FeministFuturist

A solo exhibition of new data visualization and installation by Christina Balch. On View: June 6 – 30, 2023 at Anchor House of Artists, 518 Pleasant Street, Ground Floor, Northampton, MA (1/3 mile north of Interstate 91 exit 23, right by the Shell Station).

Public artist reception: Friday, June 9, 5:00pm – 8:00pm. Artist talk and exhibition walkthrough: TBD (will be announced here soon!) Gallery Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 1:00pm to 6:00pm.

In this multimedia process-based exhibition, artist Christina Balch sketches, paints, prototypes, and iterates on the data she collected in 2020 during her first year as a parent. The raw data illustrates the mundanity of this phase of parenting – sleep, nursing, bottle, sleep, nursing, bottle, sleep, nursing, bottle – while the multimedia artwork shows the frustration, exhaustion, highs, lows, love and humor that are part of raising a baby. This exhibition also features a special room installation specifically for parents of young children and other caretakers to rest.

Christina is also curating a group exhibition with MICA (Mothers Institute for Collaboration and Art), a local artist mothers group. The group exhibition is called “Labor”, and it will be in the adjoining gallery right next to Mama Data.

It’s official!! Visit our new show Automatic Aura. Opens July 7 @installationspace 49eaglestreet.com in North Adams. Opening Reception July 7, 4-8pm FeministFuturist.com Our artists: Karen Meninno (her fashion design pictured), Freedom Baird, Christina Balch, Marjorie Kaye, Carolyn Wirth and special guest filmmaker Homa Sarabi. Through August 27th.

You are invited to a special screening of the Independent Film Festival Boston on April 29th, at The Brattle Theater. This is a rare collection of short films directed by Iranian women directors from Iran and diaspora. If you have joined our prior screenings, these are all new films! Tickets are on sale now (15$). Review the program and reserve your spot through this link.

Twitter didn’t like this….but we do. Happy Harriet Tubman Day everyone, and view this amazing Newark, NJ memorial courtesy Ms. Magazine: https://msmagazine.com/2023/03/09/harriet-tubman-monument-newark-nj/?omhide=true&utm_medium=email&utm_source=everyaction&emci=5650bf17-6bbf-ed11-a8e0-00224832e811&emdi=78871149-97bf-ed11-a8e0-00224832e811&ceid=327034

Karen Meninno’s trip to Georgia inspired new couture concept sketches. Spanish moss in Savannah, ornate ironwork, otherworldly driftwood on the coast…filtered through her encyclopedic fashion knowledge and numerous Midjourney prompts, thankfully without ai’s odd artifacts (no six-fingered women here!).

Womens’ voices from Iran in March

Read all about it…

The whimsy of voices representing the collective reflected both the FeministFururists as a whole and the work in the CURRENCY show, a union of different practices coming together to create something both otherworldly and distinctly of the world we know. The colors, geometries, and screens of the exhibition transported me to another future, a better future.

-L Scully, Boston Art Review

Hey we’re in the news again! Hot off the virtual press, Boston Art Review’s special digital edition features recipients of Collective Futures Funds grants, and that means us! Take a look at the full digital edition here! The print edition (Issue 09: “Burnout”) is out now.

Did you miss our October 11 panel discussion on the Feminist Future of Art? Even if you didn’t you might want to see us again on YouTube: https://youtu.be/_EqAZLeMSck

Let us know what you think!

Karen Meninno: “Radial,” AR animation from Procreate in Hoverlay at Boston Cyberarts Gallery,

AK Liesenfeld, AR and VR presentation , “Thinking Big”

CURRENCY has closed, but watch for our October Panel Talk link–we had a wide-ranging discussion of life, the universe, and the future of art. We’ll be posting more CURRENCY images soon, so look at this random sampling in the meantime….

Boston Fashion Week 22 kicked off Oct. 8 with Karen Meninno’s Futurist Fashion! Here she is with AR spacesuits from her “Indonauts” series, bringing Style to the outer reaches of the cosmos–and the Cambridge Science Fest (near the MIT Museum). FeministFuturist AK Liesenfeld is featured in Fashion Week as well! New designs revealed every day at https://www.bostonfashionweek.com/

CURRENCY is up, and our panel talk: “The Feminist Future of Art” is on for October 11th at 7pm. Hosted by Art & Technology New England‘s Chris Klepper, the panel of FeministFuturists includes Christina Balch (moderator), Freedom Baird, Marjorie Kaye, AK Liesenfeld, and Carolyn Wirth.

