GIRLS 7

GIRLS MAGAZINE

VOTE FOR OUR LIVES SEPTEMBER 2020

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 7

ISSUE 7, SEPTEMBER 2020

GIRLS MAGAZINE VOTE FOR OUR LIVES LETTER FROM THE EDITOR // PAGE 3 GENEVIEVE GAIGNARD // PAGE 5 RUBA KATRIB // PAGE 8 REBECCA MATALON // PAGE 12 TARAVAT TALEPASAND // PAGE 17 RESPONSES TOÂ "I WANT A PRESIDENT" // PAGE 22

GIRLS MISSION STATEMENT GIRLS is a revised portfolio of interviews from a nationwide community of real, strong women. It's a magazine that is 100% all women, which is beautiful in its rarity - the magazine is a safe space FOR women ABOUT women. Created by Adrianne Ramsey, it serves as a content destination for millennial women. Read on for an engagement of feminist voices and a collaborative community for independent girls to discover, share, and connect.

FRONT AND BACK PAGE IMAGE CREDIT: ZOE LEONARD, "I WANT A PRESIDENT" (1992)

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR: THE TIME IS NOW

BY ADRIANNE RAMSEY “I want a candidate who isn’t the lesser of two evils.” Those eleven words are apart of the third sentence of the text piece “I want a president” (1992), written by the groundbreaking artist Zoe Leonard. While the entire text is incredibly powerful and nearly brought me to tears the first time I read it in full, that one statement has always stuck out the most to me. Four years ago, on November 8th, my roommate and I planned to go to the store to buy champagne in celebration of what we hoped would be Hillary Clinton’s win. But something had been nagging at me since the Democratic and Republican candidates had been chosen that summer, and several hours later that fear of mine was confirmed: Donald Trump won the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. I remember calling my mom, FaceTiming my sister, furiously texting friends, and watching CNN reports of several swing states voting red. My roommate and I did end up walking to the store, but to buy whiskey. She was sobbing, and understandably so. I remember watching the beginning of Trump’s victory speech – not because I was happy for him, but because I was stunned. The next day, I went to my Advanced Writing class and my fellow classmate fell into my arms, distraught. My teacher started crying as well. The following weeks were nothing short of devastating.

I keep thinking back to that champagne bottle we never ended up buying. It meant to symbolize a win, but would we have really won? I voted for Hillary Clinton, but I did not support her. I do not trust the Clinton’s. I will never vote for Trump; I despise him, his administration, and everything they stand for. I had a feeling that Trump was going to win due to two realities: one, the growing white nationalism movement in our country from bitter racists who felt “neglected” (yeah right…) during President Obama’s eight-year presidency and two, the fact that Donald Trump has very powerful, very rich white friends who made sure he would win. Neither Hillary Clinton nor Trump represents me and I don’t think either of them could adequately run this country. And that is when I truly understood the term “lesser of two evils”. Once Trump was inaugurated in 2017, I swept into staunch activism. I launched the first issue of GIRLS in April of 2017 and have continued to release issues over the last three ½ years. The fact that GIRLS 7 will encapsulate this moment of simmering dread before the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election shows me that I definitely did the right thing in trying to capture what the last four years has done to the political climate. Another four years of Trump is not an option for me.

The day that I released GIRLS 6 was May 25th – the same day that George Floyd was murdered by police officers in Minneapolis, Missouri. Two days later, the video of his killing was released online, and the county quickly exploded in outrage. Protests, looting, and riots began in Minneapolis but quickly expanded on both a national and global scale. Watching the National Guard patrol the streets and having temporary nighttime curfews enacted was surreal and scary. (Continued on next page)

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR: THE TIME IS NOW

BY ADRIANNE RAMSEY (Continued) Being cooped inside for months due to an ongoing global health crisis and then struggling with more frustration at watching another innocent Black person killed at the hands of the police was overwhelming and stressful. With the Black Lives Matter movement and several smaller proBlack and anti-racism initiatives receiving heightened attention since late May, it is so disappointing that the Democratic Party chose the author of the 1994 Violent Crimes Bill and former U.S. Vice President, Joe Biden, and “Top Cop” and current U.S. Senator Kamala Harris to save us from Trump.

We are experiencing the largest protest movement in U.S. history, the subject of which is excessive and violent policing. When people say “Biden supports Black women by picking Kamala Harris”, I think of how poorly he treated Anita Hill when she testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991, accusing eventual Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. Then I remember watching Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2018, accusing eventual Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, and how I cried bitterly for her and all victims of sexual assault. But then my mind goes to Trump’s horrifying list of future Supreme Court picks if he wins re-election – and I remember the term “lesser of two evils”. Why do we keep coming back to this? Why do we have to settle?

“Defund/Abolish the Police” is not a cute slogan for my Instagram bio. Therefore, voting for the Biden-Harris ticket will be tough. It’s important to take the time to critique Democratic candidates just as much as we critique Republican ones, as it feels like their politics and shaky records are always brushed aside and people are told to “shut up” if they express any dismay. For Ava DuVernay, who makes films about the prison industrial complex and mass incarceration (interestingly enough Joe Biden isn’t mentioned in any of them), to virtually tell people to shut up and disregard Kamala Harris’ alarming prosecution record is harmful and dangerous. It’s one thing to vote for her while being critical of her record but quite another to demand unbashed support and for “no bad things to be said about her”.

