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Lesbian feminist art activist collective fierce pussy was founded in 1991 in New York City.[1][2] It is committed to art action in association with the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power.[3][4] The group uses lower case letters for their name in part because it is non-hierarchical.[5] fierce pussy, as a collective, speaks of themselves as a singular person.[2] This is consistent in an interview on their 2018-19 window installation at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art. In the interview, fierce pussy states that “you don’t need to refer to us as individual artists, all responses from our side are by fierce pussy. We are fierce pussy.”[6]

Background

In 1991, a group of New York City lesbians formed 'fierce pussy' to address issues of lesbian identity and visibility. All of its members were involved in AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT UP) to fight the AIDS pandemic. Low-tech and low budget, the collective responded to the urgency of those years, using readily available resources: old typewriters, found photographs, their own baby pictures, and the printing supplies and equipment accessible in their day jobs.

Originally fierce pussy was composed of a fluid and often shifting cadre of dykes including Pam Brandt, Jean Carlomusto, Donna Evans, Alison Froling, and Suzanne Wright. Many other women came to an occasional meeting, and joined in to wheat paste, stencil and sticker. Since 2008, four of the original core members—Nancy Brooks Brody, Joy Episalla, Zoe Leonard, and Carrie Yamaoka—continue to work together.

One of fierce pussy's more well-known projects was the use of wheat-pasted posters and crack-and-peel stickers that were interspersed throughout New York City. In addition, their other projects included re-designing the bathroom at the Gay and Lesbian Center, a greeting card campaign, a video public service announcement, a moving billboard truck, and renaming the street signs along the New York City Gay Pride route in 1991 after prominent lesbian heroines. Since 2008, their work has appeared in various installations and exhibitions in New York City. Their site specific installation, "For The Record", was part of the exhibit Greater New York in 2015.[7]

Projects and exhibits

9 posters in windows with childhood photographs and text reclaiming anti-queer slurs
AND SO ARE YOU on view at the Leslie Lohman Museum in New York City from 2018 - 2019

While fierce pussy was most active between 1991 and 1995, their work is still exhibited as historic examples of AIDS-related art and lesbian-identified art. In 1994 the lesbian feminist art collective created the “Bathroom Project.” This installation resided in a woman’s bathroom in what used to be called the New York Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center (present-day Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Community Center). This installation was created to add to the exhibition “Outhouses.”[1] From 2008 to 2010 at the Lesbian Herstory Archives, fierce pussy presented an overview of their old work in addition to a new installation entitled Mining the Archive, in which objects from the archive were utilized. In addition, fierce pussy contributed their display to the White Columns featured exhibit ACT UP New York: Activism, Art, and the AIDS crisis, 1987-1993. This exhibition was revived at Harvard University's Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts in 2009.[8] When the exhibition moved to White Columns, they were commissioned to make the installation called "Get Up Everybody and Sing." In 2009, fierce pussy created an installation called “Are you a boy or girl?” A permanent installation that resides in a gender-neutral bathroom within the LGBT Community Center in New York.[9] This work was made as a part of the “Then and Now” exhibition, presumably since the installation is reminiscent of their first bathroom installation “Bathroom Project.” In 2010, fierce pussy created "Get Up Everybody and Sing" for the White Columns presentation of the ACT UP New York exhibition; in 2015, VisualAIDS made this exhibit available under the name "For the Record". Fierce pussy has made an overview retrospective of their older work available at Printed Matter,[9] which also published the book fierce pussy.[10]

In 2018, fierce pussy presented a year-long, site-specific installation entitled "AND SO ARE YOU" at the Leslie Lohman Museum in New York City.[11] The wheat-pasted[9] installation included original poster designs from the early 1990s, and remixed and new work.[12] Of "AND SO ARE YOU," the collective states, “Historically, public space has held a contradiction for queer people: on the one hand we have been invisible and on the other hand we are frequently the target of violence in public. Part of the impulse in making this work has been to let other queer people know that we are here, that queer people are everywhere—simply put, we make ourselves visible.”[13] In 2019, fierce pussy was awarded the PAD Award for achievement in the field of public art,[14] presented by Public Art Dialogue, an affiliate of the College Art Association. The work was commissioned by the Leslie Lohman Museum as part of their QUEERPOWER public art program.[15]

