put a bow on it.
Tiger Strikes Asteroid | Chicago, IL
February 1 - March 15, 2025
“Tiger Strikes Asteroid Chicago is pleased to present, put a bow on it., a group exhibition featuring work by Chicago-based artists Cecilia Beaven, Sarabeth Dunton, Mari Eastman, Flor Flores, Jazmine., Cydney M. Lewis, Liz McCarthy, Matt Morris, Selina Trepp, and Allison Wade.”
This exhibition investigates a visual vocabulary that we are calling “girl stuff”: iconographies that read as unapologetically feminine, formal strategies that suggest a restlessness around the idea of adornment, materials and making processes that move towards craft,
and representations of introspection and intimate exchange. “Girl stuff” is a category that we see operating in the practices of artists that employ a wide variety of media, come from different generations, and may or may not identify as “girls.” Many of the elements of this vocabulary have been viewed, historically and contemporarily, as surface-level effects: artistic moves that are lacking in creativity, originality, or depth, that are trivial or not worth attending to. put a bow on it. ties together these elements to make a prism through which to both see and reflect on “girl stuff.”
put a bow on it. provokes consideration of the range and depth of these formal strategies. What might attending to an aesthetic vocabulary of the unserious allow us to uncover? Can the secretive or unfashionable nature of that vocabulary allow for it to be subversive? Can it create a liberated space for personal and political conversations? Can it mobilize gestures of play and fantasy to imagine alternatives to our current world? Can it sneak in serious content beneath an unserious veneer? Is it a method of representing selves and experiences that operates outside of the male gaze and/or the patriarchy? Can it spark dialogue about the way that gendered, sexed, and racialized tropes have been forged and perpetuated? We hope that this exhibition will open up conversations around the potentialities of what “girl stuff” might be able to do.
put a bow on it. is curated by Maggie Borowitz and TSA Chicago member, Frances Lee with exhibition graphics designed by TSA Chicago member, Debra Kayes.
To read more about the ideas behind the exhibition check out the curators’ essay The ribbon as fuse at Chicago Artist Writers.