The Writing on the Wall: “Guerrilla Girls: Complaints Department”
An interactive Neuberger Museum exhibition turns anonymous grievances into conversation, activism and community expression.
By Xiaoying Wu Hong
The Guerrilla Girls put a spin on the traditional exhibition by giving visitors to the “Complaints Department” the opportunity to be a part of the installation.
Located in the Klein Gallery of the Neuberger Museum, two towering blackboards greet visitors with their colorful chalk writing and doodles. Installed on June 2 and on through Dec. 20, the “Complaints Department” invites patrons to write their grievances on the board.
Written in bright green chalk, “everyone needs to stop dying fr” is accompanied by a waving, smiling frog and a pink, round cat. On the other end of the board, the message “D-Hall Needs Better Food!” is surrounded by yellow arrows.
The board is filled with topics ranging from Purchase College campus related annoyances to general societal issues. Purchase students, Broadview residents and others visiting the museum stop to look, respond to complaints, or to leave a piece of themselves behind. At the end of the week, the board is wiped blank for another wave of complaints.
The exhibition was created by Rem Ribeiro, the assistant curator of the Neuberger Museum, and the anonymous female artist group Guerrilla Girls. Formed in New York City in 1985, the Guerrilla Girls’ work focuses on fighting sexism and racism in the professional art world. Their projects, including work in their first Neuberger exhibition, “Food for Thought,” highlights gender, racial and sexual inequalities through a satirical and humorous lens. They are dedicated to giving marginalized groups a voice and chance to be heard.
“The Guerrilla Girls always spend so much time complaining in terms of their own voices,” Ribeiro said, “being an academic museum, it's really important for not only the students and the campus community, but the general public to be able to participate in that same act.” Inspired by previous iterations of the exhibition, Ribeiro curated the installation with an academic chalkboard aesthetic. “I think between the campus community, our K 12 groups that come in, chalk just seems very inviting and also very whimsical,” she said.
Kalea Bryant, a freshman political science major, sitting on the bean bags in front of the boards with her friend Zadyn Rosa, a freshman new media major, had just written “I’m bored ♡” in pastel pink. “After reading the description, I thought it was pretty cool,” Bryant said, “so I decided to try it out.”
The specifics change depending on the day in what Ribeiro describes as an “ebb and flow.”
Every week shares overlapping complaints such as the criticism of generative A.I. and I.C.E. Alina Skitzki, a senior art history major, has been frequenting the exhibition and noting its progression throughout the weeks. “I like the concept of Guerrilla Girls being the catalyst for social change,” she said. “College students are like the first wave of activism.”
Imani Blair, a junior graphic design major who works at the Visitor Services Department at the Neuberger Museum, sits at the Visitor Services desk in front of the Klein Gallery. “A lot of people come in just to write it and then leave,” she said. “I think a lot of people actually crave being able to be involved in an art piece.”
Messages in different colors responding to another complaint pop up throughout the board. “It's really nice that it becomes not only a space for complaints, but also just conversation on the actual board,” Ribeiro said.
Not all responses to the writing on the wall are positive. Skitzki described her observations of non-Purchase students, “sometimes older people, or people from off-campus, will come in and see the stuff students have written, and they'll get pretty pissed over it. But it's interesting because it's creating a discourse.” A few older visitors had been asked for a comment, though none chose to respond.
The “Complaints Department’s” only written direction is that “the public is invited to write down their anonymous grievances – right here, on the chalkboard gallery wall.” But not everything left on the board is a complaint. Affirmations to “be kind” or to “do unto others better than you would wish from them” are etched onto the board. “Students can come here and express themselves on the wall,” Rosa said, “it just shows the different personalities we have here.”
True to the mission and values of the Guerrilla Girls, the “Complaints Department” acts as a canvas to display the words of the community. “I think that embodies the Complaints Department,” Blair said, “it's like letting their voice out.”
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