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Art Into the Biennial: Part 3
by Becky Moda & Eric Jackson-Forsberg
University at Buffalo Art Gallery, Center for the Arts
While looking at Allyson Mitchell’s Lady Sasquatch installation, it occurred to me that in all representations of Bigfoot I had ever seen, it is always presumed to be male. Why? Is it the hulking size or the copious body hair, both generally regarded as male traits? Mitchell utilizes both size and hair to redefine and recontextualize femaleness with these 10-foot, multi-breasted, genitally engorged monster-women. Covered with fake fur and standing around a campfire in poses inspired by Playboy, these sexy beasts have the power to simultaneously give children nightmares while giving adults the giggles. Mitchell employs the sasquatch myth to emphasize two widely reviled natural physical traits in women: big and hairy. They are in-your-face, lesbian feminist pin-ups: sexual and powerful, pushing against the absurd perceived standards of sexuality and thus crusading for female self-acceptance. The effect is both antagonistic and endearing.
Surrounding the plush giants are pink squirrels, each of them carrying a distinct personality that, I’m told, corresponds with the individual personalities of Mitchell’s former lovers. According to my tally, Mitchell has dated a confused mother; a lazy klutz; a pounce-on-you-while-you-are-doing-something-important type; a level-with-me-now type; a wide-faced, sexless type; an intellectual; a screamer; a fluffy; doe-eyed dame; an actress; a woman who recently came out of the closet; a sexpot; a large and irritable woman; an all-night talker; an attention junkie; and an heiress. They are by turns cute, bewildered and hostile, and provide a strange counterpoint to the giants whose realm they cohabit.
by Becky Moda & Eric Jackson-Forsberg
University at Buffalo Art Gallery, Center for the Arts
While looking at Allyson Mitchell’s Lady Sasquatch installation, it occurred to me that in all representations of Bigfoot I had ever seen, it is always presumed to be male. Why? Is it the hulking size or the copious body hair, both generally regarded as male traits? Mitchell utilizes both size and hair to redefine and recontextualize femaleness with these 10-foot, multi-breasted, genitally engorged monster-women. Covered with fake fur and standing around a campfire in poses inspired by Playboy, these sexy beasts have the power to simultaneously give children nightmares while giving adults the giggles. Mitchell employs the sasquatch myth to emphasize two widely reviled natural physical traits in women: big and hairy. They are in-your-face, lesbian feminist pin-ups: sexual and powerful, pushing against the absurd perceived standards of sexuality and thus crusading for female self-acceptance. The effect is both antagonistic and endearing.
Surrounding the plush giants are pink squirrels, each of them carrying a distinct personality that, I’m told, corresponds with the individual personalities of Mitchell’s former lovers. According to my tally, Mitchell has dated a confused mother; a lazy klutz; a pounce-on-you-while-you-are-doing-something-important type; a level-with-me-now type; a wide-faced, sexless type; an intellectual; a screamer; a fluffy; doe-eyed dame; an actress; a woman who recently came out of the closet; a sexpot; a large and irritable woman; an all-night talker; an attention junkie; and an heiress. They are by turns cute, bewildered and hostile, and provide a strange counterpoint to the giants whose realm they cohabit.
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Allyson Mitchell's installation at UB Art Gallery.