Anglim/Trimble is pleased to present It killed the pussy, a group exhibition of paintings, drawings and photography responding to the United States government’s current crusade on freedom of speech, gender variance and reproductive rights.
Titled after a line in Patti Smith’s poem “seventh heaven,” It killed the pussy draws inspiration from Eve’s original sin. By wanting Eve to stay ignorant, the Old Testament set her up to fail. In the zeitgeist of the 2020s, this story continues to appear: we fight the same battle over and over, on a treadmill of civil rights. Like Eve, we must choose consequences over complacency, degeneracy over status quo, and revolution over tyranny.
The works in this exhibition are irreverent, graphic, humorous, and completely sincere in their expressions. Included artists are Kim Anno, Leslie Bostrom, Bull.Miletic, Jerome Caja, Enrique Chagoya & Kara Maria, Keith Hale, Jess, Joshua Moreno, Katherine Sherwood, Travis Somerville, Colette Standish, M. Louise Stanley, Bara Jichova Tyson, and Xiaoze Xie.
Please join us for an opening reception on Saturday, August 2, from 4-6pm.
It killed the pussy is on view through August 16.
seventh heaven
Patti Smith
Oh Raphael. Guardian angel. In love and crime
all things move in sevens. seven compartments
in the heart. the seven elaborate temptations.
seven devils cast from Mary Magdalene whore
of Christ. the seven marvelous voyages of Sinbad.
sin/bad. And the number seven branded forever
on the forehead of Cain. The first inspired man.
The father of desire and murder. But his was not
the first ecstasy. Consider his mother.
Eve's was the crime of curiosity. As the saying
goes: it killed the pussy. One bad apple spoiled
the whole shot. But be sure it was no apple.
An apple looks like an ass. It's fags' fruit.
It must have been a tomato.
Or better yet. A mango.
She bit. Must we blame her. abuse her.
poor sweet bitch. perhaps there's more to the story.
think of Satan as some stud.
maybe her knees were open.
satan snakes between them.
they open wider
snakes up her thighs
rubs against her for a while
more than the tree of knowledge was about
to be eaten...she shudders her first shudder
pleasure pleasure garden
was she sorry
are we ever girls
was she a good lay
god only knows
Copyright Credit: Patti Smith, "seventh heaven" from Early Work 1970-1979. Copyright © 1994 by Patti Smith.
Used by permission of the author and W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Source: EARLY WORK: 1970-1979 (W. W. Norton and Company Inc., 1994)