The four participants of GIRLS 7 discuss whom they are voting for, their opinions on Kamala Harris, how the political climate has affected the art world and their own practices (art/curatorial), and what changes need to be made in this country. There is also a special section in the back where they each respond to Leonard’s iconic text. I truly enjoyed talking to each of these women; we mediated on if our votes count and if our voices matter, and now as I write to you, reader, I am confident that they do. Vote, vote, vote, vote. Vote like hell. Our lives depend on it. The time is now.

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GENEVIEVE GAIGNARD ARTIST

Courtesy of Scott Rudd Genevieve Gaignard is a Los Angeles based artist whose work focuses on installation, sculpture, and photographic self-portraiture to explore race, femininity, and class. As a biracial woman in America, Gaignard investigates the aesthetic and cultural divide between black and white, a chasm as palpable as it is “invisible.” She interrogates notions of “passing” by positioning her own female body as the chief site of exploration - challenging viewers to navigate the powers and anxieties of intersectional identity. Recent solo exhibitions include, “A Long Way From Home,” MCLA Gallery 51, North Adams, MA (2020); “Genevieve Gaignard, Outside Looking In,” Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA (2020); “I’m Sorry I Never Told You That You’re Beautiful,” Vielmetter Los Angeles, CA (2019); “Counterfeit Currency,” FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY (2018); “Smell the Roses,” California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA (2016). Her work has been included in numerous group exhibitions including: The Getty Center, Los Angeles, CA; The National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, Bentonville, AR; Studio Museum in Harlem, NY; Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA; Prospect.4, New Orleans. Genevieve Gaignard received her BFA in Photography from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA, and her MFA in Photography from Yale University, New Haven, CT.

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GENEVIEVE GAIGNARD GM: Who are you going to vote for in the 2020 Presidential Election?

GG: It’s slim pickings but I’ll be voting for Biden.

GM: How did you react to the 2016 election results?

GG: I honestly wasn’t one of those people who thought Hillary was a shoe-in, although I did vote for her. When I realized the numbers were getting closer and closer in his favor, I remember having a very heavy feeling wash over me, a feeling of confusion that never really subsided.

GM: What is your opinion on Kamala Harris, Biden's VP choice?

GG: It would be a huge move forward for our country to have not only a female, but a female of color, as Vice President. At the same time, we can only hope that the folks we vote in can undo the mess that our current President has so recklessly created. I want to be hopeful but it's hard in this current political climate.

Installation view of "Ladybirds" by Genevieve Gaignard, 2019

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GENEVIEVE GAIGNARD GM: How has your artistic practice been affected by the political climate?

GG: I don't know if I would say my practice has been affected, per say. My work often responds in real time to current events, though I do feel a strong sense of urgency to directly address our extremely polarizing political climate.

GM: Name one artistic achievement you've accomplished since 2016 that you're proud of.

GG: I’ve been fortunate to work on several amazing projects since 2016, but the biggest accomplishment that I’m most proud of is the fact that I can make a living as an artist. I get to use art as a tool to advocate and create things that impact people and trigger meaningful dialogue around the issues of race and identity in America.

GM: In your opinion, how has the last 4 years affected the art world?

GG: I can’t speak to how it's been affected as a whole, but there has definitely been a rise in the amount of attention given to art created by Black and Brown folks; that’s been long overdue! Now if only the art world could expand and give more access to Black and Brown collectors so they can actually live with the work - then we’d be getting somewhere significant.

Genevieve Gaignard, "Sell to Black Art Collectors (Green)", 2020

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RUBA KATRIB CURATOR AT MOMA PS1

Courtesy of MoMA PS1 Ruba Katrib is Curator at MoMA PS1 in New York. At MoMA PS1 she has curated exhibitions such as Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 1991 -2011 (2019) (co-curated with Peter Eleey), the 2019 retrospective of Simone Fattal, and solo shows of Edgar Heap of Birds (2019), Karrabing Collective (2019), Fernando Palma Rodríguez, and Julia Phillips (2018). From 2012 - 2018 she was Curator at SculptureCenter in New York, where she curated over twenty solo and group exhibitions including 74 million million million tons (2018) (co-curated with artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan), The Eccentrics (2015), Puddle, pothole, portal (2014) (co-curated with artist Camille Henrot), Better Homes (2013), and A Disagreeable Object (2012); and solo shows of Carissa Rodriguez (2018), Kelly Akashi, Sam Anderson, Teresa Burga, Nicola L., Charlotte Prodger (all 2017), Rochelle Goldberg, Aki Sasamoto, Cosima von Bonin (all 2016), Anthea Hamilton, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Magali Reus, Gabriel Sierra, Michael E. Smith, Erika Verzutti (all 2015), David Douard, and Jumana Manna (both 2014). Previously, Katrib was Associate Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami (2007 – 2012 ), where she organized several group and solo exhibitions. Katrib was also co-founder of the residency and exhibition space Threewalls in Chicago, and has also held positions at the Renaissance Society and the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, where she currently serves on the Graduate Committee. She was a research advisor for the 2018 Carnegie International and a member of the Advisory Board for Recess, a non-profit artist residency and exhibition space in New York. Katrib co-curated SITE Santa Fe’s 2018 Biennial, Casa Tomada, along with José Luis Blondet and Candice Hopkins. In 2010, Katrib was awarded a curatorial fellowship from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts to support research on artist-run educational platforms throughout Latin America for a project that included a symposium and publication. She regularly contributes texts to museum catalogues and to periodicals including Art in America, Artforum, Cura., Kaleidoscope, Parkett, and Mousse. Katrib frequently presents lectures and participates in panel discussions at universities and other institutions.

