21 february 2022, Wouter van den Eijkel
Joyce Overheul's velvet feminism
The group exhibition 'Flexibel' ('Flexible') with work by Marian Bijlenga, Valentina Gal, Sibyl Heijnen and Joyce Overheul can now be seen at Galerie Franzis Engels. The latter uses humour and velvet to convey a feminist and activist message. At the same time, Overheul has her first solo exhibition in Museum de Fundatie in Zwolle.
Flexibel
The name of the group exhibition, 'Flexibel', does not only refer to the flexible materials that the artists use, such as textiles and latex. Flexibel also refers to the flexibility that the artists show in adapting their choice of materials to the image they have in mind.
Valentina Gal, Bodymap, 2021, Galerie Franzis Engels.
The latter plays a role in particular with the two younger artists Valentina Gal (1994) and Joyce Overheul (1989). For example, Gal investigates how humanity can position itself in a world in which it is becoming increasingly difficult to determine what is 'real'. She previously made video installations alternating between the everyday and the distorted hyper-reality of the digital world. This time she made hairy wall art with a moving tail using a kit with which you can make your animal avatar online.
Men of Quality
Joyce Overheul graduated from the HKU -Utrecht School of the Arts in 2012 and currently has her first solo exhibition in Museum de Fundatie under the telling title Let's get political. A number of the works from series that can be seen in Zwolle can also be seen at Franzis Engels. The most striking are 4 small photos from the 2019 series Men of quality. During a residency in Tehran in 2019, Overheul made a banner with the text Men of quality do not fear equality. She took it out into the street and photographed people carrying the banner, mostly men, who agreed with the statement.
Joyce Overheul, Men of quality, 2019, Galerie Franzis Engels.
At first glance it seems like a cheerful intervention: a banner is a thing of the past. Something we know from military guntas and authoritarian regimes. The combination with a slogan that is as funny as it is activist gives the banner something absurd. But that’s talking from a Western perspective, from a context in which everyone can say what they want and equality between men and women is regulated by law. In Iran it is a completely different situation and you are in serious danger if you are recognized on a photo with a slogan that goes directly against the views of the regime.
Utility box
How far the Iranian government is willing to go to maintain control over the population is apparent from another work Overheul made about her stay in Tehran. Iranian Velvet pt 3 consists of a sphere of blue velvet with a finely executed narration about the utility box that a young Iranian woman climbed on in 2017. Viva Movahed took off her headscarf, tied it to a stick and waved it. Movahed was arrested, but her action went viral. It did not pass unnoticed.
In response, the Iranian government fitted the utility boxes with gabled roofs, so that no one can stand on them anymore. Pure symptom control, because it will not have taken away the dissatisfaction.
Joyce Overheul, Iranian velvet p.t.3, 2019, Galerie Franzis Engels
The origins of Overheul's activism go back to her childhood. She grew up in a village in the Dutch bible belt, where she heard the Creation story at a young age. “Women are seen in the Creation story as the source of original sin, as the source of evil. Because Eve takes the apple. Eve took a bite and Eve seduced Adam, that silly, insignificant man," she says in the Dutch financial daily FD. According to Overheul, that image of women is still present in today’s society.
Just get angry
In order to help tilting this image, Overheul packages her feminist message in such a way that the communication does not immediately repel. In an interview accompanying the exhibition catalogue, Overheul says: “People generally respond first to what they see - the colours, the shapes, the materials, and only then they look at the message. And they are not always people who like to go see political art, so it is good to draw them in with refined handiwork, soft colours or humour, while it is actually about something that is quite intense.”
Basically, Overheul's work is about visibility of groups, about being allowed to have an opinion and about being heard. “Mainly, I’d like to urge people to speak up, you’re allowed to have an opinion, you’re allowed to think something but if you don’t express it, do something, then nothing will ever happen. [..] I often think, just get angry once, fight for something.”
'Joyce Overheul - Let's get political' runs through 3 April in Museum de Fundatie in Zwolle.
