published in: Cynthia Leung publication, 2008 and Modern Painters March 2007,



Cynthia Leung publication, 2008
"What was one of the first experiences where you first felt feminism?"

... felt feminism...

This vague question can be understood in a few different ways; the most straight forward interpretation of feminism as the -ism, or the movement, at its peak in the seventies, another that feeling of injustice set on because of your specific genetic setting, followed by communal bonding between people of the same setting - what we call the feminine sex. The question might be related to feeling feminine, which may include, or exclude specific make-up or clothing accessories as far as social expectancy goes.

When I was six years old, I walked home from pre-school and rang my door bell as usual. Someone opened the door as usual. This person was my mom, but today with shining henna-red hair. I got so scared at the sight of her that tears were hanging from my eyes. She had recently cut off her long hair and permed it into smallish wild curls. This time it was even more alienating, I could hardly recognize her. I could tell she was excited. I thought it was about her new hair.

It revealed her newly gained liberation as a 'Red Stocking'. In Sweden, the feminists called themselves 'Red Stockings'. Perhaps to allude to the red hair many of these women had in common. The passionate color of red connected them with the red of the communists. The stocking reference functioned as an idea of domestic marching, in protest.

My mom, like so many of these women, did not only get rid of her old hair, she got rid of her identity as a house wife. As part of this idea for equality, she joined the workforce, and within months of this incident she divorced my father, who like so many men his age, then thought it unnecessary for her to enter into this reality, whether it was about a new hair cut or a new way of life.

Standing there on the stoop, petrified of her bright red head, my mom assured me. She asked if I wanted to touch her hair. This was the first time I felt feminism.




Modern Painters March 2007
How has a specific work that's been labeled feminist directly influenced your practice?


Feminist art; as passČ as blackface vaudeville. A female, here I'm asked to cement this dated handicap pseudo-label, which really is a civil-rights issue. I once saw Douglas Crimp speak on Sherri Levine's re-photographs of Walker Evans's nude sons, which Crimp owned. Hung in his bedroom, they provoked a lover's estranged response. Socially trafficked, this image reiterated prefabricated identity containers: Evans's exploiting father, Levine's care-taking female, Crimp's potentially pedophiliac gay man - so remember, there is an image inside the frame, not only a surround gesture. Levine's piece resulted in a dismissed court case that plunged ownership into a mise-en-abyme; while copyright increasingly infringes on our right to play with images, regardless of, gender, geek status, generation or geographic location.