PICTURING THE MODERN AMAZON
History
was made on March 30th 2000 when the first exhibition devoted to the
representation of hyper-muscular and physically strong women in popular culture
opened at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City. The exhibition
Picturing the Modern Amazon presents the world of female bodybuilding as a
distinct culture with it’s own history.
Last October I
received an email from Laurie Fierstein asking me if I would like to be involved
in a live performance to mark the opening of Picturing the Modern Amazon. I had
never met Laurie before, but knew of her as a female bodybuilder (perhaps the
most densely muscled one for her height - about 5” and certainly for her age -
54) and the woman who produced the shows Celebration of the Most Awesome Female
Muscle in the World (1993) and Evolution F: A Surreal Spectacle of Female Muscle
(1995). I had seen pictures from Laurie’s other shows so I immediately
accepted the invitation. I was honored to be invited to participate and excited
at the thought of being involved in something so unique. I had a feeling that
Picturing the Modern Amazon would be one of the most important events for
popularizing female bodybuilding so I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity
to be a part of it.
Not long after
receiving the invite, I visited the USA to watch the Ms Olympia and there I was
able to meet Laurie. She filled me in on the background to the exhibition.
Together with Joanna Fruch, an art historian and performance artist and Judith
Stein, a curator and critic Laurie had been organizing the exhibition for the
last 6 or so years; researching historical artwork and records of muscular and
powerful women, gathering modern contemporary works and commissioning pieces
specifically for the event as well as campaigning for funding from sponsors to
enable the exhibition to take place.
Laurie had also
been busy enlisting the support of some of the worlds top female bodybuilders to
participate in the ‘Posing and Performing’ - a live representation of the
hyper-muscular woman. The list of women who I would be joining in this event
read like a who’s who of current female bodybuilding: Andrulla Blanchette,
Christa Bauch, Leesa Lewis, Heather Foster, Monica Martin, Renee O’Neill and
Annie Rivieccio to name just a few. For me, this would be the biggest thrill of
all, to stand on stage and pose with women of such caliber, some of whom have
been my idols.
As the date of the
exhibition grew closer it became more and more obvious how much attention the
exhibition was attracting in the US. The ‘mainstream’ media response to
Picturing the Modern Amazon press releases was of a magnitude previously unseen
by the Museum. Tickets to the ‘Posing and Performing’ event sold out weeks
in advance and the museum had to arrange televisions in other parts of the
museum so they could transmit the event to a larger audience. Where else would
you get to see top amateur and professional female bodybuilders from the world
over on the one program?
Prior to traveling to New York City for Picturing the Modern Amazon I went to Philadelphia for a day to make a posing video with Women’s Physique World. The video was filmed at Vixen Farm, home of the famous “A Hard Woman is Good to Find” female bodybuilder Valkyrie design t-shirts, (thanks Charles) and should be due out around June. At the farm I met up with Pavla Brantalova (1998 European Bodybuilding Champion) and we all traveled down to NYC for the exhibition.
THURSDAY
MARCH 30TH: OPENING DAY
The day dawned
clear and sunny in New York City, a perfect early spring day. The arrangements
were that all the girls involved in the exhibition meet at the Museum at 11am
for a briefing prior to the media opening at noon. Here we got a chance to meet
one another. I thought I would be ‘the odd one out’ coming from so far away
and competing with NABBA, but it was quite the opposite. I already knew Andrulla
Blanchette and Monica Martin, so it was like catching up with old friends. I
found that although they compete on the same circuit, the others girls didn’t
really know each other.
“…was
really nice because for once we were all not nervous, as like in a contest, and
with that tension gone, it was easier to chat, and get to know each other. I for
one, never really took notice of Leesa Lewis in the past, although she had been
one of my main competition. I usually just saw her as a target. This time, it
was cool to get to know her. She is an extremely nice person, fun to hang out
with.” Andrulla Blanchette
The plan for the
day was to have a luncheon to meet the press and then open the exhibition but
despite the best intentions of the museum staff to be organized, the media
opening was like a free-for-all. The press, in their eagerness, barged into the
exhibition (I guess that’s a good sign, female bodybuilding is much more
interesting than free food) and the photos and questions came thick and fast. A
little later, Laurie managed to gather the media and walk them through the
exhibition, explaining each piece of art. Pavla, Andrulla, Christa and myself
became ‘living’ exhibits for this event, adding a fourth dimension to the
exhibition.
