Created for the 2011 Pittsburgh Biennial, this project was intended to initiated collective inquiry about how feminist knowledge sharing might inform “bench-side” approaches to scientific method and science pedagogy. Gallery visitors were invited to sit at the different tables, alone or with another person, to think and talk about the themes, histories, and ideas embedded in each setting—and to share their responses in the space. We combined notes, drawings, materials, and objects that reflect some of our own and others’ meanderings and serious study in scientific, social and artistic pursuits. Our intent was to evoke intimate versions of the sometimes-improvised lab work benches, work spaces and kitchens, in which many women scientists (and artists) did their first important work.
In the spirit of Virginia Woolf’s Thoughts on Peace in an Air Raid, we invite you to do some “tea table thinking” here and in the spaces in which you live and work.
- Pittsburgh Biennial, Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University.
Curated by Astria Suparak, Sept 16–Dec 11, 2011.
