Suzanne Bocanegra is an artist best known for her work in performance and installation. She began exhibiting as a painter and sculptor in the 1990s, but in 2010, an invitation to lecture on her work at the Museum of Modern Art became an opportunity to approach the trope of the ‘artist lecture’ as a performative, sculptural installation. Since that moment her work has attempted to blur the boundaries between the “black box” of the theater and the “white box” of the museum.
Poorly Watched Girls takes its title from the 18th-century ballet La Fille mal gardee, one of the first ballets ever made, and itself based on a painting of the same name. Her exhibition explores the ways that our cultural entertainments theatricalize women in trouble-spiritual trouble, emotional trouble, and romantic trouble. By restaging a legendary ballet, an acclaimed opera, and a cult film in a museum setting, Bocanegra refocuses our attention on how the vulnerability of women fuels our popular entertainments.
Textiles and fabric are at the core of many of Bocanegra’s works, and play a large role in this exhibition. Bocanegra and The Fabric Workshop and Museum collaborated closely on the detailed sewing, the fabrication of costumes, and the screen-printing of material seen throughout the show.
