Marilyn Minter and Laurie Simmons Are Raising Funds for Reproductive Rights With the Star-Powered Show ‘Abortion Is Normal’

For states around the nation, 2019 was a year of stunningly
restrictive abortion legislation. The new laws have faced backlash
on the streets and in court—and also in art galleries.

“Ban after ban was coming out,” Rebecca Pauline Jampol,
co-director of the Newark arts nonprofit Project for Empty Space, told Artnet News.
It was in March and she and her colleague Jasmine Wahi had
just heard news that Alabama passed a law essentially making
all abortions in the state illegal. “We were feeling really sad and
defeated, but we did what we always do and kind of stopped
everything to create actionable programming.” (PES launched a
feminist incubator artist residency and exhibition program in the
immediate aftermath of the 2016 presidential election.)

They called artist Marilyn Minter, who immediately brought on
board photographer Laurie Simmons, arts publicist Gina Nanni, and
art historian Sandy Tait to help organize a two-part exhibition,
“Abortion Is Normal.” Opening today in New York at Galerie Eva Presenhuber and January 21
at Arsenal Contemporary, the show
includes such A-list contemporary stars as Barbara Kruger, Cindy
Sherman, Hank Willis Thomas, Nan Goldin, Wangechi Mutu, and Rob
Pruitt, all of whom present work that reflects their own personal
feelings about abortion and reproductive rights.

“I said, ‘let’s raise some money!’” Minter told Artnet News,
adding that she hopes the presence of big-name artists will sway
collectors who might otherwise be loathe to buy a work about
abortion.

The show is raising funds for Downtown for Democracy, a
political action committee dedicated to helping democrats win close
Congressional races in districts across the country. All of the
work in the show is for sale and Downtown for Democracy will spend
half the proceeds to fund voter education about reproductive
rights, distributing the rest to Planned Parenthood PACs working to
win 2020 elections.

Minter, who is contributing a new print
titled Cuntrol, is a longtime supporter of
Planned Parenthood. She designed their memorable “Don’t Fuck With Us, Don’t Fuck Without Us”
buttons and organized a Sotheby’s auction
benefiting Planned Parenthood in 2015, along with Sherman and
Simmons. (Here, Simmons has contributed an early doll photograph,
created in 1971, two years before Roe vs.
Wade legalized abortion on the federal level; Sherman, a
new photograph.)

But the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett
Kavanaugh was something of “a wakeup call,” Minter said.
Republications are now rushing to pass anti-abortion legislation
because “they see that they have a Supreme Court now that might
overturn Roe vs. Wade,” she said. “We got complacent. We
thought it was settled law!”

The first “Abortion Is Normal” show
actually opened last year, at Project for Empty Space, featuring
work by Christen Clifford, Dominique Duroseau, Yvette Molina, and
Viva Ruiz, all of whom are back for the two-part Manhattan
edition.

During the planning of the show, its title, “Abortion Is
Normal,” proved something of a stumbling block. “Some people liked
the idea but hated the title—and even chose not to participate
because of the title,” Wahi said.

“This title is intended as a statement of camaraderie and caring
that, in short, says: What you choose to do with your body is OK—it
is normal,” added Jampol. “Can it be difficult? Yes. Is it your
right? Yes.”

Part of the curators’ strategy was also to include male artists
in the show. “Reproductive rights is an issue that affects
everyone,” said Jampol. She and Wahi hope to spread that message
across the country with an exhibition series that will “hopefully
be part of a long-term conversation about reproductive freedom.

Clifford and Ruiz, who founded the group Thank God for Abortion in 2015 to help
reduce the stigma around abortion, were both at the gallery
installing their works when I visited the exhibition earlier this
week.

“These are the abortion saints,” said Ruiz, pointing
to mannequins clad in the golden haloed headdresses and “Thank God
for Abortion” t-shirts that she wears during performances like the
one she staged outside the Vatican last fall. (The artist grew up
Catholic and is again a practicing member of the faith today after
falling away from the church for a time over its teachings about
abortion and the LGBT community.)

“People don’t like you talking about God and abortion in a
positive way, and that’s why we have to go there,” Ruiz explained.
“I’ve had two abortions and I know God loves me.”

Clifford, meanwhile, was configuring a new arrangement for the
expanded version of her piece, I Want Your Blood,
featuring vintage perfume bottles filled with blood, most of it
menstrual. “There’s no equality without reproductive rights,
there’s no reproductive rights without knowledge of the female
body, and there’s no knowledge of the female body without knowledge
of blood.”

The piece is feminine and delicate, but upon closer examination
the thick blood swirling in the bottles nevertheless triggers a
feeling of disgust. It’s a reminder of the show’s message: Abortion
is messy, but it’s a part of life, and it doesn’t need to something
shameful.

“Abortion Is Normal” empowers women to stand up for their
reproductive rights and to make the choices that are right for them
and their bodies. And that’s something we should all start to get
comfortable with.

“Abortion Is Normal” is on view at Galerie Eva Presenhuber,
39 Great Jones Street, New York, January 9–18, 2020; and Arsenal
Contemporary, 214 Bowery, New York, January 21–February 1,
2020. 

The participating artists are Alison Janae Hamilton, Ameya
Marie, Amy Khoshbin, Andrea Chung, Arlene Shechet, Barbara Kruger,
Betty Tompkins, Carroll Duhnam, Catherine Opie, Cecily Brown, Chloe
Wise, Chris Myers, Christen Clifford, Cindy Sherman, Delano Dunn,
Dominique Duroseau, ELEKTRA KB, Fin Simonetti, Grace Graupe
Pillard, Hank Willis Thomas, hayv kahraman, Jaishri Abichandani,
Jane Kaplowitz, Jon Kessler, Jonathan Horowitz, Judith Bernstein,
Judith Hudson, Laurie Simmons, Louise Lawler, Lyle Ashton Harris,
Marilyn Minter, Mika Rottenberg, Nadine Faraj, Nan Goldin, Natalie
Frank, Rob Pruitt, Ryan McGinley, Sarah Sze, Shirin Neshat,
Shoshanna Weinberger, Sojourner Truth Parsons, Sue Williams, Suzy
Lake, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Viva Ruiz, Wangechi Mutu, Xaveria
Simmons, Walter Robinson, Yvette Molina, and Zoe Buckman.

The post Marilyn Minter and Laurie Simmons Are Raising Funds
for Reproductive Rights With the Star-Powered Show ‘Abortion Is
Normal’ appeared first on artnet News.