BRATTLEBORO — "Women in Punk," a collection of new work by Harmony Collective artist Rachel Eleanor Brown, opens Friday Oct. 6, from 5 to 8 p.m., at the Collective's Elliot Street gallery during Gallery Walk. It will be on display for the month of October.
The aim of the show is to visually celebrate the role of women in punk rock during the 1970s and '80s.
"Punk rock is an attitude birthed by women who played with loud and aggressive honesty," wrote the organizers of the exhibit in a news release. "Screaming with an unwavering belief in progress, and the will to fight for it, the female role in punk rock was the keystone of its culture.
"A microcosm of feminism in a culture wrought with misogyny and racism, punk rock was never a unified subculture and experienced its divisions like every part of society. Even within a subculture where the misfits were meant to belong, women stood on their own."
The exhibit is meant to interest every viewer, organizers say. "The attitude of these heroines transcends music and inhabits every person in society fighting for something better."
The exhibit is hoped to serve as remembrance, honor, and tribute to women in the punk world while inspiring viewers to want to hear and learn more about these feminist icons. "Through sound and vision, their voices reach those who are looking around at their world today; those who are listening, and those who are willing to raise a voice of their own."
The show includes candid oil portraits, studded and painted leather jackets, multimedia collages, and "a killer soundtrack" on opening night.
Brown is a Brattleboro-based painter, tattooist, and writer. After studying at Parsons/New School for Design in New York City, she pursued her apprenticeship in tattooing which led to opening Strange Brew Tattoo in 2011. Alongside tattooing, she has spent the last decade concentrating on watercolor illustrations that she says pull inspiration from traditional tattoo elements as well oil portraiture of musical and historical influences.
For more information about the exhibit and the Harmony Collective, visit harmonyartsbrattleboro.com or call 802-490-3676.
This The Arts item was submitted to The Commons.