by Glyn Muitjens
Fish and seafood – oysters in particular – are popularly believed to possess aphrodisiac qualities. This connection made between seafood and sex is not a recent phenomenon – actually. It is quite old, hailing back to even before classical Athens. What exactly did the ancient Greeks make of seafood?
Category: Diversity in art
Durational Disability Aesthetics: Collective and Individual Memory of the Capitol Crawl in Gina Vernon’s All the Way to Freedom
by Marle Zwietering
In 1990, over sixty activists of disability rights organization ADAPT left their mobility aids at the bottom of the stairs of the United States Capitol. They then ascended the stairs in a protest now known as the Capitol Crawl.
Traces, Afilmic Memory and Performativity in Between Delicate and Violent
By Trine Linke
In her 2023 experimental documentary film Between Delicate and Violent writer and director Şirin Bahar Demirel investigates how memories are made and documented, and how to navigate memories which were concealed or hidden. Probing her own family’s memories from photo albums, videos, paintings and stitchwork for the traces of hands, she constructs a new history of memories which were shameful and kept hidden.
Reclaiming the Maternal Body: Challenging the expectations and representation of pregnancy in Cindy Sherman’s self-portrait Untitled #205 (1989)
by Nanette Ashby
In the realm of contemporary art, few figures stand at the intersection of identity, culture, and photography as prominently as Cindy Sherman. Born in New Jersey in 1954, Sherman has carved a niche for herself through her pioneering photographic self-portraits. Her body of work challenges and deconstructs cultural norms and expectations, particularly those surrounding gender, celebrity, and the very medium she employs – photography itself.
Making love in Wartime: An exhibit covering how the Second World War affected people and their romantic relationships
by Stefan de Baar
The Vrijheidsmuseum, located in Groesbeek, has taken steps to tell the stories of how the war impacted ‘love’ during the Second World War whilst the Netherlands was occupied by Nazi Germany. Through this they shine a light on the lives and history of regular everyday people. We have taken the opportunity to visit their exposition ‘liefde in de oorlog’ or ‘Love in the war’ to see for ourselves.
Shunga – Potentially feminist pornography of the Edo period of Japan
By Nanette Ashby
Every fourth search request entered into Google is linked to pornographic content and makes up a third of all internet traffic. Every month, Netflix, Amazon and Twitter combined receive fewer visitors than pornographic websites (Lust). Evidently, just like sex is fundamental for the human experience, so is pornography a part of everyday life. Regardless of the medium or time period, pornography functions as a transmitter of societal ideas and values.
Alleen ik weet wie ik ben
door Merel Tuitert
Extravert, enthousiast, aanwezig, vrolijk, oversekst, gezellig, best veel aandacht nodig.
Mädchen in Uniform: A Masterful Portrayal of Female Solidarity against Oppression
by Airin Farahmand
If you ask a film enthusiast about the most prominent interwar German movies, you will most likely get a German expressionist movie as an answer. After all, in most scholarly books, German cinema is often remembered by Fritz Lang’s iconic movies such as The Metropolis, Nosferatu, and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
The New Woman: Icons of Change or Catalysts of Male Anxiety?
by Nele Brinkmann
In the tumultuous aftermath of World War One, Germany found itself in times of uncertainty and upheaval. The Weimar Republic, Germany’s first democracy, challenged the old order with its progressive constitution and blooming cultural scene. The “New Woman” embodied this transformation and transcended previous gender expectations.
The fragile ghost of disability: Jannick Deslauriers’ recreation of the wheelchair as fibre art
by Nanette Ashby
On an August day in 2022, I walked through the doors of the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, stepping into the modern entrance hall filled with eager visitors. After a morning exploring the city, I could feel the symptoms of my chronic illness flaring up which made standing in line increasingly painful. This was my first trip since my diagnosis two years ago and I was still coming to terms with the new limitations of my body.
Reading is resistance! Book review – Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa
by Sorina Bularca
Reading has always been one of my ways to revolt against this fast-paced world. A cup of coffee, some fuzzy peaches (the flat kind), a big cup of water and 50 pages later, I am disconnected from the horror that my room is a mess, and that I should probably be studying. Usually, I like to tell myself that all this reading is going to transform me into a very well-versed person, but the truth is that I still stutter when I try to talk, and I still find it extremely hard to make sentences in which I don’t make grammar mistakes. However, I will not stop.
Murdering Clothes: Addressing Feminicide in Teresa Margolles’ Cimbra Formwork
by Rosa Floris
In her 2006 conceptual artwork Cimbra Formwork, Teresa Margolles incorporates real clothes from women who were victims of gendered violence and feminicide in Ciudad Juárez. She is thereby responding to the phenomenon of feminicide, but what exactly does her artwork communicate?