East Village, New York
Group Exhibition
Survivor-Girl: An All-Girl Group Exhibition
Ruby/DakotaOphelia Arc, Cassidy Argo, Starkey Fossgreen, Amanda Guest, Michelle Im, Opal Mae Ong, Cayetana Suzuki, Audra Wist Ruby/Dakota is excited to present Survivor-Girl, a new group exhibition of women-identifying artists exploring the spectrum of womanhood and the survivor-body. From the macabre assembly of the assault victim to the tongue-and-cheek reticence of a gender taught to mask all drives and desires, Survivor-Girl finds its viral persona in the ceramic figure of a poised Korean flight attendant holding out a tray of amorphous nuts and the print transfers of brash Jersey Shore celebrities, barely recognizable in their distortion, asking us what is our infected survival positioning, and what parts of ourselves have retreated back beneath our forms? Existing long before, and catapulting off of the internet trends of the summer “Brat” versus “demure,” with works that play with contrasting materials – satin and iron nails, ink lines drawn from a jagged piece of steel, x-rays of the artist’s teeth meeting thread on Bristol, a bow wrapped around a tongue, all tied around a rooted tree, centuries old, staying - Survivor-Girl presents the dichotomy between the positions women inhabit in attempt to keep themselves safe, illuminating the inherent violence and distortion within any positioning. Whether a woman becomes the Final Girl, the Young-Girl, the Brat or the Vixen, they are all the Survivor-Girl, snuggling up to the monster, lighting candles for their demons, preparing to eat, or be eaten alive.