“Bald Girls” – Feminism in Action
By Li Xinmo
On March 3, 2012, the exhibition Bald Girls – Xiao Lu, Li Xinmo,Jany Lan Joint Exhibition, curated by German curator Juan Xu, opened at the Iberia Contemporary Art Center. The title “Bald Girls” is a play on the French absurdist playwright Eugène Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano, replacing the word “soprano” with “Gē” (a reference to a traditional Chinese musical instrument). This alteration generates new meanings and connotations. The “Bald Girls” is a rebellion against the societal and cultural constructs of female identity. In a society where men and women are defined by clothing and hairstyles, shaping masculine and feminine characteristics, the bald-headed female image directly challenges this gendered social order. A bald head neither represents masculinity, as with short hair, nor femininity, as with long hair. It is a de-gendered symbol, embodying post-feminism – transgender. The “Bald Girls” becomes an icon of subverting patriarchal culture and gender binaries. The term “Ge Nv” presents an image of a woman in battle, holding a spear to fight for women’s rights, reminiscent of the early Amazon warriors in the Western feminist movement.
In the West, feminism has evolved from a pre-feminist phase fighting for women’s rights into a post-feminist era characterized by transgender issues. Meanwhile, in China, post-feminism has arrived, but the grassroots feminist movements of the pre-feminist era have not truly begun. Bald Girls addresses the multiple and concurrent survival realities of women in Chinese society and raises an important local feminist issue: what kind of feminism do we need? Is it one that conforms to societal and cultural shaping, or one that rebels? Should women endure patriarchal oppression, or fight for their rights? Bald Girls clearly constructs a role of female rebellion and combat.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the second wave of feminism began in the West, accompanied by feminist art. Over time, the status of women in the West has improved, with more and more outstanding female artists emerging. Feminist art theory entered China’s contemporary art field in the 1990s, but due to an emphasis on feminine traits, feminist art began to diverge from its essence, evolving into a compliant, non-critical “women’s art.” True feminist art movements have never begun in China. This exhibition, which explicitly presents feminist issues and uses feminism as the ideological foundation for artistic creation, is the first of its kind in China.
Juan Xu, the curator of Bald Girls, has lived in Germany for many years, where Western democratic values and social justice shaped her consciousness and ideas. A return to China revealed the stark contrast between the situation of Chinese women, oppressed by gender discrimination and patriarchy, and women in Western societies that have undergone democratic and feminist revolutions, where independence and autonomy are respected. This was the motivation behind the exhibition. She selected three representative feminist artists to present her curatorial concept. This exhibition is not simply about three female artists; it places them within the timeline of feminist art development in both China and the West. She firmly believes that China needs a truly meaningful feminist movement, and she believes: the liberation of women is the natural measure of social liberation, and a society that continuously improves its women’s rights also improves human rights. Bald Girlscan be seen as an enlightenment for Chinese feminism because many people in China still misunderstand feminism and are unable to reach the basic consensus that “women’s rights are human rights.” Therefore, the exhibition has significant real-world and social relevance.
Xiao Lu, What is Feminism? Installation, 2012
As one of the exhibiting artists, Xiao Lu presented two new large works. What is Feminism became the exhibition’s opening piece. She used steel, a material commonly associated with masculinity and widely used by male artists. Female artists, especially in China, often choose softer materials such as thread, associated with feminine traits. Xiao Lu, in contrast, rejected these soft materials and used male-associated materials to create the work. The piece is made of three three-meter-long angle steels welded together to form a giant A-shaped structure, symbolizing “Feminism is human rights.” Beside the work, an open booklet titled “What is Feminism” allows viewers to leave messages and share their understanding of feminism.
The Flowers of Evil is another work by Xiao Lu for the exhibition. This piece is based on a large, ancient camphor tree root, which is unusually shaped, with twisted roots resembling a strange flower, or the shape of a female pelvis. In the center of the root, there is a deep opening, reminiscent of a female genital. Xiao Lu named the piece The Flowers of Evil after Baudelaire’s poem, which is filled with rebellion and subversion of worldly perceptions. Baudelaire praised everything that opposed so-called light, beauty, life, and pleasure, dedicating his words to the ugly and evil aspects of the world. The female genital has always been associated with ugliness, concealment, and taboo in patriarchal culture. The natural shape of the tree root grows from the earth, much like the female genital, a natural part of existence. Xiao Lu compares this raw, organic tree root to the natural state of female genitalia, bringing this so-called taboo female part into the open, allowing people to marvel at the camphor tree root’s uniqueness and, at the same time, appreciate the mystery of the female genital.
Li Xinmo, Bald Girls, mural, 2012
Li Xinmo created the visual image of “Bald Girls” — three heads and one body, symbolizing the Trinity, representing the three female artists. This image was used for the exhibition’s poster and became a large mural in the exhibition hall. The exhibition also featured two of her works banned in China: The Statement of Scars and The Memory of the Vagina. The Statement of Scars is a video work in which she filmed the scars left by a suicide attempt, a result of domestic violence. Due to severe cuts, her hand was deformed and could no longer close naturally. The raised arm became a gesture of protest. The image The Memory of the Vagina shows a gun inserted into a woman’s vagina, creating a stark contrast between the female body and the gun, a symbol of violence and slaughter. This visual image reveals the sexual oppression and harm women face in a patriarchal society. Her use of menstrual blood to paint has become a signature work, from Self-Portrait to Women, to The Alien Landscape. She reimagines the female body using materials from the female lifecycle. Each image of the female body is a self-representation, without skin, filled with pain, and untouchable. These works display the oppression and harm suffered by women in a patriarchal society, and unlike most women who remain silent about their suffering, she chooses to speak out, allowing the wounds and pain to be heard. Another exhibited piece is the installation Female Demon Head. Li Xinmo collected many mannequin heads from hair salons, cut off their hair, and reshaped them with black and metallic colors. “Female Demon Head” is a homophone for “Female Model Head.” In Chinese literature, the term “female demon head” represents a stereotypical image of an evil woman, used in the piece to highlight the rebellious and critical nature of the bald-headed woman.
