Printed Matter, Inc. is pleased to announce an exhibition featuring the work of fierce pussy,
a collective comprised of a group of queer women committed to creating
public art and performing direct action around issues of lesbian
identity and visibility. The opening reception and book launch for fierce pussy will take place on Saturday, April 5, 2008 from 5 – 7 PM. Printed Matter is located at 195 Tenth Avenue (between 21st and 22nd Street).
Active in New York City from 1991 to 1995, fierce pussy
was composed of a fluid and often-shifting cadre of dykes. Core members
included Pam Brandt, Nancy Brooks Brody, Joy Episalla, Alison Froling,
Zoe Leonard, Suzanne Wright, and Carrie Yamaoka. Adamantly low-tech,
fast and low-budget, fierce pussy relied on modest resources:
old typewriters, found photographs, their own baby pictures, and
whatever material they could get donated. Much of the work was produced
using the equipment at their day jobs. Emerging during a decade steeped
in the AIDS crisis, activism, and queer identity politics, fierce pussy
brought lesbian identity directly out into the streets in a manner
characterized by the urgency of those years.
fierce pussy wheatpasted their posters and printed
and distributed stickers and t-shirts throughout the city. Their other
projects included re-designing the bathroom at the Gay and Lesbian
Center, a greeting card campaign directed against the policies of
Cardinal O’Connor and Senator D’Amato, and a moving billboard/truck.
For Gay Pride 1991, fierce pussy re-named streets along the parade
route after prominent lesbian heroines using stenciled and
spray-painted street signs.
The exhibition will feature a survey of fierce pussy's
posters as well as stickers and postcards. Also included is archival
material such as photo documentation and newspaper articles as well as
source materials and original artwork for the collective's campaigns.
Saturday’s event will also serve as the launch for fierce pussy, a self-titled book of posters published by Printed Matter and fierce pussy in conjunction with the exhibition. The publication reproduces 16 classic posters from fierce pussy
in an over-sized format with spiral binding, such that the reader can
tear out a poster and install it wherever she wishes. fierce pussy
encourages the dissemination of its posters worldwide.
The exhibition announcement is a remix of one of the collective’s
earlier posters. A postcard edition of this poster was made especially
for the exhibition and the collective’s much-coveted fierce pussy
toilet paper has been re-editioned as well.
The poster book, postcards, and toilet paper edition are available at www.printedmatter.org and at our storefront in New York City.
For additional information, please contact AA Bronson at aabronson @ printedmatter.org
Printed Matter,
Inc. is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in
1976 by artists and art workers with the mission to foster the
appreciation, dissemination, and understanding of artists' books and
other artists' publications.
Printed Matter,
Inc. has received support, in part, through grants from the National
Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New
York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Altria Group Inc, the Milton
& Sally Avery Arts Foundation, The Cowles Charitable Trust, the
Foundation for Contemporary Arts, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation,
The Gesso Foundation, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, the
Schoenstadt Family Foundation, The Roy and Niuta Titus Foundation, The
Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and individuals worldwide.
Printed Matter,
Inc.
195 Tenth Avenue
New York, NY 10011
www.printedmatter.org
T: 212
925 0325
F: 212 925 0464
