An artistic display of womanhood, the She Work Hard For It gallery is a beautiful collaboration between three Toronto artists rooted in compelling themes like sexuality, the female gaze, single motherhood, and growth.
If you missed the display at this year’s Nuit Blanche Toronto, it now lives at the Cultural Goods Gallery until Oct. 12. While the new exhibit features works focused on the experiences of women and girls, the creation of She Work Hard For It was also female-driven! The gallery was curated by Ashley McKenzie-Barnes with artists Lido Pimienta, Miss Me and Hatecopy.
The first piece, an installation called No Fear, Persevere! by Maria Qamar, also known as Hatecopy, features a large-scale pop-art portrait of a woman, which shifts based on the direction you’re viewing it from, transitioning from fear to perseverance. Walking around the entire piece allows the viewer to watch four different emotions overtake the woman’s face during this journey.
The woman featured in this shifting display is clearly struggling to overcome an overwhelming barrier, although it is unclear what that barrier is. This perhaps makes the piece even more relatable, allowing the viewer to decide the circumstances invoking the emotion in these women’s facial expressions. Additionally, No Fear, Persevere! is a nod to the four women who came together to create the She Work Hard For It exhibit.
Across from Qamar’s work hangs the Corridor of Sisterhood by Miss Me. The piece is comprised of fabric drapes suspended from the ceiling in a labyrinth, decorated with various images and sayings, such as “Women don’t owe you s**t” and “Good girls don’t make a fuss,” while others feature sketches and portraits of women with messages like “Don’t shrink yourself”.
The collection of images and phrases show the common struggles of womanhood without overly sexualizing them, evoking a sense that the women featured are being seen exactly as they want to be seen, not through a perverse gaze often cast upon women’s naked bodies. The piece inspires a feeling of empowerment for women subjected to living under a patriarchal lens..
The final piece, The Maze of Abundance and The Amazing Race of Women Against Housing Insecurity created by Lido Pimienta, is located in the back of the Cultural Goods Centre. The installation features various tapestries with abstract faces created in felt dyed in vivid colours. Hanging from the walls around the back of the gallery, the felt faces are made up of differently shaped and coloured noses, eyes, and mouths with various expressions. While the faces themselves are not realistic, the emotions they display are vivid and relatable.
Pimienta, a single mother herself, has created an installation that reflects on the experiences of mothers and their children in Toronto’s housing market. With factors such as gentrification, a lack of affordable housing, and inflation, the pressure of existing as a single mother or woman can be crushing, something displayed in the depiction of emotions on the various tapestries hung around the room.
The exhibit is presented by Johnnie Walker through its “First Strides” program in Canada. Organizers have called the program an empowering initiative that aims to celebrate and support people driving progress and pushing cultural boundaries. The gallery is closed Sunday to Tuesday, and open Wednesday to Saturday from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m.
