At PUSD’s “No Boundaries” show the students replicated The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago (Photo – Jennifer Hall Lee)
No Boundaries, this year’s whimsical, serious, and original art exhibit by the Pasadena Unified School District is on display now at the Paseo in Pasadena.
By Jennifer Hall Lee
No Boundaries is never to be missed. At this year’s show, however, there is one specific piece that has me agog – The Dinner Party.
It is a student recreation of the iconic feminist installation by Judy Chicago that rocked the art world in 1979, in a time when feminist artists were exposing sexism in the art establishment and creating feminist art. Judy Chicago’s installation called The Dinner Party, was a highly charged thunderbolt that pierced the male narrative in art and history.
PUSD students created Chicago’s Dinner Party for the 21st century and it is magnificent.
Stroll down to the Paseo and experience it for yourself. As you walk through the front doors you will be magnetically pulled toward the first point of the triangular table. On closer look you see the names of women printed on each table runner, each with a ceramic dinner plate and chalices. The design is simply regal.
The original Dinner Party that was unveiled in 1979 was created to symbolically and artistically give literal space to the female religious figures, activists, composers, writers, creators, and even goddesses whose work or mythical stories helped shape our world. The plates were three dimensional and the table runners were hand embroidered.
A 21st century twist on a feminist legend
The replicated “The Dinner Party” by Judy Chicago at “No Boundaries” at The Paseo (Photo – Jennifer Hall Lee)
This No Boundaries version of the original Dinner Party is a 21st century twist on a feminist legend.
PUSD teachers, Liane Shih and Denise Seider are artists who teach, guide and, as always, shepherd the creativity in each student. When they received the Calven Hunt Arts award from the Pasadena Educational Foundation, the Dinner Party was underway. Ms. Shih said that they decided to “align it to this month’s national Women’s History Month theme which is “Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.”
Teachers Amanda Gould and Alma Livingston also worked with over 200 student artists from three PUSD schools: Altadena Arts Magnet, Norma Coombs Elementary, and Marshall Fundamental Secondary School. Shih added that in addition to the ceramics, the students learned how to use the “ancient art of batik” for the table runners. The students researched the women’s lives and work for the designs and quotes.
To see Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party, which is currently on display for the long term at the Brooklyn Museum, is to metaphorically peruse a table of women throughout history within their place in time in friendship. For instance, the early American religious reformer from Massachusetts, Anne Hutchinson, has a place beside the navigator and explorer, Sacajawea. The biblical Jezebel is placed next to the Greek poet Sappho.
In the PUSD Dinner Party the students have honored the lives and work of 20th and 21st century female icons. Kimberley Teehee a Native American attorney has a plate adorned with the traditional image of a thunderbird, and she sits beside Ruth Bader Ginsburg whose plate depicts a double-sided judicial gavel that emerges from the plate defiantly. ‘Hidden Figure’ Katherine Johnson has a plate designed with whimsical planets. The table runner for Dolores Huerta depicts orange butterflies fluttering upwards towards her plate and she sits next to civil rights activist Yuri Kochiyama whose retro eyewear is her symbolic image. A fierce tiger adorns the runner of disability rights activist Alice Wong. Vice President Kamala Harris sits next to Taylor Swift. And of course Stacey Abrams has a seat at the table.
The Dinner Party in No Boundaries is a dinner party that is lively, prominent, historical and dignified. I wanted to pull up a chair, join the women at the table, invite the students, and discuss our world.
Brava, PUSD.
No Boundaries 19 will be on display until March 17. It is in collaboration with artworxLA, the Los Angeles County Office of Arts and Culture, Pasadena Unified School District, the Pasadena Educational Foundation, the City of Pasadena’s Division of Cultural Affairs, and the Paseo.
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