Hong Kong’s M+ champions women artists with 300lbs of feathers, womblike art and more
The works of pioneering women artists that focused on immersive installations are highlighted at an exhibition at Hong Kong’s M+ museum
Much of art history has been dominated by men, and many of the contributions of women have been marginalised or erased. However, thanks to the profound influence of thinkers such as Linda Nochlin, who penned the classic 1971 essay “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?”, art historians and curators have begun to balance the historical picture.
“Dream Rooms: Environments by Women Artists 1950s-Now”, a major exhibition currently showing at Hong Kong’s M+ museum, is one such effort.
It champions pioneering women artists by focusing on one particularly engaging genre: immersive installations or, as they used to be called, environments.
The mostly analogue, handmade nature of the 12 immersive works at M+ is a refreshing change from the ubiquity of digital projections.
Kusama’s immensely popular infinity mirror rooms – featured in M+’s earlier retrospective of the Japanese artist – are not included in a show that highlights mostly lesser-known artists.