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RUBA KATRIB GM: Who are you going to vote for in the 2020 Presidential Election?

RK: Not Trump. And beyond the critical urgency of the presidential election, this year’s ballot has a lot of key seats up. It’s important to research all of the candidates and become as informed as possible.

GM: How did you react to the 2016 election results?

RK: I voted in the morning in Brooklyn and then got on a plane to go to Oregon where I did a weeklong series of studio visits and lectures at different college campuses across the state. It was really wrenching to be away from home during that time, as I don’t think that I was alone in my shock and need to seek refuge with friends and family. Although it was also incredibly interesting to be around students and in direct conversation with so many of them regarding their impressions, thoughts, hopes, and fears in that moment. After several years have passed, I still think everyone’s worries were valid and that things have indeed gotten much worse.

However, most of the problems that we see today – rampant corruption, violence against Black life, widespread white supremacy, the destruction of the environment, economic inequities, and so on, have been long-standing. But certainly, fuel has been put into the fire, in tandem with a very rapid destabilization and pilfering of civil society. This is a very toxic time.

GM: How has your curatorial practice been affected by the political climate?

RK: The political climate has been really draining for some time now. This period has made me want to slow down and be more thoughtful in what I’m doing and saying in my work, even as I continue to be politically active. While it is very important to be responsive to the moment, I increasingly think that art and institutions need to take time to consider and reflect. Perhaps art is one of the last arenas, at least in American society, where slowness, productive contradiction, nuances, and reflection is still possible. It is important to take, and even protect, that time and space to process and think about the world through art.

GM: Name a curatorial achievement you’ve accomplished since 2016 that you’re proud of.

RK: Among the handful of shows I have been able to organize since starting as Curator at MoMA PS1 in 2017, I was able highlight the work of Indigenous artists through three solo exhibitions.

Advocating for the work of these artists has been very important to me for some time, and I am proud that I was able to realize these shows. (Continued on next page)

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RUBA KATRIB (Continued) The first exhibition was with Fernando Palma Rodriquez, a Mexican Nahua artist who I had wanted to work with for some time because he makes incredible robotic sculptures. I was also able to put together a show of Karrabing Collective, an Indigenous Australian media group that collectively makes videos that highlight the conditions under which they work and live, emphasizing the settler state’s extraction and destruction of Native lands. Around the same time, I organized Cheyenne Arapaho artist Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds’ first solo New York museum exhibition and facilitated the acquisition of a major work in that show into MoMA’s collection. I am proud that I was able to make an institutional impact with these exhibitions, as well as advance the work of these really important artists – and there is still so much to do.

GM: How has the last 4 years affected your activism?

RK: There is definitely a new urgency undergirding activism today. It can be exhausting when everything feels like an uphill battle, but this is the moment when we all need to really show up and do what we can. Everyone plays a part and it is clearer than ever that passivity is complicity. I am also reading a lot about past times of tumult and change; it is really important to educate ourselves to better understand the strategies, traps, and repetitions that have been apart of social movements throughout history. It is also important to recognize and build off of the past work that has been done because it only strengthens the movement.

GM: What is your opinion on Kamala Harris, Biden's VP choice?

RK: Her appointment marks progress. But again, I also strongly believe that representation is very important, but has to be paired with real structural change to be effective. It has been really inspiring to see more progressive women of color in politics, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib. I am very excited about Cori Bush, who just won the Democratic primary for Congress in Installation view of "Simone Fattal: Works and

Missouri.

Days" at MoMA PS1, 2019. Photo by Matthew Septimus

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RUBA KATRIB GM: How has the last 4 years affected the art world?

RK: There is definitely a new urgency undergirding activism today. It can be exhausting when everything feels like an uphill battle, but this is the moment when we all need to really show up and do what we can.

Everyone plays a part and it is clearer than ever that passivity is complicity. I am also reading a lot about past times of tumult and change; it is really important to educate ourselves to better understand the strategies, traps, and repetitions that have been apart of social movements throughout history. It is also important to recognize and build off of the past work that has been done because it only strengthens the movement.

GM: How has the political climate affected women, especially those of color?

RK: There has been a real reckoning in terms of gender and racial equity over the last few years. Things don’t feel much better, particularly as brazen violence continues against BIPOC and LGBTQIA. While the fight against these injustices is urgent and immediate, it is also important to remember that change is slow. Whenever I feel hopeless, I remember tough conversations I had with colleagues in the art world just four or five years ago; there was much more denial possible then regarding inequities that are really glaring now. I really don’t think that a lot of the more widespread and difficult discussions that are taking place now would have been possible just a few years ago. Recognizing the problem is a major first step, but we also need to get past just looking at it and into real action.

GM:Â Name a pressing political issue that isn't being addressed.

