In the Beginning Archives - Women Beyond Borders

THE INSPIRATION

Women Beyond Borders began in a conversation at an art opening in Santa Barbara in 1991. Founder and artist, Lorraine Serena, contemplated the ease of shipping small works of art around the world with artist friend Elena Siff. Over the following year artists and art professionals came together in Lorraine’s studio to generate ideas to connect women artists and forge understanding and collaboration among women.

The original souvenir Box — The original souvenir box

At one of the studio meetings, a vintage cedar souvenir box on the table struck a chord. “That’s it!” said Victoria Vesna, a professor at UCLA, and the “box project” began. This vessel, evocative of a womb, tomb, gift, shrine… developed into a resonating symbol of woman, herself.

The box, about the size of a human heart, was practical to transport, intimate and yet metaphorically expansive. Several hundred boxes, each 3-1/2” x 2-1/2” x 2″, were constructed and distributed to artist friends including Isabel Barbuzza, Ciel Bergman, Sky Bergman, Rose Bilat, Beverly Decker, Elisse Pogofsky-Harris, Alice Hutchins, Evelyn Jacob, Saritha Margon, Maria Velasco, Elena Siff, Victoria Vesna, and Mary Heebner. Inspired, WBB participants swiftly began contacting artists and curators around the world who, in turn, invited up to twelve artists to participate.

Elena Siff, Lorraine Serena, and Beverly Decker

There was no formal process here, but rather improvisation! The selection of countries was made simply on the basis that someone in the group knew someone abroad. Evelyn spontaneously walked into a gallery in Paris and left boxes with a young woman who distributed them to friends. Beverly enlisted her sister-in-law in locating Native American women. Isabel enlisted the help of her 13 year-old son, Xavier, who carried boxes in his backpack to Argentina. Elena’s daughter, Ravelle, who was studying in Israel, contacted curator Daphna Naor, who scheduled an exhibition coinciding with International Women’s Day in Jerusalem. An exhibition at the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum inspired Marla Burns to reach out to Lorraine to share her enthusiasm for the project, click here to see a letter written by her to Lorraine in November of 1995.

The souvenir box that inspired the WBB box

Elisse took boxes to Magda Gonzalez-Mora at the Wifredo Lam Contemporary Art Center in Havana. Mary’s visitor, Mari Olguin, brought information back to Oaxaca and a week later there was a fax from the Casa de Mujer, “We seem to have hit a small gold mine of Oaxacan artists – send boxes ASAP!”

Opening boxes shipped from around the world — Opening boxes from around the world

A few months later we received the first box creations. We were astonished at the range of expression the boxes evoked. It was at this moment that the collaboration took wing and dialogue was established, opening doors to new possibilities. These original boxes served as a grassroots foundation which began its journey to virtually every continent in the world.

A small box was given to me. I had to take a stand on what that box should mean. The more I worked on it, the more condensed the energy became. It was like atomic energy, my life condensed. When my box took its place among all the other atomic reactions of love, despair, joy, fun and fear, it was such a reaffirming commitment to living and being a women, that I felt the room explode with all the creative energy that was present.

– Saritha Margon, WBB Artist

As contributing artist and team organizer of Women Beyond Borders, I learned to understand the world in a radically new way: one that is based in interaction and teamwork, versus the traditionally patriarchal view of individuality, competition and isolation. Woman is one and multiple at once; her strength resides in being so versatile to the extent that her individuality doesn’t feel threatened by working in collaboration. This attitude is very valuable and very rare nowadays. Collaboration, exchange, dialogue are the elements that contribute to the impact of a show like this. Woman extends herself and becomes “female”. Female exists beyond anatomical difference.

– Maria Velasco, WBB Artist

References:
Mary Heebner “A Box Network”, Santa Barbara News Press

The First Few Boxes Received

Ciel Bergman – Grief Repair, USA -California, 1995

Saritha Margon – My World, USA – California, 1995

Maria Velasco – A Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft, USA – California, 1995

PREMIER EXHIBITION

Contemporary Arts Forum

Santa Barbara, California
November 4 – December 23, 1995

Nancy Doll, Director of the Contemporary Arts Forum
Rita Ferri, Assistant Director
Lorraine Serena, WBB Founder, Coordinator
Elena Siff, WBB Curator, Coordinator

I am prouder than ever before for being a woman. I could feel the women whispering, like clocks ticking, like all these wild, intentional undone heartbeats. I will tell everyone.

