And that's all!
The Guerrilla Girls’ Complaints Department project is at Tate Modern, in London, until 9 October.
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Susan Johnson Mumford asks:
What’s your take on UN Women’s He for She initiative, which is arguably inclusive and solution-orientated? How might it relate to the work of the Guerrilla Girls?
Guardian contributor K: We believe everyone should be a feminist, and everyone of every gender to stand up for the rights of all people.
Axel Bottenberg asks:
Why the obsession with changing art history? No one can change the fact that women were disregarded by the pre-1960s art world, and even then, it took time for women to emerge as important artists. You seem to expect galleries to somehow magic works by women artists, when they were not only under-represented, but also much fewer in number. Would it not be better to concentrate on current practice, and concentrate on the top level of commercial art, where women actually are under-represented?
Guardian contributor F: We do want new histories of art, because the history we have is not complete. And until the history of art looks like the culture that it's supposed to represent, it's not the history of art - it's the history of wealth and power.
K: Our work is about art now, as much as it is about art history.
Guardian contributor F: Just because women artists and artists of colour have not been included in many mainstream art histories, doesn't mean they weren't there.
vammyp asks:
Do you think the kid from Stranger Things looks like Rowland Howard?
Guardian contributor K: Hmmm... do you mean the kid with no teeth looks like Rowan Atkinson? I loved Stranger Things, I thought it was terrific.
" We are not part of the establishment, but we use the press to get our message out"
JohnTMaher asks:
We have seen the rise and fall of WC and Wham! and waves of feminist theory, and now there is Laboria Cuboniks, which says many things, among them: If you don’t care for your biosocial or psychological situation, change it. So my question, with respect to a great collective I have observed over decades, is: Are GG in danger of becoming quaint in seeking museum parity?
RodMcLeod weighs in:
As an adjunct to the above, by being in the Guardian, are you not part of an art establishment that you sought to revolutionise?
Meanwhile, Likewhatever says:
We all witnessed the rise and fall of Wham! I’d say it was the release of Last Christmas that signified the end of that particular collective.
And GG respond:
Guardian contributor K: We are not part of the establishment, but we use the press to get our message out. We've probably been in the Guardian 50 times over the years!
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jjc83 asks:
Do you recommend Gorilla Glue?
Guardian contributor F: It is terrific!
K: We get 10p every time it's sold, so yeah, we love it.
Pablitto asks:
I like the Homeless poster, comparing the Geneva Convention to the dire way we treat the homeless in this country at the moment.
Maybe its time to invite the homeless in to the [Tate’s] Turbine Hall to sleep and get fed. Might be surreal with those fishy balloons, but its would be good use of the space.
Guardian contributor K: Hey, that's a great idea! The homeless poster is a huge banner in the Tate Exchange space where we will be running the Complaints Department, through Sunday. Please come and put those thoughts on the walls at the Complaints Department. We do things to make people think about things in a different way - that's what that poster is about.
F: Years ago, we worked with homeless women in New York and had them write statements about their circumstances, and then we designed some posters with them about it. Those posters are in the portfolio that the Tate Modern owns. And it's a shame it's not in the hang!
K: The posters contain their stories; they told their stories. In the US there's virtually no help for the homeless - the places they live are very dangerous. I don't know what the system is like here, but in the US it's dire.
F: And with increasing income inequality, many Americans live at the edge of homelessness with no safety net.
K: That is so true.
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artmod asks:
I didn’t know much about you, but have had a quick look at your website and your interview with Stephen Colbert, and am genuinely interested. Forgive my naivety, but does your work completely rely on the inevitable sexism, hostility and ignorance of the male-dominated art scene? If that sexism could be magically removed overnight would you become women, artists or art?
Guardian contributor F: We deal with the understory, the subtext, and the downright unfair. I think the issue is we don't just fight sexism, it's all forms of unfairness and corruption. And I don't think that's going away. I can't think of anything magically going away overnight. Right now, we're focusing on the undue influence of the super-wealthy.
K: On everything!
F: And in our particular field, on art. As it's collected and preserved as history. There was a time when kings, queens and emperors wrote the history of art, but hopefully we now live in a more democratic time. So why should we allow super-rich oligarchs to control art museums? There's a proliferation of private museums across the world, where the super-wealthy invest in art, put tons of money in art, open up their own private art museums which are often tax havens, and then tell us that they're high minded philanthropists. Do we want them to write our history for us? And can the history of art be written in the work of a few artists who have won the popularity contest with these rich people? How do we row back against it? To realise it, to realise that public institutions are the product of a manipulated market. And if these institutions are going to be public, the public should rise up and demand more.
Advice for young people: "Be an artist, commit yourself to experimenting in art, but also stand up against the system"
theotters asks:
This is from my daughter, who was very inspired by seeing your work in the Tate recently:
“What’s a good thing for a young feminist who likes art to do? I’m nine.”
Guardian contributor K: First of all, it's questions from people like you that really make what we do worthwhile. We get so many letters from young people, and of all ages, but especially young people, how to be an artist in this very unfair world. There's not an easy answer but you can't stop artists from making art. Period. So we say: be an artist, commit yourself to experimenting in art, but also stand up for what you believe in, and stand up against the system.
MrsMud asks:
The term “people of colour” is offensive. Will you continue to offend?
Guardian contributor F: People of color, as a term, has evolved over the years and will probably continue to evolve. We look forward to the day when there's a better, more specific term that carries no offence.
'We are activists in our own lives, under our own names, without masks'
Susan Johnson Mumford asks:
The Guerrilla Girls have no doubt been a voice on behalf of women in the art world for over 30 years, resulting in awareness of problems. As founder and CEO of the Association of Women Art Dealers, I am all too aware of the ongoing imbalance of gender equality in the field.