RK: I am very concerned about the loss of a free, open, and responsible press, which is a pillar of a democratic society. We need truth and accountability and there are so few institutions to uphold these values now.

Journalists are supposed to do thorough research, make unbiased investigations, and communicate important findings and events to the public. This work is more urgent than ever. But while the press is being eroded, corrupted, and bought and sold, social media is taking its place. I think social media and citizen journalism are really important tools, but it is not the same caliber nor quality we should rely on for the bulk of information. There are countless instances of social

Installation view of "Theater of Operations: The

media completely skewing and obstructing facts. I still

Gulf Wars 1991-2011" at MoMA PS1, 2019-20.

use social media because it is very effective for certain

Photo by Matthew Septimus

things, but [I] have to remember that it is not to be trusted.

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REBECCA MATALON CURATOR AT CONTEMPORARY ARTS MUSEUM HOUSTON

Courtesy of Myles Pettengill Rebecca Matalon is Curator at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH), where she recently organized the first solo museum presentation of the work of artist and filmmaker Garrett Bradley. She is currently organizing Wild Life: Elizabeth Murray & Jessi Reaves, an exhibition bringing together the paintings of Elizabeth Murray and the work of New York-based sculptor Jessi Reaves. Previously, Matalon was Assistant Curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), where she organized exhibitions including Tongues Untied (2015), Mickalene Thomas: Do I Look Like a Lady? (2016), Rick Owens: Furniture (2016), Welcome to the Dollhouse (2018), and DĂŠcor: Barbara Bloom, Andrea Fraser, Louise Lawler (2018). In 2018, she co-organized Zoe Leonard: Survey, a major mid-career retrospective of the work of Zoe Leonard, which debuted at The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and traveled to The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in November 2018. From 2015-2018, Matalon was a Co-Founder and Curator at JOAN, a not-for-profit exhibition space in Los Angeles that is dedicated to presenting the work of emerging, under-recognized, and women artists. At JOAN, she organized solo exhibitions with Nevine Mahmoud (2015), Aura Rosenberg (2016, with Adam Marnie), Roni Shneior (2017), and Harry Dodge (2018, with Adam Marnie), as well as the group exhibitions SYLVIA BATAILLE (2015, with Adam Marnie) and Spine: Madeline Hollander, Eva LeWitt, Ragen Moss (2018).

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REBECCA MATALON GM: Who are you going to vote for in the 2020 election?

RM: I didn’t vote for Joseph Biden in the primary election and he certainly isn’t the candidate I wanted. But he’s who we’ve got. I think it’s worth quoting Dr. Angela Davis here: “I don’t see this election as being about choosing a candidate who will be able to lead us in the right direction. […] It will be about choosing a candidate who can be most effectively pressured into allowing more space for the evolving anti-racist movement.”

GM: How did you react to the 2016 election results?

RM: With shock, followed by despair and then shame. Around 53% of white women voted for Donald Trump, while 94% of Black women cast their ballot for Hillary Clinton. In hindsight, the election of Trump seems less surprising. Any liberal or progressive who sees the racism, transphobia, xenophobia, and misogyny spilling forth from the White House as the exception rather than the rule is willfully blind to this nation’s history. The white supremacist ideology that undergirds the current administration is as American as apple pie. While it may seem that Trump let loose what was long lurking beneath the surface, for many in the BIPOC and LGBTQI+ communities it was always in plain sight.

GM: How has the last 4 years affected your activism?

RM: It has taken me too much of my adult life to realize the incredible importance of participating in local politics. In certain ways, I attribute this to the majority of my life being lived in solidly blue states. But it’s more likely because as a white, middle-class, heterosexual, cis-woman I have been granted enormous privileges that have enabled me to opt out in the past while also perceiving myself to have so-called radical, feminist politics. I believe healthcare and housing are human rights, that capitalism is inherently tied to racism, and in defunding and abolishing the police and ending mass incarceration, i.e. carceral capitalism. What I have also realized over the last four years through the enormous contributions made by Black women and trans women of color is that no one is free until we are all free.

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REBECCA MATALON GM: How has this political climate affected women, especially those of color?

RM: We live under a patriarchal system. For those who might claim gender inequity as a thing of the past, the current pandemic’s impacts on working mothers suggests otherwise. Numerous articles over the last six months have detailed the outsized burden placed on women. A study in the spring found that about eighty percent of adults in the U.S. who were not working as a result of having to care for kids were women. As a New York Times article noted, “the impact could last a lifetime, reducing [women’s] earning potential and work opportunities.” The economic effects of the pandemic on women of color are even more grave and disastrous. Even before the current health crisis, widely circulated graphs showing the intersection of race and gender in pay inequity revealed that while white women on average made 80 cents to every dollar a white man earned, Black women made 62 cents and Hispanic women 53 cents.

These statistics, as well as the fact that many women of color’s jobs were deemed “essential,” thus placing them at higher risk of infection, paint a dire picture of race and gender-based inequity before, during, and after coronavirus.

GM: What is your opinion on Kamala Harris, Biden's VP choice?

RM: I recognize the historic importance of Kamala Harris as the first Black woman and first woman of South Asian descent on a major party ticket. But my feelings towards Harris are akin to my feelings towards Biden. They aren’t the candidates that I wanted…but they are the ones we’ve got. Another four years of Trump would be catastrophic for our democracy. The likely, if not all but certain, impact to the political makeup of the Supreme Court would have dire, generational consequences.