– Valentina Grup-Kruip, Poet

A TIMELY ENDEAVOR

Women Beyond Borders is a timely endeavor as it brings together women’s visions from around the globe, at the end of a century marked by their struggles for rights and freedoms. It is also particularly important in that it cuts across all borders – physical, political, religious, and racial. The project is a celebration of women’s progress and movement forward as they connect with one another on a global level. The exhibition surpasses all of our expectations, high as they were! I am quite sure that the exhibition will be received enthusiastically everywhere it goes. It is sure to be one of our most popular exhibitions. It is also one of our most meaningful exhibitions. Through the collective efforts of WBB artists and curators, a beautifully simple idea has been transformed into a profound project that extends literally and symbolically far beyond physical and conceptual borders.

– Nancy Doll, former Director Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, 1995

There is no hierarchy in this exhibition. We are all creating a piece from the same inexpensive pine box and there is a real sense of us supporting one another. We are women artists of all ages, from all economic backgrounds and with varying degrees of professional reputation in the “art world.” As this project has grown and the dialogue with other international artists has increased, through the fax and Internet, it is apparent that there is a vital stream which is flowing among us as the exhibition begins its epic voyage. Whatever happens on the way is the essence of Women Beyond Borders.

– Elena Siff, WBB Artist

Rita Ferri, Assistant Director, Lorraine, guest, and Sojourner Kincaid Rolle, WBB artist

The Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum (now the Museum of Contemporary Art) was the site of the premiere exhibition on November 4th, 1995. In the exhibition were 185 boxes from Argentina, Australia, Finland, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Austria, Spain, Sweden, USA and Vietnam.

Some boxes brimmed with hope, others were burdened with oppression. At times humorous, and often conceptual, the objects express universal thoughts, feelings, hopes and dreams of women around our world. All together, this exhibition was an impressive anthology of various life-stories along with powerful statements. A record number of people attended and responded to the expressive power of each work, as well as the collective pulse of the exhibition.

Lorraine Serena, WBB Founder, Be Ky Nguyen, WBB Artist, Suzie Vuong, WBB Artist, and Darlene Nguyen-Ely, WBB Artist

The original boxes served as a grassroots foundation of Women Beyond Borders, which then began its travels to virtually every continent. By word of mouth, exhibitions were scheduled by museums and galleries around the world.

Pilar Flores and her boyfriend traveled all the way from Ecuador to visit the exhibit.

Women representing various participating countries attended the opening. Meeting them was the highlight of the evening. Artists Lizet Benrey-Fuller and her mother Shirley Chernitsky traveled from Mexico City to attend. Ingeborg Pock and Eva Ursprung made the trip from Graz, Austria, Annica Karlsson-Rixon and Paulina Wallenberg Olsson represented Sweden at the event. Darlene Nguyen-Ely, Suzie Vuong, Be Ky Nguyen and her son represented Vietnam.

Hutchins Alice - Another Plaything, 1995, USA — Alice Hutchins – Another Plaything, 1995, USA

Women Beyond Borders is an exciting, ground breaking project. It’s untraditional, open ended, indeterminate and inclusive quality recalls some of the liberating works of the 60’s.

– Alice Hutchins, Fluxus and intermedia artist, 1995

The most far-reaching exhibition of the year was Women Beyond Borders, a reaffirmation that good things come in small packages. Small wooden boxes which were sent to women around the world came back as works of art, filled with meanings from politics to motherhood to feminism to pure art.

– Joan Crowder, Santa Barbara News Press, 1995

This exhibition has been created in a female way. What has been accomplished is a real model of how the feminine process works. One doesn’t have to bulldoze people over in process of moving forward. You can be nurturing, flexible, open, caring, non-judgmental — all of those wonderful female attributes which are very powerful in a universal way. This would never been done without give-and-take, without collaboration.

