For International Women’s Day We Served Pussies On A Platter
Judy Chicago create the feminist art piece “The Dinner Party” between 1974 and 1979. It’s this magnificent, majestic table shaped in a triangle in a dark room with spotlights focused on 39 plates. Each plate represented a woman, a heroine, a divinity. I was probably six or seven years old when I first saw this in the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, CT. Of course at that age, I really didn’t know what the plates represented, but when i viewed it again in high school, I figured it out. Since then I’ve seen it multiple times throughout my life, most recently at the Brooklyn Museum last week before, hosting my Pussy Plate Painting Party for International Women’s Day.
I’ve coordinated social justice events in the past. Some ideas were better than others, but this painting party, this idea to paint interpretations of vaginas on ceramics plates from Goodwill was my passion project I had for years and finally had the opportunity to conduct it. This was my tribute to Judy Chicago for introducing me to the concept of social justice creativity, to feminist art, and being unapologetically female.
International Women’s Day in my mind could not just be for women, but for all gender. And what better way to bring people together than with some crafts and food on the table. Dinner is usually a time where people can relax, have casual conversation about current events, the latest films, or a bad joke you heard. You can laugh and enjoy each other’s company. Painting is an activity that allows individuals to express themselves, but also bring a meditative state of quiet and focus. When you combine something that bond people together with something so intimate as a woman’s vulva, you are creating a space of intimacy for a group of strangers that will impact many of them significantly.
We had fifteen people; three female software engineers, a male non-profit executive director, two female artists visiting from Spain, a female journalist from Japan, a male feminist, a UN advocacy and so on. We had hours of deep conversation about happiness, sex, genders beyond just male and female etc. It was most fascinating observing the men, as they mixed paints to create new colors, sipping their tea as they view their plates from different angles and speak their desire for gender equality, express their concerns for the future of their daughters and admit their own lack of efforts and maturity in the movement.
By the end of the night looking down at our pussy plates full of color, detail and empowerment, the group of strangers, felt good about their finished work, conversation and the future of humanity.
