Gender Matters has opened!

(Phew).

Here are some picture highlights from the exhibition. I...I have to go sit down. 

Bright and Early: giving the museum staff an overview of the  exhibit
and what we had planned for the 6 days it was open to the public.

One of the highlights of the exhibition, a giant Bull elephant (the prized possession of
the natural history museum) gendered into female. This caused much controversy within
this old museum; I thought it was an awesome display of how easy it is for man
to put our values on animals. Way to go Sondra and Anna; they sewed that tutu in a single day! 

An installation theme that permeated all three museums.
Objects were highlighted for the gender roles they did or did not discuss.

The origami paper boat making station. Practice writing letters and crafts like male
sailors on board ships and hang them on a collaborate collage wall!
Beautiful concept designed my friend Stacey and her hard-working design team.

Another installation in the City Museum: a corset, made to symbolize all the unvoiced efforts
of female factory workers in an exhibition that highlights the feats of men.
This was amazing to see come together in the work rooms we had in the school.

One serious highlight: having Gabby be the first person in the city to
see Gender Matters its entirety. Here we are in the "Human Case" in the Natural History Museum,
an attempt to bring humans back to natural history museums.

In addition to the exhibition, the Steering Group was also responsible for throwing
the Gender Matters opening party, of which we had over 150 people!
All the food, decorations, and entertainment were student sourced and basically free. :)

My Swedish friend Daniel and I dressed up at the opening party as
cross-dressing sailors. Daniel will be coming to my home turf for his internship
at the Nordic Museum in Seattle.

This is another installation like the boat, but the picture behind it has a larger story.
This installation highlights the 'nuclear family' architecture of this 100-year-old exhibit;
to highlight the bias in this, 40 girls from the class and 1 male posed as 'seals' off the shore of
Gothenburg---illustrating what a true seal family would look like!
(Yes I'm in there)

The bilingual self-tour pamphlets my friend Linna and I produced for the Natural History Museum,
highlighting the "sex lives" and roles of both the marine and bird world.

My project: A cumulative installation of butterfly drawings at the Natural History Museum,
in which children drew butterflies and then gendered them, the results of which were
hung for the public for display and personal analysis.

The point was that what you think of gendered colors may not be to others;
it was also designed to maximize children's voice in an exhibition very
much focused on individuality and self-expression.