Alien She at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
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Foreground: Ladies Sasquatch (2006–10), installation shot; found textiles, taxidermy supplies, appliqué borg, styrofoam, wood. Background: Recommended Reading (2010), wallpaper of photocopied drawings. Both by Allyson Mitchell and courtesy of the artist and Katharine Mulherin Gallery, Toronto. Photo courtesy of Vox Populi.
This touring exhibition is the first to critically examine the lasting impact that Riot Grrrl—the widely influential but briefly lived global punk feminist movement—has had on artists today. The movement, born in Washington D.C. and the Pacific Northwest in the early-to-mid-1980s, addressed issues such as domestic abuse, sexuality, racism, and patriarchy, with emphases on youth and female empowerment, collaborative organization, and DIY ethics.
Alien She is organized by the Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), and is curated by Astria Suparak, independent curator and former director of the Miller Gallery, and Ceci Moss, assistant curator for the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts—both of whom possess deep roots in the Riot Grrrl movement. They will present a "living history" of Riot Grrrl, with new work by a half-dozen contemporary artists significantly influenced by the movement's ethos, alongside a host of rare archival materials from its heyday—zines, flyers, videos, records, cassettes, and other ephemera. Supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Alien She was originally presented at Vox Populi Gallery in Philadelphia.