“Walking Out” is a two-person exhibition of works in progress from Susan Allred and Katherine Del Rosario. Both women’s work explores the sometimes harsh realities of womanhood and its male-centered expectations can diminish their individuality, sensibility, expression, and inner power. In “Walking Out” the women express the female form in action through the physicality of dirty and rumpled skirts, the slaying of man, and the movement of woman, as it appears to be shifting, transforming, and wandering.
Allred’s works are made of rusted paper formed and sewn to look like women’s skirts from the past centuries when the only freedom allowed to many women—as famously illustrated in several works of literature—was to walk out in nature during breaks from housework and other duties. These long skirts were impractical for hiking, yet no options were allowed. When wet, or muddy, these skirts doubled and trebled a woman’s work. Sodden skirts would have been heavy to walk in, and after the wandering was done, the woman herself, or her servants, if she had them, would labor to make them presentable again. Allred invites her viewers to consider how women’s modern clothing and tools now either save or cause labor, whether it be physical or emotional.
Del Rosario’s figurative paintings explore the manifestations of colonialism through the lens of being a Filipina woman within the diaspora. These manifestations continue to exist amongst women of color, as they are sometimes taught at a young age that the lighter the skin equates to beauty, wealth, class, and privilege. Colorism continues to be upheld in many cultures as skin whitening treatments and beauty products are popularized and weaponized. The ideology of colorism within Filipino culture can be linked directly to Spanish colonial rule that lasted more than 300 years. Del Rosario also places herself as a woman in action, as she is ready to behead her colonizers and continues to find liberation amongst the people, land and within her own body.
Opening Reception : October 14, 6:00 PM