Patriarchal Social History is another of Li Xinmo’s works with cultural critical significance. She copied all the words and definitions from the “female” radical in Shuowen Jiezi, the ancient Chinese dictionary, in Song-style characters. From these words, we can see how patriarchal culture has constructed the female identity. Every character related to “female” is associated with submission, reproduction, inferiority, evil, and malice, even when praising women, it is always based on frailty and beauty.
Jany Lan has also lived in Germany for many years and has a strong feminist consciousness, filled with concern about the status of women’s rights in China. Living in the humanistic environment of the West, she shares the achievements of the Western feminist movement. Due to her different living conditions, her creative state differs from the two other female artists who live in China. Her works Martyrdom and Dust form a series of video pieces featuring Chinese internet personality Mu Zimei. Mu Zimei describes her experience of constantly changing sexual partners on her blog, evaluating their performance and skills without emotion. This attitude towards sex and men subverts the traditional passive, objectified sexual role of women. In Martyrdom, Mu Zimei is shown lying naked and still on a bed, while in Dust, she is shown in a state of extreme pleasure. These works convey the image of a woman as a subject of desire, exercising control over her own body and desires. In the work Pivot, she painted a male body from a unique perspective, turning the male viewer into the one being observed. The performance piece Chinese Apple features her husband wearing her mask while picking oranges from a tree laden with them, handing the fruit to willing women in the audience. This work evokes the biblical story of Eve being tempted by the serpent to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge. In the original story, Eve (the woman) picks the apple and gives it to Adam, who then blames her when God questions him. This action questions and satirizes the story of Adam and Eve in Christianity, where the man picks the fruit while wearing a woman’s mask.
Li Xinmo work
The three female artists have used their art to launch a comprehensive resistance and critique of patriarchal culture. During the exhibition’s installation, curator Yong Xian reimagined the gallery space itself. She divided the space into four parts, with the entrance wall painted a magenta color, not a floral pink, but the color of the female genitalia. On the wall, the white text of the “Bald-headed Feminist Art Manifesto” is displayed, with Li Xinmo’s installation Female Demon Head placed on either side. Two rows of bald-headed girls stand on their scattered hair. Upon entering the main gallery, viewers encounter Xiao Lu’s large work What is Feminism. Behind What is Feminism, on a magenta wall, is Li Xinmo’s large mural Bald Girls. On the left black wall, there are large photographic works Statement of Scars and Memory of the Vagina. To match the gallery, these works have also been altered in color. On the left black wall, Patriarchal Social History is written in white. This entire exhibition presents a powerful internal impact and visual tension, with the background showing the oppressed female spirit and body under patriarchal society: the cut wrists, the cold gun inserted into the vagina, and the patriarchal history of women. In the center, a steel structure interrogates feminism, and in the background wall, the rebellious image of Bald Girls looms large. The gallery uses large areas of black, and the magenta color, under the influence of the black, changes its own character and meaning. Here, magenta becomes a color of resistance, a symbol of female bodily power. In a secondary exhibition space next to the entrance, Xiao Lu’s The Flowers of Evil is displayed, and beside it, on the wall, is Li Xinmo’s menstrual blood painting series. The two groups of works harmonize in both content and form. The exhibition background is white, and The Flowers of Evil presents the structure of the female genitalia, while menstrual blood comes from the same source. The wood material and the body’s texture together generate a sense of life. This exhibition space narrates the memory and experience of the female body with a voice full of warmth.
The independent space created for Jany Lan within the exhibition features her works hanging on the walls, and between these works are graffiti drawn by her children, along with their dirty clothes. This space becomes an independent work, representing Jany Lan’s life, as she raises three children while engaging in art creation. Through this space, one can feel the stark difference in status between overseas Chinese women and those living in China. Jany Lan’s space feels transcendent; it shows us the state of women who have gone through intense feminist movements. They are mentally independent and do not experience the pain and anxiety associated with living under patriarchal oppression. They control their own bodies and release their energy, moving freely between personal space and the societal realm.
Xiao Lu, Lin Xinmo, Jiny Lan, Bald Girls, Performance, 2012.3.3
In another section of the exhibition, past works and documents of the three artists are on display. At the exhibition opening, the three artists performed a piece titled Bald Girls, where they shaved each other’s long hair, appearing in public as bald-headed figures. This performance was like a ritual, symbolizing their inner independence and strength—not living under the gaze of others, no longer adhering to societal and cultural norms, and saying goodbye to the woman shaped by society, instead becoming beings in their own right.
The three artists of Bald Girls have embodied their firm feminist stance and identity as feminist artists through their actions. They will bring a new beginning and vitality to the diminishing feminist art movement in China and around the world.
