Anne Mourier’s exhibition While we still ask ourselves how to speak to each other examines the Feminine as it is associated with practices, qualities, and visualities that Western societies tend to devalue and even suppress, and what the implications of that value system are more broadly. Mourier, whose work often centers domestic labor frequently associated with women and uses craft techniques long undervalued in Western art history, conceived of While we still ask ourselves how to speak to each other as a collaborative site of re-thinking and re-valuation of the Feminine in an associative field of artworks, performances, and texts.

The exhibition uses the corners of the Danforth Gallery to explore four themes: The Feminine; The Feminine and Darkness; The Feminine Devalued; and The Feminine and the environment. In each section of the exhibition, you’ll find library books borrowed from the UMA Libraries in dialogue with the themes addressed in each section. The artist and UMA’s library specialists selected these texts for the four corners of the exhibition in a collaborative process. You may check these books out from the Katz library if you wish to continue reading them.

While we still ask ourselves how to speak to each other includes three performances during the noon hour January 24, 25, and 26th, in which Mourier will embroider with visitors and discuss the themes in her exhibition. All are welcome to participate.


About the Artist
Anne Mourier is a French-born conceptual artist who lives in Brooklyn, New York and in Venice, Italy. An internationally-known artist, Mourier was a founder of the influential New York art space The Invisible Dog. She works in media from lace to blown glass to performance, examples of which can all be seen in the Danforth Gallery. She has exhibited in several international venues including the Caos gallery in Venice during the 2015 Biennale, The galerie Huit in Arles during Les Rencontres d’Arles, and the Henry Luce III center for the Arts and Religion in Washington, DC. Her works are included in the collection of the Watermill center, the MoMA library and the private collection of the French minister of culture, Rima Abdul-Malak.

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Image: Anne Mourier, The Flow, alabaster, human hair and Murano glass, 2023