GM: How has the last 4 years affected the art world?

RM: Over the last number of years we have witnessed innumerable calls for transparency and accountability within our institutions, particularly museums. These initiatives have largely been led by Black women and women of color, and are rooted in earlier efforts dating back to the 1960s to collectively organize against institutionalized racism and sexism in the arts. Where We At, Artists Meeting for Cultural Change, and the Combahee River Collective are just a few examples. (Continued on next page)

Installation view of "Garrett Bradley: American Rhapsody" at CAMH, 2019-20. Photo by Tree Garcia

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REBECCA MATALON (Continued) Art workers such as Aruna D’Souza, Kimberly Drew, Chaédria LaBouvier, Yesomi Umolu, and many others have highlighted the role museums play, or have failed to play, in addressing structural inequality in our field, at times at great personal and professional risk. If you weren’t already suspect, the dubiousness of the claim that museums function as “families” was made starkly clear by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, when institutions laid off hundreds of employees, most often those in front-line and hourly positions. The continuation of centuries of racialized violence against Black men, women, and trans people underscore the systemic racism that guides all facets of American civic life and its institutions, including museums. Umolu, in a powerful opinion piece for ArtNet News, laid out the ways in which art institutions have been founded on principles of exclusion and otherness, while also offering up the seeds of a self-knowing resistance. I remain, like Umolu, skeptical of museums’ ability to rebuild themselves as fully anti-racist institutions. But I also believe we have no choice but to try.

GM: How has your curatorial practice been affected by the political climate?

RM: I often think back to a statement made by artist Mary Kelly in her landmark essay “Re-Viewing Modernist Criticism” (1981), which is that marginalization is not only a matter of exclusion, “but can also be affected by incorporation.” Kelly is speaking to the enduring effects of modernist criticism and the codification of certain master narratives — of, say, white male genius — over others. But her point has equal relevance for exhibition making. It has functioned for me as a call for a critical approach to curatorial work wherein we recognize that all decisions we make have consequences – the artists we work with (and don’t), the stories we privilege (and don’t), and the ways in which we frame these narratives are all choices with political implications. In many ways, the current climate has made me double-down on my interest in historically marginalized histories and artists. It has also made me wearier of those in the field whose personal practices and professed politics don’t line up. Our actions, both public (i.e. exhibitions) and private (i.e. how we treat our colleagues), matter.

GM: Do you have any advice for young people interested in creating their own art spaces?

RM: In 2015, I co-founded JOAN, a small, non-profit exhibition space. At the time, I was working as a Curatorial Assistant at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) and felt frustrated by the lack of opportunity to organize exhibitions. Generally speaking, curatorial assistants – who contribute enormous amounts of creative and administrative labor towards exhibitions – do not get such opportunities and are often expected to feel grateful just for getting their name on an exhibition credit line. The very week we signed a lease on a space for JOAN, I was given the chance to organize my first museum show at MOCA. Yet, JOAN provided me the opportunity to be more experimental, to give emerging and underrecognized artists the space to work out ideas in process, and to give both them and me the freedom to fail. I learned a lot about what it takes to run a non-profit and the challenges presented by collaborative work, which is never easy but almost always worth it. I would absolutely encourage others to find ways to make space for experimentation and play. But I also think that there are really interesting models outside of brick-and-mortar operations. And if you do decide to have a space rooted in a physical site, I would suggest you use the space you have (your apartment, your refrigerator, your closet, your bathroom) unless you have the financial resources to sustain however many years of commercial rent your lease requires. My partner, Adam Marnie, started a gallery in our living room in Houston. And despite claiming that I would never start another space as recently as two years ago, we also run a sculpture garden in our backyard.

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REBECCA MATALON GM: Name a curatorial achievement you've accomplished since 2016 that you're proud of.

RM: Getting hired as Curator at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH). My job search lasted on and off for two years and was filled with no shortage of disappointments. As much as it pained me, my friends and colleagues all emphasized that the right job would eventually come along. Shocker: they were right. Rather than checking off certain boxes, I felt that my hiring at CAMH was based on the work that I had done at both MOCA and JOAN, as well as an understanding of who I was as a curator and the perspective I could bring to the institution. More recently, I have tried to divorce my understanding of personal success from professional success. I think we are so culturally conditioned to believe that achievement is based on public recognition. The image of the star curator is one that increasingly holds little interest for me, as it bespeaks a kind of rampant individualism. I am much more interested in collaboration and an understanding of exhibition-making as a collective activity.

GM: What was your experience co-curating "Zoe Leonard: Survey"?

RM: Working with living artists, particularly on solo exhibitions, is an incredibly intimate experience. It necessitates enormous levels of trust and compassion. I am grateful for the opportunity to have worked with Zoe [Leonard], her exceptional studio assistants, Jocelyn Davis and Sage Donahue, as well as Elisabeth Sherman, who was the coordinating curator at the Whitney Museum. I didn’t originate the exhibition, my cocurator Bennett Simpson conceived of the show in conversation with Zoe during my first months at MOCA. But in many ways the project bookends my time at the museum – it was the last exhibition I organized before departing for my current job at CAMH. It is an experience I will hold onto for the rest of my career as a curator.

