“(Re)Sisters: Speaking Up, Speaking Out” exhibit.

By Michelle Tian

An unexpected attraction awaits at the Brickbottom Gallery, the (Re)Sisters: Speaking Up, Speaking Out exhibit. The gallery’s white walls are decorated with artistic pictures of uteruses, interpretations of the word “resistance” and an array of feminine accessories and clothing like purses and multi-colored dresses.

The exhibit opened on September 11, 2021 and pays homage to the women’s issues that have arisen in the past year, from the disproportionate effects of COVID-19 to the recent abortion ban in Texas.

Pamela Bower-Basso, one of the two curators of the exhibit, said the collection of pieces came together in response to a variety of political events, including the 2016 election.

“I started doing a lot of art work around that time that connected with the sexism and misogynistic rhetoric that was coming out of the campaign and then the election,” Bower-Basso said. “So, politics, I would say, had a big impact on how this show came about.”

Thalia Berard: “Mind Your Own Business”

The exhibit’s title, (Re)Sisters, is a play on words that focuses on women as resistors. Bower-Basso said the exhibit’s main theme highlights the struggle to secure reproductive rights while also displaying artwork related to the fight for women’s rights in general.

Recalling the day the exhibit opened, Caitlin Doering, the second of the two curators of the collection, said it was a big moment to be able to stand in one room with women who had all been impacted by sexism and were passionate about the same topic.

“Everybody was coming from a partially shared experience,” Doering said. “It was really interesting and powerful to be able to network and talk about experiences with a group of female artists.”

Azita Moradkhani, one of the participating artists, created a drawing of pink underwear stained with blood. She said it was based on her impression of walking into a Victoria’s Secret store for the first time in Boston after moving from her hometown of Tehran, Iran.

Nina Fletcher: Artistic interpretations of the uterus.

“I was thinking about the power of censorship and oppression and female bodies,” Moradkhani said. “That was the starting point for me, thinking about the ideas of private versus public, pleasure versus pain.”

Moradkhani said she wanted to highlight the power and range of the vagina because, “one of the most amazing things happen on that part of the body [which is childbirth],” yet it is also the target of “violence and rape.”

One of the other pieces that also focused on reproductivity was a photograph of Thalia Berard, an artist whose work is also showcased in the exhibit. In the picture, Berard sits in front of the statehouse with her legs wide open and the words “Mind Your Own Business” sewn into her jeans.

Berard said the piece was meant to highlight her being pro-choice. The work was originally inspired by a protest poem called If My Vagina Was a Gun.

“[The piece] is in favor of women being able to be women and other people who have vaginas being able to have an abortion if they would like one,” Berard said.

Berard added that she created her piece of art to express the oppression she felt from the Trump administration. She hoped that her work “would not need to be as relevant going forward.” But she recognizes that’s not the case.

“Women and people living in the south are still dealing with these ridiculous laws being passed,” Berard said. “Unfortunately, it’s very relevant to today.”

“Resistance is believing in powerful moments filled with joy.”

Growing up in Iran, Moradkhani didn’t have a chance to learn much about feminism so, when she immigrated to the United States in 2012, she was “shocked to the bones” to learn that this country was still dealing with abortion rights.

“You can shoot a person in the United States if they enter your house without your permission,” Moradkhani said. “But if you have something in your body, you don’t have the right to decide about it. Someone else, and probably a guy, should decide.”

Moradkhani said she was “honored to be a part of this show,” and talked about her inspiration for participating in an exhibit highlighting the power of femininity.

“I’m different from a man in many ways,” Moradkhani said. “But we are equal, and that’s the most important thing for me to express and explain in my words.”

(Re)Sisters: Speaking Up, Speaking Out through October 16, 2021, Brickbottom Gallery, 1 Fitchburg St., Somerville, MA 02143 (617) 776-3410.

“What Does Resistance Mean To You?”; “Resistance is Existence”; “The power to make change”