Martha Friedman. Some Hags

About

For this exhibition Friedman has orchestrated a site-specific installation that responds to the sixteenth-century Flemish tapestry hanging in the building’s grand staircase.  Her response takes the form of three metal and rubber sculptures that allude to the female body in various states of use, and are a reflection of her ongoing exploration of industrial objects, modernity, and the female body. Said Friedman, “The tapestry depicts a scene from The Odyssey where Odysseus uses a sword to threaten the sorceress Circe, who has just used her magic book to turn his men into boars. I'm intrigued by how contemporary this five-hundred-year-old weaving feels in the way it tackles issues of gender and power." The show’s title, Some Hags, refers not only to the three bodies that will occupy the hall, but also critiques the perception of forceful women throughout history.

Friedman, Brooklyn-based artist who is also an assistant professor of sculpture at Princeton University, collaborated with the writer Jeff Dolven, and Institute students Sarah Mallory, Blanca Serrano Ortiz de Solórzano, Adam Dunlavy, and Connor Hamm, to produce a series of innovative programs to accompany the exhibition. On November 16th, Susan Marshall & Company will perform the world premiere of their newest dance piece Two Person Operating System, which will activate one of the sculptures featured in the exhibition. This work, which grew out of a collaborative concept developed by Friedman and Marshall, is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.  On December 1, a concert in the Great Hall will feature sound artist C. Spencer Yeh debuting an original sound score in response to electronic music pioneer Milton Babbit’s Homer-influenced composition, Philomel.  The exhibition’s opening will include a panel discussion about the works on display; NYU professor Thomas Crow, the Institute's Rosalie Solow Professor of Modern Art and Associate Provost for the Arts at New York University, will moderate. The exhibition and associated programming is sponsored by The Barnard Center for Research on Women, Princeton University, and Valeria Napoleone.