Meet the Artist Cutting Up the Patriarchy
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Three years ago, Justine Kurland set out to destroy her personal library. Kurland, a photographer whose works hang in world-renowned museums like the Whitney and the Guggenheim, lives in a tenement apartment in Lower Manhattan jam-packed with books. Assessing her collection of expensive, lavishly produced photo books, she realized something: 99 percent were authored by straight white men. At first, that fact disturbed her; then it inspired her.
Armed with scissors, glue, and a very sharp knife, Kurland embarked on a project that would define the next phase of her career. She sliced and diced each photo book, then used the inside cover as the canvas for a new collage, assembling the book’s imagery into her own feminist critique. What began as a punk-rock act of destruction soon grew into an act of reclamation, all about “the joy of being emancipated from men.” As Kurland explains, “It’s really about deprogramming what this patrilineal idea of photography is and who owns it.”
This article appeared in the March 2023 issue of Esquire
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Esquire is highlighting Kurland’s work as part of “The Art of Moving Forward,” a collaboration between Hearst and the Whitney to amplify the voices of female artists in honor of International Women’s Day 2023 (March 8).
Luxury, pictured above, was made from the photographer Martin Parr’s same-titled book. Kurland, 53, sees Luxury as an investigation of the relationship between radial forms and female anatomy—an erotic image of female pleasure rather than an objectification of the female form by men. Parr mailed Kurland his book, eager to be included in the project. But not all of her subjects were so supportive. Early on, she wrote to a number of photographers offering the opportunity to buy collages made from their books. Some were offended; some didn’t respond; none made a purchase. More than 150 collages later, the project has forever changed Kurland—and her apartment. “I have no more men in my bookshelves,” she says. “I’ve cut all my men. Now my bookshelves are just women, people of color, and queer artists.”
As the art world moves slowly toward a more inclusive canon, Kurland argues for taking an X-Acto knife to the existing order. “Once you get rid of the status quo,” she says, “you create the space to hear the nuances of where all of these other artists’ voices come from.” That will make for a very different collage.
This story is being presented in partnership with Johnnie Walker, which has awarded more than $1 million in grants to women-owned businesses and is helping women overcome historical barriers by showcasing stories of women making progress.
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