Ridykeulous (AL Steiner + Nicole Eisenman)
The Advantages of Being a Lesbian Woman Artist
2006
screenprint
16 x 20 inches
RIDYKEULOUS website
Ridykeulous is a New York-based collective created by artists Nicole Eisenman and A.L. Steiner
“Jessica Baran: So this [pointing to the hand-edited Guerilla Girls poster] is not simply about feminism, it’s literally about lesbian supremacy.
Nicole Eisenman: That piece points to the fact that this is all an ongoing conversation. It’s open, and everything can and should be edited. These artists should be able to come back and edit their or anybody else’s work.
A.L. Steiner: It’s all dialogue. Certain works might appear to have singular, autonomous voices, but they don’t, necessarily. Kathy Acker and Dennis Cooper’s letter exchange is the only actual response piece we’ve included, but it’s really important.
NE: Dennis Cooper, in those letters, criticizes Kathy Acker for something he then takes from her and does in his own work.
The Guerilla Girls have long since been canonized, and Ridykeulous is now having its first museum exhibition. Is all of this institutionalization disempowering?
ALS: The Guerilla Girls are now historical, yes — and, of course, there are pros and cons to being historicized. Something others call feminism, we call feminisms, because it’s a plurality that continually evolves. When we first showed this piece in 2006, there were several people who found it rude. Not the Guerrilla Girls, they didn’t contact us — though, years later, they did and asked if they could put it in one of their shows. Both the criticism and acceptance are okay. That’s how art operates.”
– Jessica Baran, “Thank God Its Not Abstract: A Ridykeulous Interview,” Hyperallergic, March 19, 2014