T-shirts, men, women, hetero, homo...

From 21 April to 24 June 2012, the Kunsthaus Bregenz in Vorarlberg (Austria) presents the 1970s t-shirts inspired art project 'Herstory Inventory: 100 Feminist Drawings by 100 Artists' by Ulrike Müller.

'Herstory Inventory' was started by Ulrike Müller (born in Austria, living in New York) after she found out that archivists' descriptions contain text which can be used for artistic reflection. This happened while she researched the inventory list of t-shirts of the 1970s at the Lesbian Herstory Archives (Brooklyn, New York). Between 2009 and 2012, Ulrike Müller invited 100 international artists to translate the texts concerning the t-shirt illustrations into new images.

"Ulrike Müller's invitation to rethink images from the history of lesbian feminism turns the inventory of the Lesbian Herstory Archives into a source and reference point for a wealth of artistic designs." states Kunsthaus Bregenz about Ulrike Müller's work which focuses on gender constructions beyond binary categories like man|woman, hetero|homo.

The work of Ulrike Müller has to be seen also in the context of her activities as publisher for the genderqueer zine LTTR, where the ideas of feminism, gender politics and queer culture from the 1970s are translated into our time under the motto "sustainable change, queer pleasure, and critical productivity." In the latest issue 'Positively Nasty' (Oct 2006) of the annual journal of the publisher-artist-collective LTTR ('Listen Translate Translate Record'), Ulrike Müller writes: "I will search the archives, and distill schnapps from the windfall of history. I won’t let myself be disconnected from the larger picture." lttr.org

fig. original left: 'A Naked Woman Riding a Spiral Graphic of Some Kind' by Celeste Dupuy-Spencer; drawing from 'Herstory Inventory' (2009-2012), a project organized by Ulrike Müller. 35.5 x 28 cm, pencil and ink on paper. Courtesy Herstory Inventory, (C) Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, Herstory Inventory. Right: 'Abstract plus Pink Lips & Stars & Triangles' by Adriana Minoliti; drawing from 'Herstory Inventory' (2009-2012), a project organized by Ulrike Müller. 32 x 23 cm, acrylic on canvas. Courtesy Herstory Inventory, (C) Adriana Minoliti, Herstory Inventory.

Source: Original article with images on https://www.fashion.at/culture/2012/herstoryinventory4-2012.htm.

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