A Comparative Analysis of Guerrilla Girls and Anya Kivarkis - Essay Example

With other major concerns such as economic crisis, war between nations, and population growth, who would pay immediate notice to the fact that behind the aesthetic beauty of an art piece, a battle is being fought against sexism and racism for the sake of the underrepresented artists? While it may be too delicate an issue to dwell on the surface as to draw public attention on a larger scale, strong advocates of gender and racial equality like the Guerrilla Girls, as they call themselves could not but admit silence is a shame and argue: “You don’t have to have a penis to be a genius” (Guerrilla Girls 202). 

         Most of us may claim to possess different perspectives on the matter and plainly express that besides the problematic social and cultural structure which governs how inequality prevails among sexes and races, other deeper troubles deserve a more adequate focus. However, our attitude of ignoring the issue that merely about ten percent of museums or galleries consist of art exhibitions by women and artists of color can be held accountable for the existence of all other chief worries that fail to be attended to in proper terms due to insights and ways of living that maintain their racist and patriarchal nature. As long as their lives lack empowerment for women and non-whites, it is self-evident that equilibrium and harmony would not settle right where they ought to be unless a balance is struck somewhere for a significant realization that in professing to improve a nation, both sexes regardless of race must come in front to execute equal control of change and progress. Upon thorough examination of the article, I suppose this is the ultimate goal that sustains the principal reason of the Guerrilla Girls for continuing to be “the conscience of the art world (203).” 

         I admire the Guerrilla Girls for their feminist and anti-racist stance since the 80s especially because despite the gorilla masks they wear for anonymity and the rather annoying taunting style of protest for the main cause, they demonstrate an unconventional approach of hurling insults at prominent sexist and racist figures alike. Having waved their banner with jest-filled pronouncements of deviation from what they perceive as sickening norms of injustice within race and gender, such female organization serves as a degree of innovation to radical feminist groups whose overly serious actions on meeting similar ends cost lives and immunity to the point of dormancy. This is widely evident via the controversial works which earned them huge critique via statements and efforts as “When Racism & Sexism Are No Longer Fashionable, What Will Your Art Collection Be Worth?” and the gradual transformation of the Whitney Museum Biennials which used to practice racial and sexual exclusion (204).

         By injecting a concept of provocative humor into ideals, the Guerrilla Girls manage to have weaved an object of interest to which art supporters become naturally drawn. Among the recent fruits of their endeavor I believe was Anya Kivarkis, the recipient of the Sienna Gallery Emerging Artist Award in 2007 for creations like ‘Blind Spot’, ‘Neo-Palatial: Objects of Virtue and Vice’, and ‘Extreme Beauty’. I feel that her projects reflect how the political struggle of the Guerrilla Girls has truly paid off for females, her expertise in the field of jewelry and metalsmithing produced a profound work of art. To me, the fine details of the classic brooch with erudite design in Anya’s collection appear to bear great elegance whereas the fashioned lost jewels make a similarly exquisite view as they collectively embody the idea of women in high society hold as precious.

         In my observation, Anya’s work is deprived of subjects related to males in reference to the inner value of her art. Instead, it seems only possible to think of man’s involvement therein by considering somehow that men provide to women what the latter are disposed to love the most so that the gems, the metal pieces, the stones, and other materials of high cost are brought together to arrive at something that is intended to recognize a woman’s expensive worth. The overall uniqueness of quality and beauty in the exhibited artistic consequences of Anya’s studio practice, I should say, is bound to justify the Guerrilla Girls’ primary position on stating with comic relief “You don’t have to have a penis to be a genius