Boston Cyberarts Gallery is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday from noon until 6pm (or by appointment) on the street level of the Green Street T station in Jamaica Plain. The Orange Line is open again and ready to roll! CURRENCY is up until October 16th.

Want to find out more about us through occasional eblasts and other earthly communications? Try this link, and thank you. See our reading list and favorite websites to regroup and re-energize.

In case you missed our last show, it was the last iteration of the Hess Gallery on the last weekend of existence of Pine Manor College. Take a tour below of our exhibit LiminalLab. Participating FeministFuturists: Freedom Baird, Christina Balch, Nancy Hayes, Liz Helfer, AK Liesenfeld, Marjorie Kaye, Karen Meninno, Linda Price-Sneddon, Carolyn Wirth. Thank you from our hearts to the alumnae and students of Pine Manor College: a stronger group would be hard to find. LiminalLab marked the 50th anniversary of the Hess Gallery, and the 111th year of Pine Manor College. Photos by Melissa Blackall.

A group exhibition by the FeministFuturist Collective
March 15 – May 14, 2022
Hess Gallery, Pine Manor College
400 Heath Street, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 The final exhibit of the Hess Gallery, FeministFuturist: Liminal Lab exhibited participatory installations, sculpture, painting, and digital experiences. Watch for our upcoming show in fall, 2022 at Boston Cyberarts Gallery.

We’re thrilled to announce that FeministFuturist has won a Collective Futures Fund grant! FeministFuturist: Liminal Lab is funded in part by this grant. The Collective Futures Fund is administered by the Tufts University Art Galleries and is a part of the Regional Regranting Program of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Read all about it at Boston Art Review

Suggested Investigations

The Public Space Democracy Project

FeministFutures World Building Lab

The Feminist Art Coalition

The League of Super Feminists!

The Feminist Responsibility Project/Beverly Semmes

Merch News!

Still time to buy our swag at FeministFuturist webshop! Host your own Semiotics of the Kitchen dinner party with this awesome apron. Peruse clothes, journals, water bottles, stickers, and more, all featuring artwork by FeministFuturist artists.

Linda Price-Sneddon at the C Concourse at Pittsburgh International Airport through January 22

Still More News

Christina Balch in “On Being Seen” at the Installation Space, North Adams MA July-August 2021

Mac Pierce and Christina Balch explore surveillance, data privacy, and the ambiguity of technology-based laws and rights.

We Are Here

The Show Continues Online

13 video artists, fashion designers, sculptors, printmakers, and installation artists were in FeministFuturist: The Show. A big thank you to our fabulous photographer Melissa Blackall

See our archived show from the Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts

Models wear @KiranofKSpace in a pre-exhibit fashion shoot at Boston’s Prudential Center

Still from Linda Price Sneddon‘s *S/H/E/ Emergent: The Summoning*

Left: Brenna Leaver (BrennaLeaver.com) devised M0, a sweet-natured but troubled rogue robot farmhand. M0 stars in @technoscrap, his first feature, Right: Detail, “Cape Canaveral,” pigment print by Nadine Boughton nadineboughton.com

Future Fashion

Future Fashion is envisioned in many forms, curated by curator Karen Meninno @kiranofkspace, VR designer AK Liesenfeld @PunkTVR, sustainable 3D printed fashion by Marisa Chentakul and Julia Daviy Scroll down to listen to their conversation on the future of fashion: will we really all have to wear gray unitard jumpsuits in The Future?

Ak Liesenfeld’s real-world capelets for 21st-century superheroes are rivaled only by her all-virtual collection. Photo by Melissa Blackall.

We love our photographer Melissa Blackall, who documented the opening / fashion happening. Our lovely models wear @kiranofkspace.
www.melissablackall.com

Julia Daviy’s stunning 3D printed garments http://www.juliadaviy.com. Photo by Melissa Blackall.

Christina Balch explores the future of identity

The Show Continues Online

AK Liesenfeld Photo by Melissa Blackall.

Visit our Artists on the web and instagram

Freedom Baird’s Pomegranate, Thermometer, Apple was included in the Getty Museum’s Design Challenge in 2020 and is now part of their new publication, Off the Walls: Inspired Recreations of Iconic Artworks.

Magda Fernandex, Untitled. Incorporating her “What Future Cities?” video, inset. Photo by Melissa Blackall.

Freedom Baird’s Instructions Vault, waiting for your input. Photo by Melissa Blackall.

Visit the Experience

Our deepest thanks and appreciation to Exhibit Designer Andrew Grimanis and BCA Visual Arts director Randi Hopkins. Without their hard work and support we could not have realized our vision.

The Show Continues Online