Zoe is a brilliant artist. Her work is equally attuned to photography’s formal, conceptual, and critical registers.

In his insightful and poetic contribution to the exhibition catalogue for "Survey", Fred Moten refers to Zoe as a philosopher of the sequence out of sync. I love that description of Zoe and the ways it forefronts her enduring commitment to making things difficult, to modes of disruption, and to reorienting the ways in which we view images. I firmly believe Zoe is one of the most important artists working today.

Installation view of "Zoe Leonard: Survey" at MOCA Los Angeles, 2018-19. Photo by Brian Forrest

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TARAVAT TALEPASAND ARTIST

Courtesy of Aaron Hewitt Taravat Talepasand is an artist, activist, and educator whose interdisciplinary painting practice questions normative Western beauty, by way of politically charged images of contemporary Iranian women under the guise of traditional Persian painting. Her work expresses the role of women in the hyphenated American identity through global feminist ideologies, Iranian political histories, and the oppression of female sexuality in Iran. She asks the viewer to reconsider normative Western ideologies of her native country and citizens of the Iranian Diaspora in a myriad of ways. Taravat has exhibited nationally and internationally and is in the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, de Young Museum, Tufts University, and the Orange County Museum of Art. She was most recently in the exhibition In the Fields of Empty Days: The Intersection of Past and Present in Iranian Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2018), Bay Area Now 8 at the Yerba Buena Center of the Arts (2018-19) and the 2010 California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art. She was the recipient of the 2010 Richard Diebenkorn Teaching Fellowship at the San Francisco Art Institute. She is a featured artist in Different Sames: New Perspectives in Contemporary Iranian Art, edited by Hossein Amirsadeghi (2009) and the documentary "Pearls On The Ocean Floor" by Robert Adanto (2010). Taravat was previously the Department Chair of Painting at the San Francisco Art Institute and recently accepted an invitation to begin teaching at Portland State University. She will be featured in a Spring 2021 exhibition at Fourteen30 Contemporary in Portland, Oregon. Taravat received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2001 and MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2006.

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TARAVAT TALEPASAND GM: Who are you going to vote for in the 2020 election?

TT: I am registered to vote and I am planning to vote, but who knows what will happen to my vote? I’ve questioned the voting process ever since [George W.] Bush was elected for a second [presidential] term in 2004. I understand why the Electoral College was created, but it’s 2020 and I feel that every vote should count based on numbers. Trump didn’t actually win the popular vote. So there’s a lot of mixed feelings of whether we actually have the freedom to vote. We are in this grand wave of wanting to change and question what it means to be American and are polarized between old histories, rules, and ways that people want to hold onto. But there’s also a gravitational pull to move forward and be progressive. In the last election, when it was Hillary vs. Trump, I voted for Hillary, even though I didn’t want to. I never trusted or liked the Clinton’s and I still don’t. I would never vote for Trump. I have issues with Biden too, but he has more experience with international relations and being the Vice President to [Barack] Obama.

Terrified that Trump will win again – I was born and raised into Reagan, then [H.W.] Bush, then Clinton, then [W.] Bush, Obama (who gave me a little hope), and now Trump – I’ve never felt like I could get behind any of the presidents during my lifetime. I question the importance of even having a president because what does that truly mean? How can one person represent this diverse country? It seems almost impossible, but I want there to be a possibility for real hope and change. I’m going to pop the popcorn, sit back, and watch the show; politics are so ingrained in almost every conversation today. But here I am, living in a neighborhood that is predominately Trump supporters. I was on the freeway the other day and saw a bumper sticker that read “Trump 2020 – Fuck Your Feelings”. I felt like I’d been shot in the heart because I’m a feelings based person, and in that moment, it was as if all feelings didn’t matter.

GM: How did you react to the 2016 election results?

TT: I rolled up a fat joint and smoked it calm my nerves! After smoking the j, I remember meeting friends on Divisadero Street [in San Francisco] and the entire street was crowded with people. Chaos took over the streets wondering what the fuck just happened. It was bizarre seeing people unhinged and mad at how Trump won the election, but also a huge coming together of people feeling comfortable saying what they felt. As a professor, my heart dropped for my students because they are working to educate themselves on pressing issues, and I felt this huge heaviness watching them lose hope. Students became angry and pulled themselves further apart

Taravat Talepasand, "END-LESS-WAR", 2020

instead of coming together. (Continued on next page)

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TARAVAT TALEPASAND (Continued) I definitely had my own sense of nervousness and depression too, not knowing if I could continue moving forward in my practice of empowerment being a woman from Iran. I feared that my voice wouldn’t be one that people wanted to hear. Trump’s election was a big slap in everyone’s face and I drew a parallel to the 1979 Iranian Revolution when the Islamic Regime took over the country. America coined Iran as a “backwards” country, but now America backpedalled itself. The 2016 Presidential Election was a time where the curtain was about to be pulled on us and open to see what we are so consumed in stressing about.

GM: What is your opinion on Kamala Harris, Biden's VP choice?

TT: His VP choice is progressive and a move in the direction that I would like this country to take. I love the fact that Kamala has a very diverse upbringing, Indian and Jamaican. She has a lot of experience in our current political climate that I believe would make her a worthy Vice President; this could be a great way for the public to see a woman in a very high position and set a new standard. I was emotionally distressed with people commenting on her race and whether or not she is a person of color. I am 41 and I identify myself as a person of color. It has taken me most of my life to feel safe sharing that.

