‘Feminist Soft Resistance’ is a research output by Minna Pöllänen comprising a solo exhibition and a group exhibition, both drawing from the same developing body of research. The research uses multi-material installations to explore the themes of feminism, protest and power.
The first exhibition, ‘Rehearsal Space’, was a solo installation at Gallery Forum Box in Helsinki. It consisted of six soft shields (each of which carried a backstitched depiction of a hand), a booklet of drawings, a large mirror and a photograph. The shields have also been used as feminist protest tools in
demonstrations.
The second, group, exhibition, with the visual art collective Specular Assembly, took place at the India Club in London and developed the research to produce a work titled ‘Shield’. This was composed of 5 flags and a wall-hanging depicting outlines of a person struggling with, and slowly lowering, a shield-shaped object.
The research explores the relationship between art and feminist activism and how to encourage seepages between the two through objects (shield and flag). It draws from participatory art, whilst questioning the rules of participation that are often laid out in these practices. In the ‘Rehearsal Space’ exhibition visitors were encouraged to use the six soft shields, subverting the idea of a shield as a heavy, masculine object associated with battle and division. ‘Shield’ also invited viewers to engage with the works, in this case flags, which could be detached from their base on the wall.
