KOCHI: New York, 1985. The International Survey of Painting and Sculpture is being held at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The exhibition hosted the works of 169 artists of which less than 10 per cent were women. This outraged a group of women artists who strove to question the discrepancies in the art world, namely, the billionaires heading art trusts and the lack of representation of women artists and artists of colour.
Together, the Guerrilla Girls were formed. Wanting to be known for their work, and not themselves, they chose gorilla masks, pseudonyms of dead female artists, and became a force to reckon with.
Kochi, 2018. Thirty-three years since their inception, the Guerrilla Girls have crossed the oceans and arrived at the fourth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. Under the names of Frida Kahlo (Mexican artist) and Käthe Kollwitz (German artist), the two women have been part of the movement since 1985.
Speaking about their larger purpose, Frida says, "We go all over the world spreading our message of fighting for human rights, corruption, racism and sexism, discrimination in the art world, politics and culture." And how they go about it. The Guerrilla Girls use posters, stickers, and illustrations, solidified with statistics and fuelled by humour and outrageous statements, to protest against the unfair.
"For the Biennale, we have indoor and outdoor works; there's also one exclusively created in Malayalam," Frida continues.
At a time when identity is precious and primary, why would the Guerrilla Girls choose to remain anonymous? " We chose to do this 33 years ago when we wanted to protect ourselves. We also realised this would be a great way of generalising the situation and focusing on issues, taking away attention from our personalities," Frida says. The choice to wear Gorilla masks was, surprisingly, unplanned. "We wanted to be guerrillas, freedom fighters, because that seemed like an impolite name for women, especially in the art world. And we wanted to provoke people; make everyone feel uncomfortable and angry. Back then, when the press wanted photographs, we had to come up with a disguise. One of our early members was a very bad speller and she spelt Guerilla as Gorilla and that to us was, okay, the Guerrilla Girls should wear Gorilla masks," shares Käthe.
A lot can happen in 33 years. How has the art market changed? Or rather, what has changed since the Guerrilla Girls have triggered the biggies? "Over time, we realised that there's resonance to the issues we attended to; inequality, lack of diversity and male privilege.
They are global issues. And art galleries are trying to show more artists of colour, more women artists. Yet, the art market is miserable and lousy, there is always a rush to buy the most expensive art, especially that of white men. The system that filters art and reduces it to a commodity is still about money and power," says Käthe.
Albeit surely, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018 has taken its first steps with Anita Dube being the first female curator of the exhibition and with the works female artists surpassing those by men. Frida immediately agrees, "Absolutely. When you have women who are aware of discrimination and the lack of privilege, they would be more sensitive." She goes on to add, "It's a wonderful environment here, there are artists from all over the world. The theme 'Possibilities For A Non-Alienated Life' runs parallel to what we do. This kind of show is the future."