7 Must-See Shows during Art Basel Miami Beach 2024
11/26/2024
The sixth edition of The Contemporary Art Modern Project’s “Women Pulling at The Threads of Social Discourse” brings together fiber works by 81 artists, all responding to the Ancient Greek comedy Lysistrata and Spike Lee’s 2015 film Chi-Raq, which reworks the same story in modern-day Chicago.
The central narrative of both Lysistrata and Chi-Raq involves women withholding sex from men as a strategy for gaining political power. It’s a theme that has been much talked-about in recent weeks, with growing U.S. discussion of the South Korean feminist movement called 4B, which proposes a similar no-contact strategy.
In this context, the show is intended as a “frieze” of collective action, where fiber art is used as a technique for both resistance and storytelling. For instance, Caitlin McCormack’s embroidery Perhaps You’ll Bloom Again (2024) takes its title from a line from Lysistrata where women mock the men’s growing frustration. Crafted from hand-crocheted cotton string, glue, velvet, antique fabric, and synthetic fringe, the piece mirrors the sharp political and comedic tone of the original. Elsewhere, Shelly McCoy’s The Thong of Peace (2024) reimagines the thong as a non-wearable garment, made from galvanized barbed wire. Together, the 81 participating artists use fabric art as a way to address politics, environmental crises, sexual autonomy, and violence.