In a world constantly pushing for ideological upheaval, the battle between feminism and masculism isn’t just a clash of opinions, but a necessary battle that must continue in order for equality to form.

This was the main idea behind my exhibition project, which was a piece of conceptual art designed to get the observer to think about the past, present, and future of gender roles in society.

This was my station on exhibition night. Here you can see the art piece and artist’s statement on the right, with the balloons that viewers could add or pop on the ledge of the whiteboard.

My art piece aimed to bridge the views of feminists and masculists to demonstrate the ideal societal dynamic in a way that someone on both sides of the coin can understand equally. Through the people that I interacted with over the course of exhibition night, I think that I was successful in my effort to make my art piece this way, having people from diverse perspectives come and ask about my art. I do wish that we had been placed in a higher traffic area, as we were placed sort of out of the way at the end a hallway that few people walked through.

My art focus for this project was not on the ideas of feminism but instead, on the powerful effect that they can and needs to have on society in order to achieve real equality. I incorporated the interactive aspect of my art piece with the idea of using the art as an analogy for the real world. I wanted the people to see two sides of a conflict, and how they can work together to create a successful resolution. When doing this, I wanted to make sure that the person interacting with my art knew that it isn’t easy, though. That’s why I chose to use balloons that would be near impossible to perfectly balance.

In Vox by Christina Dalcher, the book that my group for the exhibition read, the patriarchy rules with an iron fist, dragging the women down, much like the blue balloons do in my art, but the reverse can also be true. If we, or even the world of Vox overcorrect after overcoming the oppression of one gender, then the sides will have flipped and the new group in power will be just as bad as the last one. The ending of this vicious cycle is embedded right in the middle of it.

Overall I’m proud of the thinking and work that was put into this project, especially how I was able to incorporate the physical interactiveness of my art to show people how complex and difficult to resolve and far reaching the issue of gender equality really is.