MB Cinematheque Presents The F Word
Wednesday, Nov 30, 5:30 PM – 8 PM
Miami Beach Cinematheque
1130 Washington Ave
Miami Beach, Florida 33139
Miami Beach Cinematheque is proud to present Robert Adanto’s documentary The F Word, in association with Fourth Wave Feminist: The Photographic Works of Leah Schrager, this year’s Art Basel exhibition, curated by Robert Adanto. The reception for this exhibition, takes place Wednesday, November 30 at 5:30pm, and will be followed by a 6:30pm screening of The F Word.
The F Word explores radical “4th wave” feminist performance through interviews with a new generation of feminist artists who use their bodies as subject matter. Because the female body continues to be politicized and policed, and because these artists delve into the fecund territory of female sexuality, self-objectification, and the female form as a site of resistance, many remain marginalized by the mainstream art world. Brooklyn-based Leah Schrager, well known for her performance practice, Naked Therapy, states, “As soon as you introduce a bit of sexiness or sexuality into an artwork it suddenly becomes questionable. Just because something elicits arousal or shows elements of sexiness does absolutely not make it not art.” While some 4th wave artists, like Ann Hirsch and Kate Durbin, choose to analyze representations of female identity through digital media, others, like the radical, queer, transnational feminist art collective, Go! Push Pops, explore sexuality and gender in pop culture in the digital age. As feminist lecturer Kristen Sollee explains, 4th wavers, unlike their predecessors, “are not afraid to be ‘girly’, (or) to be hyper-feminine, or to wear a mini-skirt, to self-objectify” in the service of challenging patriarchal oppression or sexist ideals.
Featured artists: Narcissister, Ann Hirsch, Go! Push Pops, Leah Schrager, Kate Durbin, Rebecca Goyette, Rachel Mason, Rafia Santana, Damali Abrams, Faith Holland, Claudia Bitran, Michelle Charles, and Sadaf
Adanto’s film was screened at Dallas Contemporary, in association with Black Sheep Feminism: The Art of Sexual Politics, an exhibition exploring the works of Joan Semmel, Anita Steckel, Betty Tompkins and Cosey Fanni Tutti, curated by Alison Gingeras, and as part of The Guerrilla Girls Twin City Takeover in Minneapolis at the Walker Art Center. In adddition, the documentary was screened in assoction with Cut-Up: Contemporary Collage and Cut-Up Histories through a Feminist Lens at Franklin Street Works, in Stamford, CT. The film was an Official Selection of the Fort Lauderdale International, The Art of Brooklyn, and Downtown Los Angeles Film Festivals, respectively, and has been presented at The Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, UK; School of Visual Arts, New York, NY; Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN; Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA; and Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME. In the coming weeks, The F Word will be screened at the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University and the Institute for Research on Women & Gender at the University of Michigan.
