Ledger

Issue date: 4/20/06 Section: Accent

Professor Beverly Naidus' "feminist action figures" depict real-life women that are in stark contrast to the Disney action figures and 50s style dolls.

A woman with one breast. One woman who is screaming. One who is very relaxed. Another one who is fat. One who is angry. One who is old.
"All celebratory. In all different colors…" said Beverly Naidus, as a thick wild black curl flops into her eyes emphatically.
She is talking about the "feminist action figures" she recently sculpted out of Sculpey, a plasticine clay known for its many brilliant colors. They are examples of 13 characters she created for a couple of therapists who work on Vashon Island where Naidus lives. After observing their Sand Tray Therapy, a type of Jungian play therapy, she asked if they would like more complex renderings of female characters.
"Here you have powerful women coming to you and there are only Disney action figures to represent women…with Little Mermaid and 50s style dolls that were skinny…unrealistic images," said Naidus.
Naidus, 52, is an Associate Professor in the Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences program and a renowned artist, having had her work exhibited all over the world. She has had installations in such varied places as Nova Scotia, London, Germany, New York and Southern California.
Her art and her teaching have been termed socially engaged, ranging from women's to environmental to global issues.
Her latest exhibition wrapped up in March at Indiana University, South Bend at the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts Gallery. She recently visited the university at the end of January to give a talk and hold a workshop. The workshop gave the participants ideas on how to do activist social art. Her talk was entitled, "You're Such a Complainer, Socially Engaged Art of Beverly Naidus." The exhibition is entitled, "One Size Does Not Fit All, Revisited."
Naidus was invited by the Director of Women's Studies, an anthropologist, who was inspired by Naidus's book, "One Size DOES NOT Fit All," which she uses in her classes.
Naidus described it as a book on "the healing of women's body hate."
While some may call her work political art, with a negative connotation, she attributes this to misinformation - that there are political agendas and nothing else.

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