There’s still time to catch Oakton Community College’s Bodies by Design: Modification, Coercion, and Resistance, a unique exhibition featuring more than 60 local, national, and international artists who reflect on the ways in which women alter their bodies – by choice or necessity. The free exhibit at Oakton’s Koehnline Museum, 1600 East Golf Road, Des Plaines, closes Friday, October 25.
Gendered embodiment has always been plastic: we adorn ourselves with piercings and tattoos; bind, confine, and refine our contours; and learn to move in and out of step with societal expectations. Today, consumer society places unprecedented pressure on women and men to conform, while the proliferation of subcultures allows for ever more outrageous inventions and expressions. Bodies by Design, sponsored by the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Oakton, in cooperation with the College’s art museum, includes pieces by an eclectic array of women artists who are engaged with this issue, asking, “How do we survive and thrive in these extraordinary times?”
“We are thrilled not only by the beauty of the works in this year’s show, but also by their depth of content,” said Kathleen Carot, Oakton’s Women’s and Gender Studies coordinator. “People who attend the show will not only find much to admire, but also will leave with a great deal to think about. This year’s artists really outdid themselves.”
The Koehnline Museum of Art is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m., and Saturday, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
The exhibition is sponsored in part by a generous grant from the Oakton Educational Foundation.
For more information, visit www.oakton.edu/wgs or contact Kathleen Carot at (847) 376-7061, or kcarot@oakton.edu.
