SO YEA: A Poem by Heather Raquel Phillips for GAG: Peggy and Emily Blei Hracho
GAG
verb
gagged; gagging
1. a: to restrict use of the mouth of by inserting something into it to prevent speech or outcry
b: to prevent from exercising freedom of speech or expression
c: to pry or hold open with a gag
2) to provide or write quips or pranks
3) to choke or cause to retch
noun
1) something thrust into the mouth to keep it open or to prevent speech or outcry
2) an official check or restraint on debate or free speech eg. a gag rule
3) a laugh-provoking remark or act
4) prank, trick
1985 and 2016 are complicit
reinforcing 2 voices
Interrogating social duplicity
2 generations.
2 women.
2 artists.
Desire without access
turns Ripped T-shirts into drawings
Informs Sculptural relief
Intimate moments
with a safe distance
convention transforms
into the extraordinary
covert and overt
are just a C away from
being the same
Unexpected Power looks like
conflict
disappointment
a station of women
Deviant and Customary
conflate in their repudiation
It looks like a hug
comfortable cozy soft pliable
textures like grandma’s house
like a teenage girl’s bedroom
Appropriation of criticism
appears lighthearted & kaleidoscopic
unexpectedly
slaps you across the face
Like a word
that gets revisited
prompted by a first order
a house that aims to harm
globally
controlling women
you can peek
big gag conceals
small man, power mad
#IMHO, paperdolls and pornography
a happy gap away from next of kin
cut up and pieced together
dressed and disrobed
played with in private
disposable
She’s… Bitchy
She’s just… Crazy
She’s just too…. Loud
everything.
She really should just smile.
sometimes we bleed blend together
women’s bodies
commodified
a capitalist transformation
abstracting into bulbous grotesque forms
a mass
up for consumption
still strong, still resilient
but, um…
what if we, like… stand together? we will have more power
we should um…stand with ALL our sisters
Yeah, TOTALLY!
Peggy Blei Hracho
peggybleihracho.com @peggybleihracho
In 1985, Peggy Blei Hracho received her BFA with a concentration in Sculpture and Printmaking from The Atlanta College of Art. Over the past twenty years, she has been working in the medium of Fiber, pushing the boundaries of the traditional quilt. Her work is primarily involved with the Female Image and society’s perceptions of being female. She has shown both nationally and internationally and has work in several private collections.
Emily Blei Hracho
emilybleihracho.com @emilyblei
Emily Blei Hracho is a third generation artist living and working in Reading, Pennsylvania. She concentrated in Fiber & Material Studies at Tyler School of Art where she received her BFA. She has shown locally and internationally. Her work reflects upon her generation’s identity through a focus on collected language and internet culture.
