Franklin Street Works Hosts Screening of 'The F Word'

From Franklin Street Works:

Franklin Street Works, a not-for-profit art space and café in Stamford, Connecticut, presents Robert Adanto's documentary film “The F Word” at the Stamford Innovation Center. The movie explores radical “4th wave” feminist performance through interviews with a new generation of feminist artists who use their bodies as subject matter. This public event will take place 7:00pm on Saturday, March 26, at the Stamford Innovation Center and includes a post screening Q & A featuring: director, Robert Adanto; scholar and curator Dr. Kathy Battista; and two of the film’s featured artists Leah Schrager and Katie Cercone of Go! Push Pops. There will be a public cocktail reception at Franklin Street Works prior to the screening from 5:30 – 6:30 where people can view the current, feminist themed, exhibition “Cut-Up: Contemporary Collage and Cut-Up Histories through a Feminist Lens” and meet the panelists in a casual setting. The two downtown venues are a 10-minute-walk or short drive from each other. The event is free with a suggested donation of $5.

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.

Dr. Kathy Battista, Director of Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, New York and author of Re-negotiating the Body: Feminist Artists in 1970s London (IB Tauris, 2012), is an on-screen expert, as are noted art critic and curator, Nancy Princenthal, and feminist lecturer, Kristen Sollee.

Featured Artists are: 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.

ABOUT ROBERT ADANTO

Robert Adanto, a classically trained actor, earned his M.F.A. in Acting from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and currently heads the Film & TV Production program at NSU’s University School. His films have been Official Selections at more than fifty international film festivals and have enjoyed screenings at The Smithsonian Institution's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; The Museum of Fine Arts Boston; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); The National Center for Contemporary Art in Moscow; The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto; The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles; The Worcester Art Museum, MA; The Tel Aviv Museum of Art and others. He made his directorial debut with The Rising Tide (2008), a feature-length documentary exploring the explosive Chinese contemporary art scene. Pearls on the Ocean Floor (2010), his second feature, examines the lives and works of Iranian female artists living and working in and outside the Islamic Republic. Featuring interviews with art luminaries Shirin Neshat and Shadi Ghadirian, Pearls on the Ocean Floor received the Bronze Palm Award for Best Documentary at the 2011 edition of the Mexican International Film Festival and the Spirit of Independents Award at the 2012 Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. Adanto’s 2014, City of Memory explores Hurricane Katrina’s impact on the lives of visual artists from New Orleans. His newest film, “The F Word,” focuses on “4th wave” feminist artists who, among other tactics, use their bodies as subject matter in their work. Among other screenings, The F Word was recently presented as part of the Guerrilla Girls Twin City Takeover at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and at Dallas Contemporary, in association with Black Sheep Feminism: The Art of Sexual Politics, an exhibition curated by Alison Gingeras.

ABOUT FRANKLIN STREET WORKS

Franklin Street Works is a not-for-profit contemporary art space whose mission is to manifest contemporary art projects in a professional and welcoming setting. Franklin Street Works aims to broaden community participation in the arts, contribute to a larger arts dialogue, and cultivate emerging artists. To date, the organization has exhibited the work of more than 250 artists, curated 20 original exhibitions, and organized approximately 100 programs, including talks, tours, and performances. Exhibitions have received accolades, including a two-year grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, funds from the City of Stamford, a matching grant from Fairfield County’s Community Foundation, and Mertz Gilmore Foundation.

GETTING THERE AND ACCESSIBILITY:

STAMFORD INNOVATION CENTER

The Stamford Innovation Center is conveniently located at 175 Atlantic St in downtown Stamford, Connecticut. The Innovation Center can easily be reached by car or public transit and is a ten-minute walk from the Stamford train station. If you drive, there are several available parking options, including the Bell Street Garage and the outdoor municipal lot, also on Bell Street. When the Stamford Town Center is open, it costs $1 for 0-2 hours, $3 for 2-3 hours, and $4 for 3-4 hours. Street parking is free after 7PM. For those in need of handicap access, there is a ground floor entrance on Bank Street with an elevator. Please press buzzer and someone will unlock that entrance from the front desk. If no one responds, please call 203-226-8701.

FRANKLIN STREET WORKS

Franklin Street Works is located at 41 Franklin Street in downtown Stamford, Connecticut, near the UCONN campus and less than one hour from New York City via Metro North. Franklin Street Works is approximately one mile (a 15 minute walk) from the Stamford train station. On street parking is available on Franklin Street (metered until 7 pm except on Sunday), and paid parking is available nearby in a lot on Franklin Street and in the Summer Street Garage (100 Summer Street), behind Target.

Franklin Street Works has a temporary ramp for accessing our gallery. Please call the main landline during gallery hours 203-595-5211 or call Creative Director Terri Smith's cell at 203-253-0404 or email Terri Smith at terri@franklinstreetworks.org to use the ramp. The ramp is in the back entrance is up a curb, across approximately 4 feet of mulch from the next door parking lot which is accessible from the sidewalk. Plywood is available to cover the mulch and to create a lip to help get over the short curb. Once inside there is an elevator available. Bathrooms are large and clear but do not have access bars. Franklin Street Works is in the process of installing a permanent walkway and plans to finish our ramp in 2016.

The art space and café are open to the public on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from noon – 5:00pm and on Saturday and Sunday café is open from 8:00 am - 5:00pm with the exhibition opening at 11:30 am. Franklin Street Works does not charge for admission during regular gallery hours.