When the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, it left nearly 22 million women of reproductive age without access to safe abortions. Texas has one of the most severe bans in the country: There are no exceptions for cases of rape or incest, and medical exceptions are restricted to grisly, life threatening extremes. Medical professionals who perform abortions now face felony charges punishable by up to life in prison. A diverse but heavily - gerrymandered state, Texas’s political conservatism has taken a rapid turn to the far right in recent years.
For countless women here, these changes have put our survival — to say nothing of our well-being — on the line. What role can artists play at a time like this? How can culture and its producers respond to and even shape such real, daily problems? Can art do anything in the face of such a situation?
It’s hard not to think about these questions when viewing IN A DREAM YOU SAW A WAY TO SURVUVE ABD YOU WERE FULL OF JOY at The Contemporary Austin. The group exhibition takes place just seven blocks from the Texas Capitol building, our clearest symbol of state power. Though none deal with abortion specifically, artists Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Adriana Corral, Ellie Ga, Juliana Huxtable, Tala Madani, Danielle McKinney, Wendy Red Star, and Clare Rojas all work with themes of identity, the body, and control that resonate with the current climate.
Stillness pervades Clare Rojas’s large paintings, too, though it’s infused with a sense of tension. In Tired of Thinking, 2021, a woman gazes out at the viewer from the edge of her bed, her chin resting on her fist. Again, a bed appears as a place for processing psychic material, this time in a self-reflective mode. The book, pen, and glass of wine nearby imply a moment of journaling, reading, and reflection. Women have so much to worry about these days; she could be tired of thinking of many things.
