A Racket of Banshees: An Evening of Contemporary Feminist Video

In the immediate wake of the historic 2024 US presidential election, The Association of

Hysteric Curators (AHC) proudly presents an evening of feminist experimental film and video

art, hosted by the Wönzimer Gallery at 341 S. Avenue 17 in Los Angeles on November 7,

2024, beginning at 7:30pm. Entitled “A Racket of Banshees,” this series of twenty-one short

films explores an array of feminist and women’s rights issues, many of which currently occupy

the forefront of US national policy debates. Collectively, all of the films invite viewers to reflect

upon what it means to be a woman in our contemporary society, and to gain a deeper

understanding of how women’s identities shape their everyday lives. Through the lens of each

woman filmmaker, viewers are ushered into a visual world that critically examines feminist issues

such as: aging, disability, reproduction, ecofeminism, violence, politics, and self-determination.

Utilizing a range of filmic styles and media (including claymation and AI) and source material

(e.g., wildlife camera footage), each film offers viewers a profound meditation on what it means

to live life from the perspective(s) of human beings relegated to the politically-peripheral,

biosocial category, “woman.”

The exhibition title, “A Racket of Banshees,” references female spirits who, according to Gaelic

folklore, appear and begin screaming (or wailing) to herald an impending death. Art historically,

Kiki Smith explored the concept of the banshee in her 1991 work, Banshee Pearls, in which she

cast herself as a banshee in a series of 12 lithographs, surrounded by images of skulls, death

masks, and other beast-like forms. As in Smith’s Banshee Pearls, each film in “A Racket of

Banshees” may be viewed as a single banshee in celluloid form, who has come to us to declare

all manner of deaths: that of women’s reproductive rights; the pandemic of global femicides; the

death of our Mother Earth; and the ultimate demise of patriarchy.

The Association of Hysteric Curators is a Los Angeles-based feminist collective of artists and

curators founded in 2014. Their mission is to advance the lives and careers of feminist artists,

and to artistically explore alternative paradigms of gender and political protest through a non-

hierarchical organizational structure based in dialogue and exchange. While honoring the

historical lineage of feminist models, the AHC envisions “a future of human equality, knowing we

must interrogate the customs of today in order to enable conditions for change.”

“A Racket of Banshees” was curated by the Association of Hysteric Curators collective, under

the special organizational direction of member artists Margie Schnibbe, Snezana Petrovic, and

Mary Anna Pomonis. For more information about the Association of Hysteric Curators, please

consult their website at: www.hystericcurators.com.

Anke Therese Schulz

Participating Artists: Attic Portrait (Michelle Tift & Sea Zeda), Melanie Elyse Brewster, A. Laura

Brody, Alessia Lupo Cecchet, Ching Ching Cheng & Manyu Gao, dama (aka Amanda Maciel

Antunes), Victoria Delgadillo, Diana-Sofia Estrada, Rachel Finkelstein, Malado Francine,

Raghubir Kintisch, Ibuki Kuramochi, Leslie Lanxinger, Marne Lucas & Tyler Hubby, Maya

Mackrandilal, Sarana Mehra, Alexandra Neuman , Snezana Saraswati Petrovic, Leah Piepgras,

Mei Xian Qiu, Margie Schnibbe, Kayla Tange, Matt Odom & Caroline Yoo

For more information and press inquiries please contact AHCvideoteam@gmail.com.