United States

Luzene Hill

"Untitled" was first exhibited in 2019 at her solo exhibition "Now that the Gates of Hell are Closed..." at Different Trains Gallery in Atlanta, GA. As a victim of sexual assault, Luzene reflects on her past histories of trauma and misogyny, and takes action with ink drawings of feminine pride. This work challenges male dictated hierarchies and celebrates female sexuality and eroticism.

She writes: 

When I went to college right after high school a professor opened the first day of class by asking the “young ladies” on the front row to “please cross your legs”.  They complied, quizzically, then he stated, “now that the gates of hell are closed, we can begin”. These drawings are my response to his remark, decades later.  It didn’t make me angry at the time, just uncomfortable and annoyed, but it does now! The development of patriarchal societies obliterated matrilineal cultures, in which women had agency and sexual freedom – freedom of choice on so many levels. Framing women as the guilty party has been a patriarchal tradition – which distills down to blaming the female survivor of a rape - she was drunk, she was flirting, she was wearing provocative clothing, she was running in a park at 7:15 in the morning."

The drawings in that show were of crossed legs and then a few of uncrossed legs . . . as her "reply" back to the professor's insulting comment. Those uncrossed leg images are also influenced by ancient cave drawings in Montana and elsewhere in the West. Hill was an Artist-in-Residence at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming at the time of creation.

For the exhibition's opening, she gathered various groups of college-aged young women to be "sitters" in the gallery.  Three at a time, they sat at various places around the gallery for about a half hour and was replaced by another volunteer. They sat with their legs crossed, hands in lap, looking straight ahead, and did not make eye contact with viewers in the gallery.  She says, "My goal was to pique curiosity in the gallery visitors (which it did) and to create a bit of "tension" .  .  .  " 

Luzene Hill

Untitled

K Art Gallery

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