Exhibition Review: Women at War, Fridman Gallery
© Dana Kavelina, Letter to a Turtledove, 2020_still 1
Written by Margarita Matta
Copy Edited by Parker Renick
Photo Edtied by Yanting Chen
The war in Ukraine has been the center of headlines for months; thus, it is no surprise that Fridman Gallery decided to present a collection of art addressing it. Refreshingly, however, the Fridman Gallery is shifting the narrative from domestic news to a perspective of those living through it. Also uniquely, this exhibition features the dual-perspective, examining the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and Russia’s 2022 invasion. The diversity of multimedia works combined with this exhibition's immensely impactful emotional vulnerability creates a new narrative from female artists that desperately needs to be shared.
© Alena Grom, Mother and Son. Mariinka, Donbas (Womb series), 2018
In her Womb series, Alena Grom shines a light on the chilling truth of motherhood during wartime. Her photograph Mother and Son is particularly poignant, featuring a mother holding her child in a doorway. Both mother and child are the only illuminated part of this image, contrasting from the dark, barren hallway they are placed in and the even darker room behind them. It radiates immense feelings of despair but also acts as a reminder that in this dark time, there is still the importance of family. However, how is the role of family dismantled during war? How can a mother safely protect her child and provide happiness? Grom’s image reminds us of the stark truth of the crisis in Ukraine and how this impacts those just like the mother pictured in Mother and Son.
© Dana Kavelina, we are all tied now (Exit to the Blind Spot series), 2019
Dana Kavelina also explores the role of womanhood and the narrative of the female sphere during wartime. Her piece We Are All Tied Now, part of her Exit to the Blind Spot series, is especially moving. The work features the sketch of a nude woman surrounded by hands connected by a red string, with the words we are all tied now written across her. Not just tied, Kavelina suggests in this work, but bound. Bound to the patriarchal sense of servitude exacerbated during the war, bound to the endless hopelessness associated with motherhood in such extreme poverty, bound to their endless subjugation. The vulnerability of the subject’s body shows the impact this has on Ukrainian women during a time when feminist ideals seem to be ignored completely.
© Yevgenia Belorusets, Victories of the Defeated_5, 2014-1018
Yevgenia Belorusets focuses on yet another aspect of women in the war, specifically those in the coal mining industry and other forms of labor. Her Victories of the Defeated series of photographs and texts speak immensely on these largely overlooked groups. One of her images shows a female coal miner, hand covering her hard hat flashlight as she looks into the camera, hair sticking to her face, and utter darkness surrounding her. The authenticity of this image presented by the subject’s eye contact helps to personify the women in this collection, seeing their faces up close and their hardship through a camera lens. Belorusets does an outstanding job of showing the honest, difficult, and overlooked lives of women working in the war.
© Yevgenia Belorusets, Victories of the Defeated_1, 2014-1018
The Women at War exhibition, curated by Monika Fabijanska, will be available for viewing from July 6 until August 26 at Fridman Gallery in New York City.