After all the fun
and excitement of the press opening there was a short break before returning to
the museum at 6.30pm for the VIP opening. We had been told they were expecting
about 1500 people, mostly from the art world, so a very different crowd of
people to the usual bodybuilding. To go along with the VIP opening, Laurie had
asked for volunteers to pose in the museum windows facing Broadway. Monica,
Andrulla, Lesa and Pavla were among the girls who literally stopped traffic on
Broadway.
“I saw faces
squashed up against the glass, lots of cameras, including CNNs which couldn’t
get enough of this show… People in the street were stopped in their tracks…
Smiles, shouts, waves, lots of happy folks out there watching…” Andrulla
Blanchette
Inside the
exhibition the people were fascinated. For many, this was there first exposure
to female bodybuilding, and after an initial shyness, the questions started to
flow. Not the usual ‘how much do you lift?’, but some very deep and
interesting questions touching on the social issues behind being a muscular
female, how and why we choose to transform our bodies, how we feel we are
perceived, what makes us go against the ‘fashionable’ waif-like image.
Artists and non-bodybuilders have a totally different perception of muscle and
appreciate it for it’s unique form and texture, it’s beauty, for the power
and strength it represents and how it manifests itself differently on each
individuals body.
I was told I had
an ‘approachable’ face, so by the end of the night, my voice was all but
gone after speaking to so many people. I really felt as though I had made
progress in helping people understand that female bodybuilders are not trying to
be men. Muscle has no gender. We like muscle; the way it looks and feels on our
bodies, and this is why we choose to develop it. The other girls felt the same
way. Talking to people on a one-on-one basis allowed us to break down many of
the pre-conceived ideas people have about female bodybuilders being masculine.
People had the opportunity to see that we are very much women, we think like
other women, act like other women, talk like other women and dress like other
women (well, okay, so maybe we wear dresses that other women only dream of
squeezing into). So many people commented on the inner vitality that radiated
from all the female bodybuilders, how happy and confident we all are and how we
have a real sense of ourselves.
“The crowd was different, and that made it feel like a bit of a breakthrough, especially since most of these people were artists and the like, and they truly appreciated the female bodybuilders and were very respectful. I see that this shows us there is a hunger out there for female muscle, outside of bodybuilding, and that its high time we go out and grab it.” Andrulla Blanchette
FRIDAY
MARCH 31ST: POSING AND PERFORMING
This was the event
everyone had been waiting for………and wait they did. Due to start at 7pm,
the show was delayed 40 minutes as the MC was stuck in New York traffic!
From all accounts, it was worth the wait (I didn’t get to see the show of
course, so I can’t wait to get my copy of the video). Backstage was nothing
like the typical bodybuilding show. There was a professional make-up artist
supplied by Revlon for those who wished to use him and a most magnificent spread
of gourmet cakes, biscuits and fruit supplied by Simon and DeLuca (a famous
gourmet food house) along with champagne and wine! Laurie figured we all
deserved a treat. (Could all contest promoters please take note - just joking).
The array of costumes used by the girls was a sight to behold…..Christa Bauch
as Dracula, Leesa Lewis in her ‘Wonder Woman’ style outfit, Heather Foster
in a fishnet bodysuit, Monica Martin as BatWoman, Annie Rivieccio with her hot
pink cape and two female ‘slaves’. I chose to present hardcore muscle, with
a simple marble effect bikini and the most muscular posing routine witnessed in
the USA. The typical female bodybuilder posing routine in the US is fairy
‘dance’ orientated and quite ‘soft’ in muscular display, so when I came
on stage with hard-core techno music and hit bold, strong poses, the crowd went
wild, clapping along to the music. After I finished, the MC brought me back on
for an encore of ‘crab’ most muscular poses (I think the last person to do
one on stage in the US was our own Bev Francis).
