Intro (The Writing's On the Wall)
Laylah Ali
Sofía Córdova
Nicki Green
Lauren Halsey
Masami Kubo
Zanele Muholi
Curated by Jackie Im
September 14 - October 21
Slide Space 123
Mills College
5000 MacArthur Boulevard
Oakland, CA 94612
Please don’t call me a woman artist.
Please don’t call me a woman philosopher.
Please don’t call me a female artist.
Please don’t call me a female philosopher.
- Adrian Piper, Dear Editor (January 1, 2003)
We are not simply one demographic or another. The different descriptors framing us may in part describe us, but the pictures they draw are incomplete. For some they become qualifiers making one a subset of the whole, addendums that keeps one from being referred to as what we desire to be. In 2003, Adrian Piper wrote a Letter to the Editor asking, “Please don’t call me a black artist. Please don’t call me a black philosopher. Please don’t call me an African American artist. Please don’t call me an African American philosopher.” Piper continues similarly asking not to be called a “woman artist,” a “black woman artist,” an “artist who happens to be black,” an “artist who happens to be female and African American,” and on and on. She concludes
I have earned the right to be called an artist.
I have earned the right to be called a philosopher.
I have earned the right to be called an artist and philosopher.
I have earned the right to be called a philosopher and artist.
I have earned the right to call myself anything I like.
Intro (The Writing’s on the Wall) will feature artists who grapple with how they are defined, whether by religion, race, gender, or sexual orientation. These artists address who they are, within and against the narrow confines of identity; how intersectionality can open new paths of thinking of the self.