There’s a lot of deep-rooted trauma I have in being comfortable in my own skin and trying to understand whether I’m Persian or Iranian and coming to terms with the hyphenated life of being Iranian-American.

Or is American-Iranian? Is there a difference? Don’t answer that for me please, it’s merely a question that anyone who identifies with a countries Diaspora understands. I’ve learned to have conviction in identifying myself. All of these feelings surface over having a woman of color as a VP on the upcoming ballot. This offers a lot of hope and potential growth in this country. But at the same time, this is going to make a lot of people uncomfortable. I wholeheartedly believe that this election is going to be really dark and polarizing. We’re still going to be in a pandemic, people will be in the streets fighting for human rights, and the fires will continue to blaze. What keeps me grounded is knowing that in the end, we will be okay.

GM: How has the last 4 years affected your activism?

TT: I have become much more politically aware and involved. Social media has its pros and cons, but the relationship in how you use it is a choice. It’s allowed me to connect and share ideas and truths with other activists. Who didn’t experience the same traumatic event and not turn into an activist after the last election? I may not be in downtown Portland in the thick of it right now, but I am making my own ripples to activate conversations for progressive changes – my process of awakening has taken over these last four years and I am committed to it. I wasn’t there 4 years ago; I needed to keep posting content, I needed that feedback and affirmation. I’m now at a place where I can engage with and support others who are doing the work too and spreading their own awareness. I want to keep moving with my practice in the ways that I’m thinking about and living a fuller life hoping for equity of freedom, equality, and real justice in this country.

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TARAVAT TALEPASAND GM: How has your artistic practice been affected by the political climate?

TT: I made a big life change and moved away from San Francisco last summer. I resigned from my tenure track professorship and at the time was the Department Chair of Painting at SFAI. I was like – I’m out! I was really done with trying to hustle and out hustle myself in the most expensive city in this country. I was so burnt out from teaching and exhibiting my work; in 2019 I was featured in seven exhibitions while teaching and having to bartend to sustain a life in the Bay Area. I developed a lot of emotional and moral issues in how I was living my life, so I just packed up and moved back to Portland, Oregon, where I was born and raised. I took a long break from being in the studio, but I eventually rebuilt it and unpacked all of my artwork, which helped me see it from a new perspective. I found that the work I was creating was central to being a woman, the political awareness of what is happening in the Middle East, and its parallels with Western and U.S. culture. I kept feeling like I had to pick a side; in my first exhibition after Trump was inaugurated, titled Westoxicated in Los Angeles, I came out guns blazing. I had enough with the direction in which the systems created were lacking any sustainability for humanity's sake and injustice towards Black, indigenous, disabled, transgender, immigrant lives, and women. I brought all of that to the surface to purge it out. Now looking back at those works I find the tension between light and dark and a real push at what I myself was battling with. Now that I’m back in the studio I’ve claimed my truths. Realizing that I don’t necessarily have to choose a side, but I have to be okay with both. Last year I paused my practice because I didn’t feel that I was making work that could uplift others and myself. I didn’t want to portray an angry female voice; I wanted to uplift all inclusive voices and for there to be a place where anyone could see my work. I’m now at a point in my studio practice where I can lend the female body and/or human form in a way that isn’t just realism painstakingly painted – line by line, layer by layer – instead emulating an essence of the human heart and mind. I want there to be a balance between both logic and feeling. Practicing new gestures and taking more risks in the ways that I’m using the paint. Figuring out new ways of looking at the body that can be familiar or understood as something new. Painting is so immediate for me and politics will always be apart of my life and work. I don’t want my work to only speak to the Iranian Diaspora; it should invoke something, anything. There is no separation between you and me.

We’ve been told that we are individuals in our own right and we want to set ourselves apart based on what we wear, language, hairstyle, or cuisine, but I want a way to find a closeness to each other regardless of the shade of our skin and the language we speak. We can be more open in the commonalities between us all.

GM: How has the last 4 years affected the art world?

TT: It’s interesting how the art world has continued to flourish. Art fairs are still intact and a lot of artwork is being sold without a flinch with the current economic decline. As technology continues to boom, more artists have greater visibility and access in sharing their work, life, story, memes; everyone has their own platforms. You can DM or tag artists, critics, collectors, galleries, curators, museums; I’m not condoning these actions, just being real. There is still a lot of momentum throughout the art world even during the pandemic! In the last 4 years I’ve seen Black artists receive deserving attention. But I also question who is buying the art and promoting these artists. As much as we support these artists’ acclaim, we need to be careful to have these works available to view, for their work is a marker of our times and the narratives that we should really be processing. My concern is if the works are being traded for pure capitalistic gains and I don’t want to see artists of color traded in that way. (Continued on next page)

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TARAVAT TALEPASAND (Continued) I’ve become more aware of who is interested in buying my work because I’m not creating work for the money. I have a hard time keeping my own work because it’s not created for me. I reach out to a lot of women and people who are activists in their own field and life. I recently decided to take on commission work, which I’ve never entertained before; so far it has forced me back to the studio knowing who it will be living with and why. The last four years has forced me to reposition myself and practice, preparing myself for whatever was behind that curtain. Rapid changes will continue, but are we willing to be honest about the broken systems? Will it or will we ever be enough? I’m currently working with Fourteen30 Contemporary in Portland, Oregon, a woman owned and operated site who isn’t afraid to offer a space where one can really experiment and mine their own exhibition. “Are You There Allah? It’s Me Taravat” will open Spring 2021. My sisterkin Jenna Wortham inspired me to have a womxn only opening. My plans to engage with the art world, especially during these changing realities, dedicates my process to a space and time for the public to freely view, think, and feel in person.

