She’s too much

“If I suffer, don’t be afraid. Please cry with me instead, should I one day lose the freedom to feel every possible feeling there is.”

An investigation, celebration, repudiation and embrace of every shade of emotion that transpires in the body of “She” over a period of 28 days, or one menstrual cycle, “She’s too much” draws inspiration from two books juli baker and summer picked up last year: bell hooks’ “All About Love” and Tara Costello’s “Red Moon Gang”, which have both helped her embrace the gamut of emotions she experiences over the 28 days of her monthly cycle that can be triggered by small events in her day to day life– her favorite restaurant discontinuing a favorite dish– to structural issues – the current political situation, capitalism, patriarchy, tradition and other hegemonic value systems. Her connection to these two books inspired her to begin closely documenting, exploring and tracking her emotions in a journal, then reworking its contents into the 29 paintings arrayed alongside sculptures and other works of art in this exhibition.

Each of juli baker and summer’s paintings are grounded in her lived experiences: personal memories, everyday conversations, globetrotting, favorite books, pop culture, society and politics. In a way, her art-making is another form of journaling, on a larger canvas. Her paintings are distinguished by color palettes as vibrant and bold as the summer sun, and young women with strange– almost abstract– bodies sprawled at ease and awash with the emotions discharged through each brushstroke.

Venue: RCB Galleria 4
Free admission