– Beverly Decker, WBB Artist, Teacher

Southern California artists Lorraine Serena and Elena Siff thought that women’s creativity had been boxed up for too long. So they devised a plan to exhibit women’s artwork internationally and blew the lid off the notion of art as a solitary experience

– Melissa Minkin, Writer

Lorraine Serena is a Woman of the World. She has been a forerunner of building international community as her artform. She has a passion for bringing diverse women together and assisting them to see their commonalities.

– Gail Berkus, Art Patron

You did a great service to the whole world. – Mercedes Eichholz, Art Patron

FIRST BOXES ARRIVE

Beverly Decker, Doris Jauk-Hinz, Eva Ursprung, Lorraine Serena and Saritha Margon

The beauty of WBB was found in the spirit of support evidenced around the world as women came out of isolation into relation.

– Lorraine Serena, WBB Artistic Director

The first boxes arrived in late 1995, filling Lorraine’s studio with the spirit and imagination of their creators. No one had any idea what to expect. “Let things fall into place,” advised Liz Brown, then curator of the University Art Museum at UCSB. “This project has a life of its own. That’s the beauty of it.” A spirit of cooperation cut across cultural, religious, and economic boundaries. Artists drew from their own traditions, with each box becoming a distinct portrait.

Opening Boxes — Luz Maria Anguiano opening boxes from Ecuador

Mexican boxes represented ornate reliquaries, encrusted with pigment, gold and memorabilia. The Argentinians deconstructed boxes to create sculptural balancing acts. The Parisian works were sleek and abstract. In Africa, a woman carved the box surface into a body of a woman within which slept a tiny infant. The Israeli group added metal, concrete, and wire, revealing endless conflict. Together, all the boxes created a visual anthology of women.

A world map began to chart the journey with red push pins, identifying participating countries. Within each country, artists came together, perhaps because of WBB’s simplicity and unrestricted quality. A complex web of communiqués, enabled by the onset of the internet, swiftly aligned us with one another. Participants arranged an array of activities, including adjunct exhibitions, workshops and discussion groups.

Lorraine opening a box — Lorraine Serena opening a box from Italy

Suvan Geer, artist visionary, described Women Beyond Borders before it was launched as “a gathering together of women so they can identify themselves, which is, speak for themselves. It is an opportunity for reclaiming identity on a global scale by looking at the codes of self-imaging in various cultures. The importance of this action in a global society cannot be underestimated. Dialogue, which begins with the silent speaking for themselves, expressing who they are, their experience or their desires, opens an avenue for exchange and communication. It is an opportunity to alter and inflect the ongoing dialogue of signs and symbols that seek to define and refine who we are. It is in a very real sense a revolutionary act.”

Suvan continued, “Women Beyond Borders is a step in undoing the isolation and hopelessness of silence. Documentation will never fully reveal what this dialogue will mean to participants. That is to be expected and in no way diminishes what this gathering together will signify to the world. Because every revolution is people. Not crowds or movements or armies, but individuals coming to a common understanding that they have power. That they can change the world. And it always begins with knowing who we are.”

Reference:
Suvan Geer “Pieces of Dialogue”

BOXES CONTINUE TO ARRIVE

BON VOYAGE BENEFIT

St. Marks in the Valley

Los Olivos, California
January 14, 1995

Kate Firestone, Coordinator
Mary Ann Evans, Coordinator
Jan Dunbar, Coordinator

Kate Firestone organized much of the benefit with the help of her team.

The Bon Voyage Benefit was hosted at St. Marks in the Valley for a box viewing and discussion with Lorraine Serena. The benefit raised money and awareness for the new cross-cultural exhibition before it departed on its first international tour abroad to Jerusalem in March later that year. The exhibition would then go on to expand WBB to Switzerland, Austria, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Kenya, Japan, Australia, Vietnam, Argentina, Cuba, and Mexico.

JOURNAL beyond borders

Category: In the Beginning