Lycoming College Clothesline (2021)

On August 2021, art historian Erin McCutcheon, whom I know because she has been researching feminist art in Mexico for many years, invited me to give a virtual lecture as part of the iteration of El Tendedero that she was planning with her students at Lycoming College.

While I didn't organize this Tendedero, I was closely involved in its development, and I knew that Erin was so familiar with the project that she could easily facilitate it, with a theoretical background that I do not possess, and with a solid understanding of the context where it was taking place.

According to Erin, she first presented the idea of reactivating El Tendedero to the students who had enrolled in her course "Gender and Sexuality in Art" to see if they were interested in participating, and everyone eagerly accepted. Throughout several classes, she shared concepts about the representations of women in visual culture and their impact, information about the forms of artivism in Mexico, and details about the history of El Tendedero, as well as my work in general.

On the other hand, they also formed a discussion group about gender violence issues they identified in their university and how they could address them through El Tendedero, as well as the most appropriate place to present it. After completing this part of the process, they defined the questions to be included in the piece and, wearing their pink aprons, they went to different parts of the campus to gather responses from fellow students. They also designed a virtual form that could be answered anonymously.

Unfortunately, as is often the case, the responses poured in. Some of them were very harsh and mentioned a person in the administration whom they claimed had not acted properly in a case of sexual assault.

Faced with this, and being aware of some of the violent reactions and/or institutional problems that some of the organizers of Tendederos de Denuncia (which have become viral in Mexican universities and instead of sharing an experience anonymously are used to denounce violence perpetrators), they began to worry about the legal implications this might lead to, and they consulted me about what I thought. We met via Zoom and discussed several strategies that I know students in Mexico have developed to protect themselves, but I mostly emphasized the importance of taking care of themselves and avoiding risks. In the end, the students decided to replace those direct accusations with blank purple cards and take the direct complaints to the university's highest authority.

According to Erin, this decision upset some of the people who had responded with direct accusations, and, when the Tendedero was set up, they replaced them. I think this is a point that we need to continue discussing because, while those who respond to the questions can defend themselves under anonymity, the same cannot be said for those who organize. I understand very well the importance of denouncing, but we must also protect those who take a stand openly.

In the end, Erin compiled a report with the accusations and presented it to the highest authority.

They opened the Tendedero 20, 2021. That day, I gave a public talk on three of my projects: El Tendedero, Maternidades Secuestradas (Abducted Maternities), and Archiva: obras maestras del arte feminista en México (Archiva: Feminist Masterpieces in Mexico). Afterward, I was invited to a small reception, which was a lot of fun because I was there remotely on a tablet, but I was able to chat with many people.

After presenting their Tendedero, Erin and her group organized a series of open forums for students to voice their concerns to various administrators responsible for resolving them.

Erin not only organized El Tendedero at her university but also participated in the 111th College Art Association conference in February 2023 at the panel "Little Pink Papers in a Hurricane; New Perspectives on Mexican Feminist Artist Mónica Mayer," with the paper "On Clotheslines, Classrooms, and Controversies: Mónica Mayer's El Tendedero as Transgressive Feminist Pedagogy.

Below, I share two images from her presentation where she discusses the questions they asked and some of the heartfelt reflections of those who participated in the project.