Ever since 1985, when women started demonstrating in front of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the performance group the Guerrilla Girls has exposed sexism and racism with their humor.
On Friday and Saturday, they will continue to spread their message by screening a video at the KiMo Theatre and offering a workshop at the UNM ARTS Lab.
Afraid that their demonstrations might affect their careers, the founders of the Guerrilla Girls started going by the names of dead women artists and appearing in public wearing masks. As much as this disguise shielded them from the wrath of the law, it also added to their humor and to their ultimate effect.
"Our secret is a wonderful part of our success," said Kathe Kollwitz, one of the founders of the Guerrilla Girls. "By being anonymous to the crowd, there is more focus on the issues rather than on us. It all started with us putting up one or two controversial posters. Since then, all hell has broken loose. We have hung up hundreds of posters and gotten hundreds of women involved. We are like a virus."
The Guerrilla Girls will start Friday night with the screening of a video at 7:30 p.m. at the KiMo Theatre. Following the video will be a skit with someone from the audience, a round of questions and answers and a reception to conclude the night.
The audience will learn about the group's history and what they've done.
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"Our video answers why we've devoted our lives to this crazy kind of activism," Kollwitz said.
The Guerrilla Girls will also hold a workshop at the UNM ARTS Lab at 131 Pine Street N.E. on Saturday at 10:30 a.m.
"Humor is a sneaky way to change people's minds," Kollwitz said. "The main goal of our workshop is to teach people how to communicate their opinions. We will be there helping them create posters, fliers to slip into books, etc. We want to help people develop their own strategy of activism."
The Guerrilla Girls are well-known for their big outdoor billboards that comment on pop culture.
"We are a bunch of artists who are using nothing but facts and
humor to fight discrimination," Kollwitz said. "We are telling people the 'whys' and the 'hows' on the issues."
The Guerrilla Girls make about 40 to 50 speaking appearances around the country per year and have written five books.
"I think that we have tapped into something exciting," Kollwitz said. "We finally have people thinking about what is going on in the world."
Guerrilla Girls
KiMo Theatre
423 Central Ave. N.W.
Friday, 7:30 p.m.
$10
Workshop at UNM ARTS Lab
131 Pine Street N.E.
Saturday, 10:30 a.m.-1 p.m.
$25
Pre-registration required.
Call (505) 242-1445 to sign up.
