An internet search for any female artist tends to turn up more images of the woman than the work. In the case of this pioneering Polish, feminist artist the two are predominantly the same thing. Partum’s Limerick show opens with a freshly signed wall text that reads: “politics is temporary, art remains”. This mini-retrospective also functions as an important art history lesson. Documentation of her 1981 Stupid Woman performance in Krakow, above, includes a light box image in which she appears diaphanous, wrapped naked in a string of light bulbs. In 1980 she cut off a veil and wedding dress to reveal her bare body beneath. Nudity, heels and long hair also feature in her iconic East West Shadow, shot at the Berlin Wall in 1984. In her Poem and Self-Identification works, Partum used text, film, photography and performance to question societal expectations, patriarchy and received notions of femininity. The political and social contexts in which this work was made have changed but the images still resonate — it’s powerful stuff.
Limerick City Gallery of Art, today noon-5pm, Mon-Fri 10am-5.30pm, Thu until 8.30pm, Sat 10am-5pm, 061 310 633