Two questions:
1) In addition to highlighting problems, what work are you doing and/or advice are you giving to provide solutions? (I note the Complaints Department initiative at Tate Modern this month.)
2) I’ve encountered criticisms of you remaining behind the masks. It’s been suggested that this is outdated, and that men and women alike should be visibly and identifiably campaigning for gender equality in the field. Why have you chosen to stay behind the mask? And is this set to change?
Guardian contributor F: You have to be part of the solution - be interested in finding people who want to support women artists. We encourage you, since you are a conduit for money and support. As long as the art market is controlled by a handful of billionaires, most of whom are white and male, it must be a challenge to get them to support women's art.
K: To collect the real story, the whole story of our culture, to cast a wider net.
F: And that challenge is yours!
K: In our entire history, what gets played back to us again and again, is people don't know how discriminatory the art world is. So we feel that our role as creative, in your face complainers, is hugely important.
F: We've created a dialogue. Our advice has always been for artists to make cheap art, that everyone can own, like our Tshirts, posters, stickers.
Guardian contributor K: The masks have been our long time identity. But please note that we are activists in our own lives, under our own names, without masks.
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vancarloads is back and asks:
As a single, white heterosexual excluded male artist, who has had to spend 30 years on the dole, in spite of having an MA, should I become a Guerrilla Boy?
Guardian contributor K: Sorry to hear that. It's very hard to be successful in art no matter who you are.
F: Keep doing it - love your work. Do it regardless.
K: We wish you the best with it!
'Feminists are not underdogs. And what makes something feminist art is up for debate'
vancarloads asks:
Isn’t the term “feminist art” self-defeating, for defining women as underdogs whose cultural products are by that very term, self-seeking with regard to redressing a perceived unfairness in the art world?
Guardian contributor K: Feminists are not underdogs. Feminism is one of the great human rights movements in recent times. What feminist art exactly is, is up for debate. There was a period in the 1960s and 70s, a historical feminist art period, and there are artists considering what they make "feminist art" today.
F: We don't think it's pejorative.
K: It never has been! It's a word that has changed art, all of art.
F: There has always been feminist art - look at Artesemia Gentileschi, Mary Cassatt, Georgia O'Keefe, Rosa Bonheur... Their work and their public personas were about the female experience, which people didn't consider a real subject.
K: Female bodies! They were what we would call today, feminist.
interactivist asks:
Given you are now in a gallery that is BP-sponsored (for another six months, what do you think about art museums promoting the oil industry?
Guardian contributor F: Not much. It's time to get out. In an early poster of ours called The Code of Ethics for Art Museums, one of the commandments was: thou shalt not permit corporations to launder their image by funding exhibitions at major museums, until they cleaneth up their toxic waste dumps. And that was back in the 1990s, so we stated that problem early, and we still stand by it.
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25Thousander asks:
Are you aware that you dress as “gorillas” rather than “guerrillas”? I just wanted to clear that up as it sort of detracts from what you are trying to say – in an artistic sense – if you don’t know the difference.
That said, I’m a gig fan, keep up the good work! the world needs artists that produce work that encapsulates the utterly pointlessness, futility and meaninglessness of modern art.
To which Katewashere responds:
I suggest you get a dictionary and look up the word “irony”. Alternatively, look up the word “facetious”. Both useful words.
And the Guerrilla Girls weigh in:
Guardian contributor F: We were guerrillas before we were gorillas - secret freedom fighters in the clubby art world. But we soon needed a disguise for publicity. One of our early members was a really bad speller, and in her notes she misspelled guerrilla, gorilla. And it was a message from heaven. Now we're stuck with these gorilla masks and the poetry of guerrilla/gorilla.
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BigScottishAl asks:
Apparently around 50% of the art in the new Tate Modern hang is by female artists. Do you feel like the battle is being won?
Guardian contributor Frida: I see it as a struggle rather than a battle, and struggles are continuing.
Kathe: It's very unusual and very seldom that a museum would have a hang of their collection with that many women artists, and the fact that they did it deliberately, says something.
Frida: Tokenism is often an institutional response, so we'll have to wait and see. Let's see if this new hang creates a ripple effect.
K: Things have gotten a little bit better over the time we've been working, but many museums haven't got the message, so that's why we decided to ask 383 European and UK museums about art spaces and diversity, and all the crazy results are up at Whitechapel Gallery right now. A couple of museums said: diversity has been important to us since the mid-19th century. But then they had 12 or 13 percent women in their collections.
F: Other institutions say they talk about it, but their collections are 87% male. Trying is one thing - changing is another.
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Guerrilla Girls are with us now, live at Tate Modern in London. Follow along!
All riled up? The artist-activists are kicking off their new project, Complaints Department, and are taking your questions now.
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Post your questions for the Guerrilla Girls
Preserving their anonymity behind gorilla masks, the Guerrilla Girls have been a refreshingly antagonistic presence in the art world for over 30 years. They formed in 1984 after New York’s MoMA exhibited a survey of contemporary art that only included 13 female artists out of 169 in total – as well as protesting in person, they pasted the city with eyecatching posters.
This “culture jamming” has continued ever since, with posters protesting everything from failed rape convictions to marriage discrimination. They’ve also continued their quest to get more women and artists of colour into the mainstream art world, though have met some criticism from trans activists, and suffered a schism in 2003 when some members broke off to form their own groups.
This month the Girls come to Tate Modern in London, to encourage the public to complain about issues that rile them up; they also have an exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery. During their visit they’ll also take on your questions in a live webchat from 11am on Tuesday 4 October – post them in the comments below.
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F & K: Thank you so much. Come to the Complaints Department at the Tate Modern through Sunday, and complain about everything we didn't get to answer. Look for the hours on the Tate website. Ta ta!