Artists Space

Women Inc. Lexicon

Performance
April 1, 2015, 7pm

Women Inc. is a new working group of artists, writers, curators, and academics founded to create responses to urgent feminist issues. The group was established in winter 2015 in order to incorporate as an entity greater than individual identities, as a means to address continuing gender- and race-based injustices. Women Inc.'s first project is a collaboratively written lexicon of neologisms, inspired by the work of Hito Steyerl and performed at Artists Space Books & Talks in the context of her survey exhibition.

A woman dressed in a suit sits among clouds in a blue sky, smiling, with six arms. Each hand is holding two phones, an alarm clock, globe, laptop, and folder.
[A woman dressed in a suit sits among clouds in a blue sky, smiling, with six arms. Each hand is holding two phones, an alarm clock, globe, laptop, and folder.]

Women Inc. is a new working group of artists, writers, curators, and academics founded to create responses to urgent feminist issues. The group was established in winter 2015 in order to incorporate as an entity greater than individual identities, as a means to address continuing gender- and race-based injustices. Women Inc.'s first project is a collaboratively written lexicon of neologisms, inspired by the work of Hito Steyerl and performed at Artists Space Books & Talks in the context of her survey exhibition.

This dictionary coins new words for a new age, one marked both by advances in omnipresent technology and mass surveillance, and also a continued struggle with intersectional issues related to race, gender, and sexuality. For example:

'Rancière-back-riding,' verb.
To invoke and insist on a misreading of a theorist to prove one's intellectual superiority.
"Oh man, did you see that guy Rancière-back-riding on the Accelerationism panel?"

'negging out,' verb.
To freak out about something dramatic unfolding on social media, but only reacting to it on private channels such as GChat.
"Jamie curated a show with only men and it caused a huge to-do on Facebook, but I've just been negging out with Rachel on GChat."

Far from a practical handbook, the Women Inc. Lexicon is as playful as it is incisive.

The Women Inc. Lexicon is organized by critic and curator Karen Archey, and read by Dana Kopel, Eva Munz, Kimberly Drew, Rachel Wetzler, Seung Min Lee.

It is written by Karen Archey, Ann Hirsch, Jamillah James, Rachel Wetzler, Jen Chan, Dana Kopel, Eva Munz, Kimberly Drew, Hito Steyerl, Sunita Prasad, Abbe Schriber, Tess Edmonson, Morehshin Allahyari, Jessica Langley, Seung Min Lee, Astria Suparak, and Chloe Wyma.