by Allie Schaitel
The Spooky Boobs Collective is a feminist collective that uses art, language, and design to visualize the trivialization of women’s experiences. SBC was formed in 2014 around the goal of producing public artworks with a mission to halt the perpetuation of sexism in our culture. SBC is made up of three feminist artists: Amy Cannestra, Myszka Lewis and Maggie Snyder. Their show, The Pervasive Curse, is on exhibit from April 28th to May 25th at ALL.
ALL: There is a strong element of social activism in your artwork. What inspires that, and what is the group’s history?
Spooky Boobs Collective: Some of our personal practices touch on politics/activism, but not like SBC does. Our history came out a need for this type of work and inspiration came from activist artists that came before us.
ALL: You all define yourselves as “feminist artists.” How did you reach this defining term? How did you find each other?
SBC: We met while in graduate school together at UW-Madison. We were all pursuing our MFA degrees in the art department and had similar sexist experiences which we unloaded onto each other over beer and waffle fries. Each of us had an itch to create work to respond to our experiences, but admittedly, we were hesitant to take on the misogynist monster on our own. We decided to collaborate on a site-specific piece—in part to share the practical load of completing a new work in addition to our individual artwork, day jobs, and class requirements, and in part to share the emotional load of essentially shining a mirror on the sexism we saw in our immediate environment, including our instructors, supervisors, peers, and even ourselves. This piece became Loud & Clear.
ALL: With feminist causes being front and center in the news recently, such as #MeToo, how do you feel your work comes into play in the context of current events?
SBC: Despite the recent attention to such things as the #MeToo movement, the belief that sexism has ceased to be a problem is still widely common. Our work is a visual record of the current political and social landscape in which misogyny is still unfortunately alive and well and perpetuated through insidious methods, such as microaggressions, misuse or disregard for social contracts, double standards, victim-blaming, etc. The common thread within instances in which women are stripped of their agency, respect, or equal rights is the power of language to subtly reinforce a marginalized place in the world for women, and toxic masculinity for men.
Sexism boils down to an issue of respect, and respect can be either upheld or diminished through language.
ALL: What artists, writers, and/or activists inspire you to create?
SBC: Guerilla Girls, Alison Knowles, Adrian Piper, Yoko Ono, Carolee Schneeman, Jenny Holzer, Judy Chicago, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Barbara Kruger, Annique Delphine, and many many more!
ALL: What do each of you bring to the table as individual artists? How do your own practices come together to make the collective?
SBC: Maggie has a strong background in sound engineering and photography. Amy is a kick-ass graphic designer. Myszka is trained in printmaking. Despite our varied backgrounds and skill sets, we all share the same conceptual vision. We are all hard workers and are able to be supportive of and honest with each other. The work made for Spooky Boobs Collective solely resides under the SBC name and logo. It is truly a collaboration in which our own voices and skills blend together to create something that we could not achieve individually. The majority of our work is done through daily discussion and concentrated development of conceptual ideas. Once we generate a vision for a piece, we figure out how it can be translated through our collective practical skills and abilities.
ALL: Your exhibition at Art + Lit Lab touches on the way words are used to diminish and minimize women. How do you think people will react? What has it been like putting this show together with ALL?
SBC: ALL has been extremely supportive of our work and our mission. This is by no means easy work—not for us to create, nor for an audience to digest. Since we started working together in 2014, we have encountered a range of responses from both institutions hosting exhibitions of our work and members of our general audience. We like to think that the Madison community will be receptive and supportive of our message, but we are also hoping to ruffle some feathers. We are not trying to make enemies, but we are aware that some discomfort is necessary for social change. We commend ALL for presenting rich and diverse programming and for supporting contemporary artwork that is truly challenging and socially valuable; we are so thankful for the platform to present our work.
We also like to point out that the words we choose to use not only diminish women but all people. We also choose words that use the female body to diminish others.
ALL: Have you had any pushback about your art or your collective mission?
SBC: Overall, when the work is put into the right galleries and put in front of the right audience, the community rallies around the message.
Allie Schaitel is a long-time art enthusiast and Marketing Coordinator based in Madison.
