MUNTHE ART MONDAY: JOANA BERND
Please introduce yourself and tell us what you do.
Today, I feel a longing for keywords. So, let’s begin with them (to shape an idea): opening windows to other worlds! Entering a maze! Letting a daydream come alive! Holding on to hope! Being an intersectional feminist! Bridging love and rage! Believing in the energy of touch! Being unafraid of blue-eyed constructs! A veiled suspicion! A symbolic lexicon! (My name is Joana, and I am a visual artist.)
Joana is wearing the LELLANOR PANTS.
Can you name some other female artists that inspire you and explain why they do so?
Countless!!! Mary Oliver – you should watch one of her readings (they’re on YouTube); her poems are tender and reliable companions. Sophie Calle – especially Take Care of Yourself – for her never-ending curiosity about human beings and her playful approach to voyeurism. Octavia Butler – because she reminds me to pull dreams into life and to follow one’s own instructions. Yoko Ono – because she said yes (Ceiling Painting/Yes Painting, 1966). Patti Smith – because her book Just Kids felt like a hand reaching out to me when I was seventeen. And the Guerrilla Girls – because we need protest.
Could you explain more about how being a woman has affected your career?
When we talk about gender, so much of it is tinted by the way society works and the way we are brought up. Conditioning, upbringing, expectations – they shape a framework in which we wander. I know how to care, how to listen, how to stand up, and how to use my voice. There is a silent, invisible motor woven into my being, one that drives an infinite longing: for liberation, for a world where the earth is cared for, for a love that reaches across borders and generations.
I see the inequalities women and minorities face every day, and I want to overcome them. (I don’t always know how, but I know we’re on our way.) I don’t know if it is because I am a woman, but I carry a strong empathy and a compass that aligns with the wish to resist oppression – and with the mutual work of bringing forth another kind of truth.
What would you like people to notice in your artwork?
It might not be something to “notice” at all, but rather a feeling (a look); A sense of understanding – or of feeling understood. I carry this quote by Arundhati Roy with me almost every day: “Another world is not only possible – she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” I’d like my work to feel like that breathing.
Joana wears the LELLANOR PANTS.
What has been the most challenging aspect of being a woman in the arts?
Being resistant when described as too soft, too playful, not edgy enough. Holding on to one’s inner alignment, one’s own thread of truth, when told to sharpen up. Maybe that’s the challenge. But I’ve also found pleasure in connecting more deeply with other artists, in recognizing those who share my ideals – and together we build our own canon. Rejection is constant in the art world, but it also makes it easier to recognize your people.
