Grove House Art Show Kicks Off V-Week
By Lori DesRochers
Staff Writer

In the intimate setting of Pitzer's Grove House, a presentation of artistic works and improvisational dance kicked off V-Week at the 5-Colleges. This is the second year of the V-Week art show, and coordinators Ana Martinez SC '06 and Ngocthy Phan PO '05 hope that the displayed works will help encourage discussion and awareness of violence toward women.

The small gallery space upstairs displayed a handful of pieces related to women's issues - a small statuette of a solitary woman figure, a painting mixing the image of a woman with strings holding her down, and a monochromatic examination of a woman's face. Accompanying a metallic sculpture, whose three prongs reached skyward with fingerlike tendrils, was a plaque that read, "How many vaginas can you find?"

Such imagery was prevalent among the other works as well, particularly in an installation by Lara Foy, a senior at Pitzer. A bed of wire netting loosely wrapped around a book of drawings and text, and the wall above displayed paintings of female genitalia, jail-like bars, reaching hands, and flowering greenery. Foy described the process of creating some of her paintings while working on The Vagina Monologues. "I wanted to paint the earth, but it just kept turning into vaginas and breasts and nipples," she said, adding that the jumble of sexual and natural imagery symbolized the reclaiming of her sexuality.

On the main floor, an all-female audience watched a performance by Funktionslust, the 5-C improvisational dance troupe. Wearing a combination of street clothes and dance attire, the six women captivated the small audience with their unique blend of sensual slinking and abruptly defined movement.

The difficult task of coordinating the six independent dancers into a cohesive form appeared amazingly simple and organic; these women had clearly spent much time learning to harmonize their bodies. The refusal to plan the piece's conclusion; the construction of the entire dance in instantaneous explosions of kinetic experimentation; the knowledge that the success or failure of a single moment could never be duplicated - these elements were clearly internalized and appreciated by each member of the troupe.

Watching the delicate balance of fluid leadership and mirroring seemed especially relevant to the many women's issues highlighted in the show. Though Funktionslust does not promote a specific agenda, their style of improvisational dancing brings many ideas to mind: how one finds meaning in group behavior, the process of creating patterns and harmony amidst conflicting directions, the consequences of being original versus conforming or adapting, and the quest for beauty in relation to your own body and those around you.