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May 12, 2006
Painting feisty and strong girls
Riki Kuropatwa's show at the Zack Gallery challenges the typical
portrayals of women.
KELLEY KORBIN
There is no mistaking Riki Kuropatwa's women with the stereotypical
supermodels and actresses who grace the covers of popular women's
magazines – yet, in their own right, her subjects are attractive,
sexy and sometimes even scantily clad.
In her current show, Go Go Girls, Kuropatwa uses her bold, contemporary
style to showcase colorful rabbit-girls and Pippi Longstockings
in images that project strong, self-possessed, don't-mess-with-me
women.
These are rabbits as you've never seen them – athletic rabbit-eared
women engaged in a range of activities. "Tennis Rabbit,"
shows a comely rabbit-girl holding a tennis racket; "Three
in the Air" depicts three rabbit-girls airborne, presumably
from jumping on a trampoline; and a very pink "Rollergirl"
rabbit, in pink shorts and halter top, wears rollerskates.
At the show's opening, Kuropatwa explained that early in her career
she started experimenting with anthropomorphized dogs, rats and
rabbits: "The rabbits won out."
She explained that, for her, rabbits represent the strength that
she likes to use to portray women.
"I attribute the rabbit from an early influence of Bugs Bunny,
especially when he was dressed in women's clothing as a transvestite,
and from [Richard Adam's book] Watership Down. I see the
rabbit as a strong, fast, muscular-legged athlete. I just play that
up in my strong, but sexual, images of women."
As for Pippi Longstocking, Kuropatwa said she's always been a fan
of the irreverent, untamed girl from the Astrid Lindgren books,
but hadn't thought about her much until she received a birthday
postcard from her father with an image of Pippi on the front.
"She's a fierce, independent, go-against-the-grain character
that I have always liked, especially the uncivilized part of her,"
said Kuropatwa, commenting that she intends to continue with this
theme, adding, "I don't see my Pippi voyage ending."
Kuropatwa's females are deliberately edgy. She said she rejects
the popular culture image of beauty and doesn't want to objectify
her subjects, but at the same time she wants them to be alluring.
"There should be some tension when you look at them, hopefully,"
she said.
If tension is her goal, Kuropatwa has definitely succeeded; most
overtly in "Pippi with a Head," which shows the almost
innocently mischievous and grinning Pippy holding a sword in one
hand and grasping the hair of a decapitated, out-of-focus head of
a boy in the other. Another is "Drill Pippi," which depicts
a bare-midriff Pippy grinning and aiming a power drill at us.
Kuropatwa commented that her art has been influenced by her other
career - teaching, where she became keenly aware of the image pressure
on teenage girls and the damage it can do to self-esteem.
"I want to promote a strong, positive image without obedience,"
she stated.
In "Barbie in Love" and "Tele Barbies," Kuropatwa
extends her theme to take on Barbie dolls in mixed media. In the
latter work, there are four Barbies sporting the headgear of the
Teletubbies, from the popular toddler TV show.
Reisa Schneider, cultural arts director at the Jewish Community
of Greater Vancouver (JCC), said of the exhibit, "[Kuropatwa]
challenges the media-driven stereotypes of the female as passive,
sexual objects."
Go Go Girls is a mix of oil, acrylic and mixed media. Kuropatwa
holds a master's of fine art in drawing from York University in
Toronto, a bachelor's of fine art in drawing from the University
of Manitoba and a bachelor of education from the University of Toronto.
Go Go Girls runs until June 7 at the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery
in the JCC.
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