Malena Barnhart

Vinyl installation

A visualization of the numbers of accusers for some of the prominent men of the #metoo movement.

A wall-sized vinyl installation that visualizes the numbers of accusers for some of the prominent men of the #MeToo movement. The phrase “HOW MANY WOMEN = 1 HARVEY WEINSTEIN” (or Donald Trump, Bill Cosby, etc.) is repeated once for each accuser. For instance, the phrase HOW MANY WOMEN = 1 DONALD TRUMP appears 22 times.

(Photo credit: Suemya Mazegri)

A collaboration between Malena Barnhart and James Bewley.

2018
3"x3”x3”
A vinyl sculpture created from leftover names from Calculations, a previous installation by Malena Barnhart. The original piece was a wall-sized vinyl installation that visualized the numbers of accusers for some of the prominent men of the #MeToo movement. The phrase “HOW MANY WOMEN = 1 HARVEY WEINSTEIN” (or Donald Trump, Bill Cosby, etc.) was repeated in the data visualization once for each accuser. For instance, the phrase HOW MANY WOMEN = 1 DONALD TRUMP appeared 22 times.

3D filament and bachelor party beer pong balls

It’s hard to be a human and it’s strange to have a body.

Living in a female body in this time and place can be especially disorienting.

A collaboration between Malena Barnhart and James Bewley.

A wood and 3D filament sculpture installed at the height of an average woman's inseam.
2018
3.75” x 3.75” x 11.75”

A collaboration between Malena Barnhart and Kimberly Lyle.

Interactive video installation

2018

7:37 min

For background on this piece, please refer to this article: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/24/business/brett-kavanaugh-yearbook-renate.html

These illustrations were created with found digital imagery from photo decorating phone apps which are marketed to tween girls. These stickers are typically used as a playful element in social media, but in this body of work, they are repurposed as brushstrokes in abstract digital illustrations that are meant to appear decorative at a distance, and discomforting to menacing upon closer inspection.

An interactive performance that plays with notions of institutional authority. During gallery receptions, the desk was staffed by actors, young white men who were not given any prior information about the feminist artwork on display. Despite their intentional ignorance, these men eagerly over-explained and analyzed the work at length to any approaching gallery visitor. In each interaction, utter and varying nonsense was portrayed as authoritatively as possible, for as long as possible.

For more information about the history of the term, mansplaining, please see Lily Rothman's article A Cultural History of Mansplaining.

Adorn, 2017 performance with Kristen Jori at Eye Lounge Gallery, Phoenix, AZ.

This piece featured an installation of a large circular pile of temporary tattoos, sorted by color and arranged in a gradient on the floor. The tattoos all featured girl-focused imagery, however, some tattoos were store-bought while others were created from digital drawings created by little girls and posted to different photo decorating apps.

Inside the circle, two women performed an adornment ritual. The younger woman sat passively in a slip and bridal up-do. The other woman used her mouth and spit to apply temporary tattoos to the first woman’s skin. Temporary tattoos were repeatedly applied throughout the evening until they were layered over any visible skin.

At the end of the performance, the younger woman stood up and unsuccessfully attempted to rub away the tattoos until only residue remained, echoing the process of harmful cultural ideas being passed from mother to daughter in a manner that can be loving and nurturing, yet still toxic.

Candy Colors and Party Favors

Malena Barnhart appropriates playful things—children stickers, games, party decorations—into her highly critical work that reveals the luring qualities of seemingly harmless consumer goods. For this exhibition, Malena uses pretty party decorations to entice the viewer towards a bloom candy colored speculums spread out on the table. Hanging above is a glittery sign used for bachelor and bachelorette parties that reads, “SAME VAGINA FOREVER,” a statement that is simultaneously funny and worrisome, calling into question gendered conventions of society.

-Lauren O’Connell, 10 Artists/2000 Speculums exhibition curator

Hauls are a type of YouTube video featuring women and girls displaying and describing new purchases. Haul videos tend to be made by the same women and girls who create makeup tutorial YouTube videos. Instead of items purchased during a shopping trip, Christmas hauls feature women displaying the gifts they received for Christmas. While there is certainly an unsettling materialistic focus in these videos, these women and girls build community with each other. Most are quite young, yet they’re creating and editing their own videos, and often being paid for their work. 

Over time, I amassed a large collection of haul videos and re-edited them together, emphasizing conventions of the form. Every video opens with the same disclaimer, gifts are held and displayed via identical gestures, and everyone seems to be receiving similar items.

This video work was created in response to a discomforting conversation with a young undergraduate. She told me she was grateful for the feminism of the past, but didn’t understand why women were still engaging in activism since equality has already been achieved.

On YouTube, conversations between video creators happen in very specific ways. People respond to videos with reply videos, and there are subsequent replies to the reply videos. Big issues like religion, politics, philosophy, etc. are argued with every sort of person joining in. One of the best examples of this phenomenon is the ongoing YouTube debate on feminism. This debate is passionate, yet nonsensical. Interactions are occurring, yet each participant is essentially arguing alone in a room with no need to pause and listen while the other person speaks.

A few years ago, a new online trend emerged. American girls began posting videos on YouTube asking commenters to tell them if they were pretty or ugly. As anyone who has spent time on YouTube knows, Internet commenters are not known for their kindness and tact, so the responses to these videos were quite vicious. This work pairs found YouTube clips of tweens alongside staged reenactments. Older, adult women attempt to perform verbatim reenactments of these adolescent pleas for validations These women and girls have never met, yet they are connected. 

Lana Del Rey is an American pop star who has received a great deal of online hate. She has often been criticized for her perceived lack of authenticity. Music blogs derisively describe her surgeries, new wardrobe and stage name. Still, a great number of girls and women strive to look like her and even post videos online teaching others how to mimic her appearance. In this work, re-edited audio and video footage from some of her music videos exists alongside 72 YouTube makeup tutorials featuring girls and women showing others how to use makeup to look more like Lana Del Rey.

Siri is an iPhone application that is marketed as a personal assistant. The ad copy on Apple’s website reads, “Siri. Your wish is its command.” Apple presents Siri as simply a companionable, genderless aid; however, the name and voice of the software happen to be female.

Some male consumers react with aggression when interacting with Siri. Online, there are numerous examples of men posting videos of themselves speaking to Siri as if she is a submissive sexual slave. Siri has a variety of programmed answers, which allow her to demurely respond to the harassment.

In this piece, found Youtube footage of men sexually harassing their phones exists alongside staged shots of myself unsuccessfully attempting to form a bond of emotional intimacy with Siri.

An installation that featured a surreal version of a teen girl’s bedroom, filled with iconic images of white male teen idols from throughout the last century. The bed within the installation doubled as seating for gallery visitors watching video works.

A 16mm found footage film created from discarded research footage from Arizona State University. In this piece, one sees an adult man standing over a teenage girl. The exact nature of their roles is not clear, but the man is obviously an authority figure. He touches the girl’s hair and face while seemingly explaining something to her. The girl watches the man and nods as he touches her. This reedited film is slowed down and at some points reversed to emphasize gesture and the discomforting sense of unequal power.