Feminine Moments’ newsletter – April 2012

Dear reader,

It is Mid-April and early spring in Denmark. The first yellow dandelions are blooming in my garden and I turned 50 a few weeks ago. Looking back at the last couple of months’ posts at Feminine Moments’ queer art blog, I see that I have received a number of calls for submissions from queer festivals – see the calendar below. In this issue of Feminine Moments’ newsletter I am happy to present some great queer photography art projects and a few artist showcases.

Contemporary Queer Photography in USA, Scandinavia and South Africa – Exhibitions and new art books

WHO’S NEXT? 
Book release April 18 2012, 6 pm. at the Hasselblad Center Gothenburg, Sweden. Release reception with talks by Danish photographer and queer woman Charlotte Haslund-Christensen, Eva Borgström, Senior Lecturer at Gothenburg University and Louise Wolthers, researcher at The Hasselblad Foundation.

In 2009 Charlotte Haslund-Christensen photographed over 40 LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people at Copenhagen’s main police station – capturing them in mugshots like the criminals they would be many places in the world. The work – a signed box sets containing 42 photographic prints – is a comment on the fact that 76 countries continue to criminalise homosexuality that LGBT people are still stigmatised, attacked and killed, with at least 5 countries making being gay punishable by death or life imprisonment. The purchase of each box supports the distribution of WHO’S NEXT? to countries where LGBT people face daily prosecution and persecution and are denied basic human rights.

Author and Subject: Contemporary Queer Photography
Photo Center NW in Seattle, USA is presenting a new generation of queer photographers. The exhibition runs through May 27, 2012. Learn more about the amazing queer photographers in USA. Last week there was a lecture and book signing with Sophia Wallace and Kelli Connell at the Photo Center NW. The new queer art book is:

Kelli Connell – Double Life
By Kelli Connell. Essay by Susan Bright. Interview by Dawoud Bey
12.25 x 9.5 inches, 36 four-color plates. 80 pages, hardcover.
Published by Decode Books, 2012. ISBN 978-0-9793373-9-0

Visual activist and queer woman Zanele Muholi has published a new art book. The book presents a selection of her photographs of the black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community of Africa:

ZANELE MUHOLI – AFRICAN WOMEN PHOTOGRAPHERS 1
By Zanele Muholi
110 p, ills colour & bw, 17 x 24 cm, hb. Text in Spanish/English
Published by LA FABRICA, 2012. isbn 9788415303466

Artist Showcases

Photographer Anja Mül­­ler, Berlin, Germany, presents her new website
A biographical video on Sadie Benning using her style and medium
Photo right: Anja Mûller

Calendar – April 2012

Canada: Exposure – Call for Volunteers. Exposure  Emonton’s Queer Arts & Culture Festival is currently seeking dynamic, enthusiastic people who are interested in the arts, Edmonton’s cultural life, queer issues, politics, social and political activism, and event planning. Interested individuals should send a paragraph outlining their background, their reasons for wanting to be involved, and their skills to volunteer@exposurefestival.ca by Friday April 20th, 2012.

entzaubert, a radical queer d.i.y. film festival in Berlin, Germany,  August 2- 5, 2012 calls for queer experimental movies and workshop proposals. Deadline April 23, 2012.

The collective Traumschicht in Zürich, Switzerland, calls for submissions for Traumschicht’s queer_feministisches d.i.y cinema. Deadline April 30, 2012.

Queer Arts Festival in Vancouver, Canada has announced the festival dates for the coming festival: July 31 – august 18, 2012 and published a call for queer art for QAF’s community art show. Deadline May 1, 2012.

Homotopia 2012 in UK seeks new work from artists, theatremakers, producers, and promoters for consideration for the autumn festival, which will be held at various venues across Liverpool, UK, November 1-30, 2012. Deadline May 4,  2012, 5pm.

The famous exhibition HIDE/SEEK: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture
on view at the Brookly Museum last winter is now at the Tacoma Art Museum, where it runs through June 10, 2012.

Man as Object: Reversing the Gaze
The big feminist art exhibition Man as Object: Reversing the Gaze (consisting of 117 pieces curated by Tanya Augsburg ) has travelled to Kinsey Institute Gallery where it is on view through June 29, 2012. Here the traveling exhibition will be accompanied by a selection of artworks by female artists depicting men that is drawn from the permanent collection of The Kinsey Institute.

Man as Object: Reversing the Gaze is accompanied by a full color catalog by Tanya Augsburg and Karen Gutfreund, with essays from Lynn Hershman Leeson, Annie Sprinkle and others.

For your information…

Lavender Review is a biannual e-zine dedicated to poetry and art by, about, and for lesbians. Mary Meriam, editor of Lavender Review has published a Kickstarter project. Help her keep Lavender Review alive! THIS PROJECT WILL ONLY BE FUNDED IF AT LEAST $2,000 IS PLEDGED BY FRIDAY MAY 4, 2012.

UNCENSORED: Queer Art and the Church
Leslie-Lohman, New York hosted the exhibition UNCENSORED: Queer Art and the Church, March 27-31, 2012. This exhibition was absolutely uncensored(!) One of queer photographer Marta Kochanek beautiful photographs was on view at this show and I am curious as to whom the other queer artists of this show were. If anyone has a list of the artists, please share it with me.

AURORA REINHARD – PERFECT
In March 2012 you could see the exhibition AURORA REINHARD – PERFECT in Helsinki, Finland. Aurora Reinhard is known for her controversial work exploring the tensions and structures of contemporary society. She works with video, photography and hyper-realistic objects fetishizing the everyday.

I wish you well and invite you to share your queer / feminist art projects with Feminine Moments.
Love and kisses,

 

Birthe Havmoeller
Independent editor of Feminine Moments