20th century.
Chicago struggled with her identity in the male-dominated art world of the 1960s and early 1970s until she established, with fellow artist Miriam Schapiro, one of the first feminist art programs at the California Institute of the Arts. In 1971, their students created "Womanhouse," an installation in an actual home in which each room was transformed into a commentary on the female experience.
Fascinated by the relationships between men and women-particularly relationships in the domestic arena-Chicago and her husband, artist Donald Woodman, team-taught at Western Kentucky University in 2001 and created "At Home: A Kentucky Project," an art installation similar in process and structure to "Womanhouse," which was then celebrating its 30th anniversary.
Collaborating with Western Kentucky’s departments of women’s studies, folk studies, anthropology and art, Chicago and Woodman led 25 artists and students in the transformation of a house in Bowling Green, Ky. Where the rooms of "Womanhouse" provided glimpses into the female experience, "At Home" explored the dynamic between men and women together sharing a domestic space. The finished installation included rooms such as the "Heart of the Home Kitchen," the "Golden Dreams Bedroom," the "Meditation Bathroom" and the "Self Help Closet."
The "At Home" exhibit comes to Vanderbilt’s Sarratt Gallery in the form of a detailed, 1:12 scale model-roughly the size of a dollhouse-created by Western Kentucky professor John Warren Oakes and artist Andee Rudloff. "At Home" explores the idea of domestic space through themes such as historic changes in the home, marital conflict, childhood fears, sibling rivalry, eating disorders, abuse, race, gender issues and aging. The exhibit runs through March 20.
"Judy Chicago: At Home in Kentucky" is the 2004 Margaret Cuninggim Lecture at Vanderbilt. The lecture is co-sponsored by the Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center and the Vanderbilt Chancellor’s Lecture Series. The Chancellor’s Lecture Series serves to bring to the University and the wider Nashville community those intellectuals who are shaping the world today.
For more information about the series, visit www.vanderbilt.edu/chancellor/cls. For more news about Vanderbilt, visit www.vanderbilt.edu/News.
Media contact: Kara Furlong, (615) 322-NEWS
Kara.c.furlong@vanderbilt.edu