“Cat and Mouse” is a painting I made for Siren Nation’s Then and Now art show, about the treatment of women. It is partially modeled after a WSPU propaganda poster to express the inequity between the sexes that still occurs today, and to celebrate those who defy that inequity.
Background info:
then
In response to rough treatment by the government, suffragettes imprisoned for acts of protest staged hunger strikes in prison. The “Cat and Mouse act in the U.K. aka The Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913 was to release Suffragettes who became too ill or weak from these hunger strikes. The prisoners would be released to recover and rearrested as necessary (like a cat plays with it’s mouse). Previously suffragettes were forcibly fed, there were allegations of poisonings during these feedings that went unanswered as well.
now
Pussy Riot, an all female punk band in Russia staged a performance/ protest of the government in Moscow’s main orthodox cathedral in 2012 some of it’s members were jailed and sentenced to 2 years in labor camps. In response to harsh conditions of their imprisonment one of the members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova staged a hunger strike in protest. Allegedly she is being transferred to a new prison colony but no word has been heard by her family of late.
Siren Nation Festival Kickoff Party
Thursday Nov. 7th, 2013 | 6-8pm
Albina Press – 5012 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Portland OR 97215.
All Ages. Free.
