Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls is proud to announce an exhibit from artist Carol Flueckiger. Beginning on September 1, visitors to the park will be able to view “The Solitude of Selfie,” a portfolio of mixed media drawings that visually revises “Solitude of Self,” one of the most well known speeches delivered by Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Working for suffrage throughout her life, Stanton believed “The Solitude of Self” to be one of her greatest achievements. The use of the word “Selfie” in the title of Flueckiger’s exhibit adds two letters onto Stanton’s original title, “Solitude of Self” as a way of connecting contemporary social media with the 19th century practice of compiling current event scrapbooks. Both trends involve ordinary people trying to define their place within their communities and history.
The compositions in “The Solitude of Selfie” demonstrate a balance of positive and negative words such as “virtue,” “courage,” “failure,” “betrayed” and “insignificant.” These words are cut from each of the 33 paragraphs of Stanton’s speech and traced into 33 corresponding drawings. The mixed media artwork for this exhibit is made with pen, ink, and cyanotype – a light sensitive chemical that uses sun for exposure, on paper. Compositions show a blend of historic and contemporary material culture to create a world of quasi-feminist paper dolls that have been rinsed with history – at the speed of a spin cycle.
This work was developed at Women Studio Workshop Artist Residency, Rosendale, New York in October 2017 and Elsewhere Studios Residency, Paonia, Colorado, in June 2017.
Carol Flueckiger is a mixed media artist who makes work about feminist history, weather, and geography. Her signature technique builds on cyanotype. She has recently been awarded the Texas Tech University Integrated Scholar Award for projects that merge art practices and historical sources.
“The Solitude of Selfie” will be on exhibit from September 1 through November 15, 2018. This exhibit is free and open to the public. For more information about the park and upcoming programs, visit the website www.nps.gov/wori or call (315) 568-2991.
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