At the end of all
the routines, we all entered the stage via the audience, posing amongst them,
allowing them a closer look at our muscles. We took our places on the stage for
a question and answer session. My favourite moment was when someone asked Monica
Martin (from Brazil) what people there thought of her, given that Americans see
Brazillians are being a chauvinistic society.
“My people,
they love me!” Monica Martin
And it’s true! Whenever Monica returns home from a contest she has an escort from the airport is featured on the nightly news! In our own more ‘liberal’ society, how often does a bodybuilder get on the news (without having done something illegal)?
HANGING
OUT IN NEW YORK CITY
After all the hard
work and excitement of the show I had the opportunity to hang out in New York
for a few days. Non-New Yorkers always assume that a female bodybuilder would go
unnoticed in New York City. This is so untrue! New Yorkers are such curious
people…they stop and ask you questions, want to take your photo and yell to
you across the street “how do you train those legs!”. Waiters in restaurants
compliment you on how you look, deli owners give you free or extra food
‘because you are a growing girl’.
The tide is turning and people are more accepting of women with muscle.
PICTURING
THE MODERN AMAZON: THE EXHIBITION
The exhibition
includes paintings, drawings, photographs, videos, sculptures, comic books, and
especially for the opening, a live performance by some of the world’s top
female bodybuilders. Divided into three sections, the exhibition features
historical images, contemporary works and comics.
The historical
component dates back as early as 1783 with images of female strength performers
such as Miss Lala (1870’s) and Athleta (1890’s) as well as a poster from
what was believed to be the first recorded female physique contest from the
early 1920’s.
Many of the
contemporary works were commissioned for the exhibition. Featuring work by over
45 artists this section includes photos of Yvonne Vasquez and Gillian Hodge by
Bill Dobbins, ‘ USA Commando’ style photos Heather Foster by Renee Cox,
sensual photos of Leesa Lewis captured by Andres Serrano, a frontal monumental
(means each section was painted at eye level so no one part is attracted to the
eye) portrait of New York bodybuilder Betty Moore by Alfred Leslie, and my
personal favourite, a photomontage by Marine Weber called “The Competition”
depicting female bodybuilders (complete with antlers) posing on rocks to an
enthralled audience of small furry creatures.
Comics that focus
on muscular female characters and superheroes are the feature of the third
section of the exhibition. The collection represents a half-century of work.
Comic books and original work by artists such as Robert Crumb and Alain Celerier
present some extremely ‘sexual’ fantasy images of almost unimaginably
muscular female figures (they need to be seen to be believed), and even Quadra
BluTM (remember her from the Muscular Development magazine) makes an appearance
in the comic section of Picturing the Modern Amazon.
Anyone who has the
opportunity to be in New York between now and June 25th should make a point of
getting to the New Museum of Contemporary Art, 583 Broadway (between Houston and
Prince Streets). For further information on the exhibition, visit the New Museum
website at www.newmuseum.org
Picturing the
Modern Amazon was made possible by a generous donation from the Peter Norton
Family Foundation. Another major sponsor of the exhibition is Altoids (a major
mint/chewing gum company) who is committed to generating exposure for
contemporary artists. The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New
York State Council on the Arts also provided financial support through the New
Museum.
I would like to
take the opportunity to thank my sponsor Diana
the Valkyrie “A Hard Man is Good to Beat” for enabling me to
travel to New York for the exhibition and for her ongoing support of my
bodybuilding career. Anyone interested in muscular women should visit Diana’s
site to catch the latest female bodybuilder pictures, stories and even catch up
with the girls on the chat room.
Check
out more of some of the girls involved in the exhibition.
·
Andrulla Blanchette www.andrulla.com
·
Annie Rivieccio www.annierivieccio.com
