Patriarchosis, a term coined by Ann Roy, an American feminist, artist, and activist who lived in Mexico for over forty years, is the connective thread that brings together the works in this exhibition. Roy’s term refers to the mental impacts of patriarchal culture and its attendant abuses, oppressions, and repressions. By naming the condition, Roy believed both men and women can understand and repair its effects on society, relationships, power structures, and perceptions.
Roy’s archive, including photographs, writings and journals, was the starting point from which objects were selected and paired with photographs by Mary Ellen Mark, Judy Dater, Manuel Alvarez Bravo and Linda Connor. Crosses form out of laundry drying, Christ is reimagined in female form, a nude female body is partially obscured - these are the images that draw together to create a space where hierarchies are questioned, and ultimately reimagined to include possibilities for new modes and ways we can feel, think, know and be known.
This exhibition was curated by students in Emilie Upczak’s seminar in Cinema Studies. Over the course of a semester, students researched selected works from CUAM and from Rare and Distinctive Collections at the University Libraries. The curatorial team includes: Duncan Clyma, Davis Corazzari, Chloe Desue, Jacob Farley, Ella Gano-wyers, Ethan Geiger, Danny Arjona Hau, Elena Katz, Aidan Maloney, Carly Pereira, Nicholas Pope, Caity Rigas, Kayla Rose, Richie Simeone, Bailey Walker and Elinor Zugazagoitia. This exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Department of Cinema Studies and Moving Image Arts, the Rare and Distinctive Archive at the University Libraries, the University Art Museum and the Center for Documentary and Ethnographic Media.