GM: Can you talk about your clothing line, SUMUS? TT: I started SUMUS to connect people together and promote awareness and conversation by way of wearable goods. Majority of the T-shirts make a connection between rock n’ roll, hip-hop, and communities who are really misunderstood. By fusing music, life, and politics, I wanted to create a T-shirt that can encapsulate Iran in a stylish, cool manner – in large bold print. The IRAN shirts bring up issues surrounding colonization and decolonization, and using an old English, Western font that is so detached from traditional Middle Eastern script. I originally made the T-shirt for an exhibition but it took off in high demand! It’s such a beautiful, tender feeling to see people all over the world

"IRAN" T-Shirt. Courtesy of SUMUS

wearing it. It is the T-shirt for Iran!

You don’t have to be Iranian to wear it and it’s awesome to see non-Iranian and non-Islam people buy and wear these “IRAN” and “Islamic Youth” shirts. Some people have gotten sidelined for wearing it in certain places and events, but the conversation is started. I’ve also had other pieces that come from the SUMUS collection that highlight countries involved in proxy wars; I have shirts for Yemen, Beirut, Palestine, Kuwait, and Syria. This has been a long, ongoing practice of mine so it doesn’t start and stop at “IRAN”. It doesn’t stop with me either, so many countries and people can connect to the “IRAN” T-shirt and SUMUS as a whole. Beyond grateful that I could make something that is hand-printed and accessible to everyone. I cover my costs, donate to different organizations, and promote to help others.

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RESPONSES TO "I WANT A PRESIDENT" Zoe Leonard wrote “I want a president” in 1992 as a response to the U.S. presidential election. The poet Eileen Myles ran for president as an independent candidate alongside George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Ross Perot. After years of only circulating the text amongst her friends, Leonard contributed this piece as a postcard insert for LTTR in 2006.

The text became immensely popular and has subsequently been translated into many languages and reached a global audience through social media, online forums, publications, outdoor installations, exhibitions, and public readings. Below, the four participants of GIRLS 7 respond to Leonard's iconic battle cry.

GENEVIEVE GAIGNARD: Zoe’s words get right to the root of the problem. That literally could have been written yesterday and still, we are waiting for change.

RUBA KATRIB: I completely relate to this work as a critique of dominate value systems and power structures. It is also very important to note that Leonard’s text retains its provocation to those that continue to uphold those power structures, even a few decades later. It still stands today as a moving piece that underscores the gap in experiences and realities of those holding positions of power with the realities of life for most people who are subject to those powers. Today, particularly during a global pandemic, it is clearer than ever that people are living in completely different worlds and do not have a bridge to understand the obstacles faced by those that are most vulnerable. Placing a greater societal value on empathy is perhaps a way out of corruption and cynicism, as Leonard’s piece suggests.

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RESPONSES TO "I WANT A PRESIDENT" REBECCA MATALON: Every time I read or hear Zoe Leonard’s I want a president I am both full of rage and gutted. Written during the plague years of the HIV/AIDS crisis, in the lead up to the 1992 U.S. Presidential Election, the text is a demand for a radical paradigm shift in American politics that has yet to be realized. The fact that it has been translated into a number of languages and circulated as printed flyers, PDFs, social media posts, and large-scale public banners and billboards for nearly thirty years reflects the continued relevance and urgency of Leonard’s missive. I want a president is a powerful provocation, one that I find hard to talk about without falling to pieces.

TARAVAT TALEPASAND: Damn, this resonates even from 1992! What an amazing piece to make that has lived on. But at the same time, what a sad moment that I can read this [text] and say fuck, have we really moved forward? The piece in itself is such a stark protest; it reminds me of overly sanitized politicians that are still in office today who haven’t changed. This is a wholehearted cry for a government that reflects its people because she names all types of people. It was specifically written in the HIV/AIDS crisis timeframe, which was one of real separation and loss, but we see that again even today.

[Leonard] has a heightened political awareness that I can get behind in my own practice and work. I’m interested in how the text opens up this imagined voice from our leaders and encourages the reader to envision the future of our society. I’ve seen versions of it enlarged on the wall, where you can lift your head and look at it, the same way you have to lift your head to look at the Lincoln Memorial or Hank Willis Thomas’s “Unity” arm and finger in the air. Zoe called out how we are all different, all the pain and suffering that people endure, how we have to accept all of it, and need to have a leader to acknowledge and accept us. It’s going to be a long time before we can have that, and we definitely haven’t in the last 4 years, but we do need a president that can meet us all eye to eye, hear us, and not separate us so much as we already feel separated.

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GIRLS MAGAZINE

VOTE FOR OUR LIVES SEPTEMBER 2020

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 7