Women’s Work in a Social Justice Context

Women’s work is sometimes admired but more often tends to be devalued. This is because it is frequently considered a domestic service. Artist Yohanna Roa wants to change that. In an effort to sort out and applaud the meaning of women’s work, she is installing a work of art in the Janet Langsam Vault Project at ArtsWestchester, which opens in its gallery this Sunday, May 18, from 1-3pm.

Yohanna‘s installation, To Remember You, displays the portraits and stories of women she has known and admired in frames that are hand-crocheted by the artist. The portraits are presented against the backdrop of textiles designed by the artist to represent beauty, utility and design. Much of these embody her fascination with women’s work, which she feels should be elevated to its rightful place in the list of revered artistic pursuits. She believes that women’s work – taking care of family and home – represents an undervalued artistic expression.

Yohanna considers herself an artist, art historian, critic and archivist. Her goal is to “highlight and recover the ideas and knowledge of women, whose contributions have been excluded or overlooked in mainstream art history.” As such, she feels that her journey is meant to “rescue the memories, knowledge, and bodies obscured in traditional historical narratives.”

Her installation raises the work done in kitchens and sewing rooms as social justice actions. She calls her work “activist fabrics where textile techniques become tools of feminist political action.” It has a performative element as well, in which she tells the stories, struggles and deeds of women she has known and admired. Through these stories of the women in the Vault, she engages the audience to share their stories as a way of extolling women’s work in general, but also with explicit examples. She says about her work: “By focusing on daily activities like food preparation, decoration, and caregiving, I seek to transform these intimate and seemingly mundane spaces into platforms for uncovering connections between personal experiences and larger socio-political structures.”

There will be a performance by the artist at 2pm at the installation’s May 18 opening. Additional live performances are scheduled for June 12 & 28, and July 20. To Remember You will remain on view during gallery hours through July 20.