FORCE: On The Culture of Rape
FORCE: On the Culture of Rape was an exhibition that merged art with activism to promote a critical dialogue about how our attitudes towards gender, sex, power and violence are played out on people’s bodies. Works in the show addressed rape as both a psychological and a physical weapon. FORCE: On the Culture of Rape exposed the personal, social and political realities of rape culture in contemporary American society. In addition to a multi-media art exhibition, FORCE was an organizing ground. Performances, screenings and talk-backs were hosted to provide space to discuss works in the exhibit.
By bearing witness to the survivors and perpetrators of sexual violence, the cycle of violence can be broken. The goal of FORCE was to bear witness to survivors and perpetrators; to pose complicated and difficult questions about what in ourselves and our societies creates rape; and to create a forum to answer those questions.
ARTISTS:
Rahne Alexander
Rahne Alexander is a writer, musician and multimedia artist from Baltimore. A veteran event organizer, Alexander participates in the Maryland Film Festival, the Transmodern Festival and the Charm City Kitty Club. She is the guitarist and songwriter for The Oops and The Degenerettes.
Equal + Opposite
From the early silents of Lubitsch to The Crying Game and beyond, gender-variant characters persistently provide cinematic shock upon the revelation of their "true sex." Turning the focus away from the gender-variant body, "Equal+Opposite" instead explores the range of physical and emotional reactions by "protagonists" to transgendered bodies, from curiosity to revulsion.
Hannah Brancato
Sex is a Weapon (American Dream)
Created in collaboration with survivors of domestic violence living in the House Of Ruth Maryland’s emergency shelter during 2009.
Matilda Bernstein Sycamore and Gina Carducci
All That Sheltering Emptiness
All That Sheltering Emptiness is a meditation on elevators, hotel lobbies, hundred dollar bills, the bathroom, a cab, chandeliers, cocktails, the receptionist, arousal, and other routines in the life of a New York City callboy. All That Sheltering Emptiness explodes the typical narratives of desire, escape and intimacy to evoke something more honest.
Cecelia Condit
Beneath the Skin
Beneath the Skin by Cecelia Condit is a surreal film that contrasts a horrific story of a girl’s murder with a woman’s delusional
relationship with her abuser.
Jessica Delfino
Please Don't Rape Me
Hi. I’m Jessica Delfino, an NYC based comedian, musician, performer and writer who plays many instruments ranging from the flying V ukulele to the rape whistle. I decided to try stand-up comedy when a comedian I met said females couldn’t do comedy. That morphed into playing music into the subway. Then I began bringing my guitar on stage and making videos which led to me getting publicly denounced by the Catholic League, and banned by Youtube, and then unbanned. It hasn’t all been rainbows and unicorns, but even the shitty parts are probably better than your job.
Peggy Diggs
Coasters from Atlanta Perpetrator Project
15,000 bar coasters; 20,000 bookmarks; 100 subway posters; and a 30-second public service announcement for TV. Diggs worked with perpetrators of domestic violence in Atlanta to produce this public art project.
Dynasty Handbag
Deep Feelings
Dynasty Handbag revisits some icky childhood sexual adventures and it’s influence on adult relationships and internalized homophobia. A Dr. Phillis keeps interrupting her process with criticism and bad advice. Along the journey she rapes her house cat, meets an octopus with a knife, is tempted into a warm cave by a lion who makes her vacuum, a sweet and unintelligible sea horse, and molests a teen slut passed out on a picnic table.
Christine Ferrera
Christine Ferrera is an American Triathlete, artist and mother of 8. She lives and works in
Baltimore.
Google Art Video
As two women discuss art, a cryptic mini-drama plays out.
Carrie Fucile
Ssh
Carrie Fucile's work focuses on the fragility and mortality of the human body. Recent exhibitions include Systems Failure at Target Gallery, Alexandria, VA, Sign Language at Whole Gallery, Baltimore MD, and Materiality at ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL. She received her MFA from Brooklyn College in 2006 and currently lives and works in Baltimore, MD.
The Guerilla Girls
The Guerrilla Girls are feminist masked avengers in the tradition of anonymous do-gooders like Robin Hood, Wonder Woman and Batman. How do they expose sexism, racism and corruption in politics, art, film and pop culture? With facts, humor and outrageous visuals. They reveal the understory, the subtext, the overlooked, the and the downright unfair.The Guerrilla Girls are re-defining the "F" word- feminism!
What to Do When Raped
This poster confronts our legal system’s complete failure to punish rapists.
New Lens Productions
New Lens is a youth driven social justice organization that makes art and media about issues where a youth perspective can inspire change.
Is Your Partner Ready?
This poster was designed by youth in the Baltimore based media program, New Lens Productions, as a part of their discussions and video work about healthy relationships.
Ulf Kristiansen
Ulf Kristiansen (b. 1969-11-03, Norway) is a painter and video-artist. Ulf Kristiansen is currently living at Nesodden, a peninsula outside of Oslo, Norway. While starting out as a figurative painter, Ulf is now mainly focusing on 3d animation and machinima. His films have partaken in numerous international video festivals and exhibitions.
The Abyss
This video contrasts found footage of violent pornography with a convicted serial rapist narrating how this imagery fed his psychotic urges.
http://www.artreview.com/video/the-abyss
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