Sculptor and painter Elyse Pignolet’s exhibition entitled ‘I’m Not Like the Other Girls’ addresses patronizing tropes such as misogyny and beauty. It moves Pignolet’s signature project, which is rich in symbols and text, in influential new directions. Pignolet has a knack for deploying a representative visual strategy with luxury and prettiness to discuss the persistent, ubiquitous, internalized and pernicious language of dismissiveness, control and violence that women keep facing. The upshot is difficult and delightful, as the familiarity and relatability of Pignolet’s anecdotes work as a cultural indictment.
In earlier series, Pignolet took on global influences, documented facts and common slang to show differences in how people treat different women. They include women of color, youngsters, old women as well as those in pop culture and politics. Even in the present work, Pignolet keeps doing the same. A group of sumi ink or watercolor on manual drawings depict variations of the picture of a decorative vase with flowers. Each of those vases sports a phrase or word disrupting the pleasure.
For instance, Pignolet uses “I’m Speaking” as a nod to the pushback of VP Kamala Harris against getting interrupted during political campaign debates. The moment stays as easily recognizable, to women following politics, as Donald Trump’s attempt to use ‘Nasty Woman’ as a weapon. Pignolet’s ‘Declaration of Rights and Sentiments’ is a ceramic vessel with a transcribed text on the movement Women’s Suffrage and Trump’s screed against those who dare oppose him.
With this recently created work, the artist does the following.
- Expands her drawing/painting foundation and central ceramics to include not just etched mirrors with the words “Exotic AF” and “Bitches” but also a wallpaper installation.
- Gets up-close and personal with her narratives.
The monumental installation entitled ‘Second Sex’ of the exhibition includes many plates, vessels, and tiles. The installation focuses on a cutting and casual conversation with Pignolet’s father regarding her reputation.
Pignolet and her children’s Filipino heritage made her further investigate the dynamics of misogyny with more focus on how women from Asia are devalued and fetishized. A sculpture resembles a pagoda; one of the decorative motifs in it comes “Me love you long time”, a slur that is triggering, tired and still current. That sort of nonsense is still part of cultural currency, offering some toxic context to the recent spa shootings in Atlanta where the killer targeted Asian women.
The wallpaper edition at the exhibition entitled ‘The Gold Spa’ is formed on the basis of not just that episode but also decorative imagery dating back to the early porcelain market period. ‘A Really Bad Day for Him’ is among the most unsettling pieces of art, which refers to the attitude of law enforcement towards the said killer. The person killed eight women, but the law enforcement officers in question directed their empathy to him instead of the victims and their families. It appears that, as figures of white supremacy, it is easier for the cops to understand and sympathize with the killer when compared to his victims.
The exhibition in Los Angeles has moments of being closer to levity, not jokingly but rather in a manner that you can describe as a case of laughing to stop from crying. Still, the exhibition has a painted tile that appears high-end and features a funny tampon. Many women would like to own the stunning yellow bowl with the phrase “Basic Bitch” on it. The demeaning usages and sources of the term bitch notwithstanding, it has at least been partly reclaimed. Then again, it is worth considering whether that is good.
There is a sense of satisfaction in not only deflating the power of the oppressor’s language to hurt but also owning that language. It normalizes the language as well. A bit of an altar on the so-called FreeBritney movement asks comparable questions on people’s complicity in singer Britney Spears’ early exploitation.
Pignolet’s art gets its power from the form of paradox that develops in the reverberation between brutalization and beauty in not just grand gestures but also a million small moments. The work has elements proclaiming not only stinging and disturbing truths but also aesthetic pleasures that amplify those truths.
The exhibition of Pignolet’s works is on display at Track 16, a contemporary art gallery in Los Angeles. The gallery that is housed in LA’s Bendix Building will exhibit the works until November 20, 2021, for free. On November 02, 03 and 07, the gallery will also make limited-capacity art walkthroughs available to people by RVSP.
