The Gateway Arch, once thought to be futuristic in design, now serves as an iconic image and symbol. A repurposed tree trunk is hoping to make a similar impression on our city, inviting viewers at the 21c Museum Hotel St. Louis to think differently about what it means to be a monument, a global citizen, or a woman.
Starting June 30, The Future is Female will be on display for a full year at the local museum and hotel. Since the exhibition first made its debut in Louisville in 2016, chief curator and museum director Alice Gray-Stites has taken this traveling art exhibition all over the country. Gray-Stites and her team have stopped at other 21c locations such as Bentonville, Durham, and Cincinnati over the course of the exhibition’s long tenure. She has found that, regardless of geography, the exhibition is met with an “unequivocally positive reception” that speaks volumes of the transcendent messages on display.
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There are 94 works from around the globe featured in the exhibition, including Tiffany Shlain’s “Dendrofemonology,” a 2022 piece described as a “moving monument.” The hope is that this unique tree-based timeline of the feminine experience becomes as recognizable to Americans as Lady Liberty. Having recently made its home on the National Mall, in Madison Square Park, and now, at the 21c St. Louis, “Dendrofemonology” is making its rounds, complete with a documentary team capturing its travels.
Shlain’s is not the only work in the collection that represents the intersections of womanhood, mythology, and ecology. Like St. Louis brick or the rings of a tree trunk, “any really good piece of artwork is going to be layered,” reasons Gray-Stites.
Each layer in the artwork Gray-Stites thoughtfully chooses addresses a different aspect of the bigger picture, which includes a deeper consideration of women’s rights. The threat of rights being curtailed is not isolated to the United States or to women, but rather is something that affects everyone. That concept is mirrored by the exhibition’s contributors, who all identify as feminists but represent varied identities.
Gray-Stites cites artists Zoe Buckman, Frances Goodman, and Carrie Mae Weems as having works that resonate as polythematic, and she advises museum visitors to “let the artwork give [you] more, because it always does.” St. Louisans may recognize a few of the names among the artworks, including local luminaries Jess T. Dugan and Hannah McBrooms.
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While the show does travel from place to place and include some of the same works, it does not necessarily stay the same from city to city. Gray-Stites coined the term “copy-morph” as preferable to “copy-paste” to describe the collection’s ability to reflect current political conversation. “We are always adding and subtracting,” she says. Shlain’s “Dendrofemonology,” for example, is a temporary addition on loan as a complement to the foundational works.
Gray-Stites and her team have worked hard to develop trust with their artists. She understands that the key to protecting the work in their possession lies in shared appreciation. Championing staff tours and creating resource guides for all 21c workers goes towards ensuring the entire staff “feels confident and competent to share something that they really love about the work with our guests. I want them to take pride in that, and to have that sense of agency and ownership,” Gray-Stites says.
When Gray-Stites heads home to Louisville following a successful premiere, the Future is Female is left under the attentive care of the staff at 21c and the visitors who come to take it in. A good place to start is the exhibition’s free opening reception on July 15. Attendees can hear Gray-Stites and Shlain present, weave their way through the 14,000-square-foot gallery, or opt to purchase a ticket for the exclusive dinner, where each course pays homage to a particular piece in the show.