Posters and documentation of fierce pussy's collective work were on view in a "living archive"[16] alongside works from the members' individual studio practices in arms ache avid aeon: Nancy Brooks Brody / Joy Episalla / Zoe Leonard / Carrie Yamaoka: fierce pussy amplified.[17][18] Its first four chapters of were on view at the Beeler Gallery at Columbus College of Art & Design from fall 2018 to spring 2019.[19][20][21][22] The fifth chapter was on view at the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in the fall of 2019.[23][24] The exhibit was curated by Jo-ey Tang[25] Their work is in the International Center of Photography collection in New York City.[26]

References

  1. ^ "Fierce Pussy collection 1991-1994". New York Public Library. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
  2. ^ a b O’Neill-Butler, Lauren (February 2019). "Labor of Love: Lauren O'Neill-Butler on the Art of Fierce Pussy". Artforum. Archived from the original on 24 May 2023. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  3. ^ ""ACT UP New York: Activism, Art, and the AIDS Crisis, 1987–1993"". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2017-03-14.
  4. ^ Kim, Susie Y. (16 October 2009). "Re-Act: Presenting visual media from the AIDS activist movement, "ACT UP New York" hopes to spark dialogue on campus". The Harvard Crimson. Archived from the original on 29 May 2023. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  5. ^ "Queering the Walls: An Interview with fierce pussy | Public Art Dialogue". publicartdialogue.org. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
  6. ^ Ansari, Rehan (4 August 2019). "Interview: Fierce Pussy". Curve Magazine. Archived from the original on 24 May 2023. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  7. ^ "Greater New York". MoMA PS1. The Museum of Modern Art. 2015. Archived from the original on 24 February 2017.
  8. ^ Kivrak, Pelin; Sonia Coman (16 November 2009). "Act Up Revived at Harvard: In the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, ignorance is not bliss". The Harvard Independent. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  9. ^ a b c Khatib, Khalid El (6 June 2018). "After 27 Years, fierce pussy Is Still Making Inescapable Lesbian Art". Them. Archived from the original on 24 May 2023. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  10. ^ "Foundation Interview with fierce pussy in Curve Magazine". Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation. 9 May 2019. Archived from the original on 12 August 2021. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  11. ^ Hill, Eli (2018-11-30). "The Lesbian Artists Who Reclaim Homophobic Slurs with Provocative Posters". Artsy. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
  12. ^ Juhasz, Alexandra (7 September 2018). "Power in Diversity: fierce pussy". Bomb Magazine (interview). Archived from the original on 16 July 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  13. ^ "fierce pussy AND SO ARE YOU, 1991-2018". Leslie Lohman Museum.
  14. ^ "Queering the Walls: An Interview with fierce pussy | Public Art Dialogue". publicartdialogue.org. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
  15. ^ "ARTNEWS: Grantee Leslie-Lohman Museum Commissions Fierce Pussy for Window Installation". Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation. 30 April 2018. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
  16. ^ "arms ache avid aeon: Nancy Brooks Brody/ Joy Episalla/ Zoe Leonard/ Carrie Yamaoka: fierce pussy amplified". Art in America Guide. 2019-07-22. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
  17. ^ "BROAD AND HIGH: fierce pussy Clip: Season 6 Episode 9". PBS.
  18. ^ ""arms ache avid aeon: fierce pussy amplified" at Beeler Gallery (Contemporary Art Daily)". contemporaryartdaily.com. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
  19. ^ "arms ache avid aeon: Chapter One". Beeler Gallery. 2018-11-28. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
  20. ^ "arms ache avid aeon: Chapter Two". Beeler Gallery. 2018-11-28. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
  21. ^ "arms ache avid aeon: Chapter Three". Beeler Gallery. 2019-02-16. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
  22. ^ "arms ache avid aeon: Chapter Four". Beeler Gallery. 2019-02-27. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
  23. ^ "arms ache avid aeon: Nancy Brooks Brody / Joy Episalla / Zoe Leonard / Carrie Yamaoka: fierce pussy amplified - ICA Philadelphia". Institute of Contemporary Art - Philadelphia, PA. 2019-08-03. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
  24. ^ "Visual AIDS | arms ache avid aeon: Nancy Brooks Brody / Joy Episalla…". Visual AIDS. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
  25. ^ ""arms ache avid aeon: Nancy Brooks Brody, Joy Episalla, Zoe Leonard, Carrie Yamaoka: fierce pussy amplified" at Beeler Gallery at Columbus College of Art & Design •". Mousse Magazine (in Italian). 2019-03-07. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
  26. ^ "fierce pussy". International Center of Photography. 2016-03-02. Retrieved 2022-12-03.
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