Show puts women artists in the picture

In Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House, the heroine Nora slams the door of the house as she leaves her family and declares her independence, after becoming disillusioned with her husband.

Nobody knows what happens after Nora's departure. Future Exodus, an exhibition focusing on works by female artists in Changjiang Art Museum in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, tries to explore an answer through artistic expression.

Centered on the works of 12 Chinese artists, all women, the ongoing show displays paintings, sculptures, installations, videos, photos and multimedia artworks, which, in the eyes of the curator Zhu Yujie, is a kind of artistic exploration to find the answer to what happens after an "exodus".

"Now that literature doesn't offer an answer, we may find it from art. I borrow the concept of leaving from Ibsen. It's women artists getting rid of the bias and finding their position in society," says Zhu, who has focused on female artists in recent years.

In the past three years, Zhu has held four exhibitions concentrating on works by female artists in major cities in China. Her last show Metaphor and Gaze, held in Shenzhen's La Vie Art Center earlier last year, explored women's real desires, conundrums, confusion and anxieties from various levels and perspectives.

Zhu says there's a gender stereotype that female artists are easily influenced by their emotions, and that the subjects of their works are limited to individual sensations. There's even a belief that women will stop creating art once they fall in love with someone, get married or give birth.

The current show at Changjiang Art Museum offers a glimpse into what women artists think about by empowering themselves with creative imagination.

"They actively record what happens in society in a very sensitive yet, avant-garde way. Sometimes, they play the role of prophet to show their perception of the future," says Zhu.

Chen Wen, director of Changjiang Art Museum, says that artists featured in the exhibition demonstrate their understanding of the world through their daily observations, and their powerful expressions in art are often ignored by a world dominated by men.

Yang Xi, one of the featured artists, uses synthetic fabric to create sculptures that look like things forged from metal. They look hard and powerful in appearance. However, when touched, they are soft, just like the artist herself, says Zhu. In her eyes, women can be soft, yet hard.

Painter Zhou Li displays her Spring series at the show to record the "missing springtime" of the past few years when she was locked down at home due to the pandemic. The painter depicts, on canvas, her imagination of spring through abstract lines and bright colors.

Wang Weisi's installation Lo-Fi discusses the concept of home in the era of information and technology. She erects a tent made of discarded things such as clothes and sheets.

What do we really need at home when we are bombarded by goods promoted by consumerism? And what's our relationship with home, when we're building a virtual world? Questions of this nature are what concern the artist, and she tries to find the answers in her work.

Zhou Hehe's sculptures are huge in size and exude a sense of power. Her works on show, Matrix and Energy Tower, remind viewers of the aftermath of a volcanic eruption, accompanied by thunder and lightning. For Zhou, it represents the repeated process of life's destruction and rebirth. She also produced a row of sculptures, each in the shape of human lungs, to encourage viewers to reflect on the impact of COVID-19.

Zhou's father is established oil painter Zhou Chunya, whose works always fetch big sums at auction and are collected by key museums across the world. Often asked how her father has influenced her work, she tries hard to give a direct answer by displaying very different art to that of his paintings.

After giving birth, Zhou took a creative hiatus for several years. Now, however, she has resumed her art and is once again actively taking part in exhibitions.

When the show was under preparation, Zhou resolved lots of difficulties caused by tough pandemic control policies to install her works at the exhibition space in person.

"Girls help girls. Zhou offers firm support to my show, which centers on female artists," says Zhu, adding that, in order to take part in the show, the artist refused other invitations.

Zhu says that if one needs to hold a show to center on female artists, it means that women are still not in an equal position with men. She advocates that curators provide more opportunities to females and invite more women to take part in their group shows.

Zhu is very glad to see that the majority of more than 200 artists taking part in last year's Venice Biennale — one of the world's leading art events — were female. "Society is improving, but we still need more effort," she says.