At YWCA, women find a place at the table of art

The title A Place at the Table might mislead one to think this exhibit features tables—close, but not quite. The women artists of this show interpret what surrounds the table: chairs. A table—a kitchen table in particular—can be construed as a domestic object. For many generations, the home was the environment of women. These “chairscapes” cast off some of that household relationship, to consider places or spaces that women might inhabit, or have been excluded from entering.

Presented in a circle, the chairs represent a conference of sorts. The whole thing began as a project of Women’s Caucus for Art. WCA is a national group, whose local members created the work for this show. Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom created “Listen to Women for a Change,” which shows multicultural women in a “World Peace Congress.” FALCON (Female Artists Labyrinth for Community, Organization and Networking) built a phenomenal falcon look-alike embracing a throne for women artists. Written phrases speckle the assemblage, with thoughts and affirmations about being an artist in what has historically been a male venue: “Anonymous was a woman,” and the like.

Clearly, women have felt marginalized in the art world. This exclusion happens other places too, like in politics, as shown by WILPF, and in sports. “Benched” by Mary Eileen Sorenson similarly uses text: “Girls can’t be batboys,” and so on. The colors of her work are lighthearted, though, and celebrate how the world has changed, rather than complain about how far we have to go.

“River” by Liz Dodson is a streamlined, steel sculpture that exudes more language, but this one is audio. The tiny television screen implanted in the backrest shows various women and girls sharing words and stories. “River” helps to frame the experience of the entire showcase, as a carrier of messages, poetry and personal story. A viewer cannot help but unconsciously attribute characteristics of what she hears to what she sees; the first thing I heard was a young girl saying, “My mother is a walking dream.” Voila - that’s the show in a sound byte. At least for me, one phrase can unpack all the imagery associated with it.

One gorgeous piece features two sides, both with a woman observing a young girl. The figures that are faceless, where the viewer sees the subjects from behind, could be any-woman and any child. The anonymity appeals, so that one can really jump into the subject’s identity. Upon first consideration, the woman may seem to be the mother of the child. The artist, Deborah McWatters Padgett, twists it up. She explains in her artist statement that she visualized the elder as a woman watching a younger version of herself. Imagining this can be a nostalgic, uncanny experience, as doubtless many of us wish we could tell a few things to our younger selves. But all we can do is reflect on how we struggled, or reached, as the young girl is doing almost precariously, in this collage, titled “Child is Mother to the Woman.”

More than just chairs, these sculptures serve as altars to the possibility of what makes a woman. Some women are paying homage to their ancestors. Jill Waterhouse’s piece, “Out of the Earth Like Iron,” venerates her family of lumberjacks. The simple wooden chair becomes a painful seat through use of hundreds of small nails jutting upward off the surface. In ancestral retrospect, our families are mysteries, little more than distilled histories of names and occupations; Waterhouse reveals her desire to see them clearly, and to “bring them into focus sharply, like the tip of a nail.” The wince-worthy thought of sitting in that chair could force one to admit that women’s positions in society, seated or standing, have not been the coziest.

Nouka Yang wants to make women’s spaces in the world a little more comfortable. Her traditional Hmong chair, set on beautiful, glossy pine, has been modified with a cushion and cover. The colorful felt of the cover asserts itself boldly, like the title “I’m Here.”

Indeed, women artists are here; they’ve arrived into their own space. And it doesn’t appear they’re going to be sitting down any time soon.

A Place at the Table runs through Aug. 27 at the Downtown YWCA. 1130 Nicollet Mall, Mpls. 612-332-0501.