In April 1972, John Lennon and Yoko Ono released an eyebrow-raising single from their album “Some Time in New York City.” In it, the legendary former Beatle and his creative and romantic partner sang: “Woman is the Nigger of the World.” Now, almost 48 years after the controversial duo’s hit sparked a global outcry, one Israeli artist is dreaming up a world in which women are no longer “the slave to the slave.” In Yael Bartana’s alternative reality, feminism is key, men are hardly ever mentioned, and the real issue facing the female leaders of her universe is the fight against weapons.
Hints of this idealistic world emerge throughout
Bartana’s latest solo exhibition, “The Undertakers,” at Sommer Contemporary Art in Tel Aviv. A sign in bold blue neon letters announces to viewers that in the space they have entered, “Patriarchy is history.” And that’s just the tip of the iceberg: The exhibition is inundated with social messages and unabashed criticism of the inequality that still prevails between men and women today. Most of the artist’s liberal slogans are concentrated in the show’s central work, a 13-minute video titled “The Undertaker.” In it, a mysterious female leader clad in a somber-looking suit leads an army of dancers through the U.S. city of Philadelphia, on a march that concludes with a mass burial ceremony for weapons.
