And She Was: Margaret Meehan

Art League Houston presents And She Was a solo exhibition by Dallas-based artist  Margaret Meehan. Exhibition Dates: March 4 – April 9, 2016. Opening Reception: 6 – 9 PM March 4, 2016. ALH Main Gallery I Artist talk at 7:00 PM.

The exhibition focuses on the hidden histories of female soldiers during the American Civil War, and features a mixture of sculpture, photography and sound as well as several small ceramic works and tintype collages.

It is a little known fact that 400-1000 women disguised themselves as men and fought for both sides of the Civil War. Some were discovered and sent home while some stayed on the battlefield and worked as nurses. Others fought as men with distinction and came out as women only when safely living again at home. Many more were killed and buried on the battlefield, like Sarah Rosetta Wakeman (also known as Pvt. Lyons Wakeman), before the discovery of their true gender.

Meehan’s intention with this body of work is to highlight the legacy of these forgotten and invisible women and to compare their stories with those of contemporary queer and female American enlisted.

She connects the stories of nineteenth century female soldiers who passed as men in order to serve with contemporary military members who are now allowed to fight in combat but still have to endure a number of social roadblocks placed before them.

This exhibition also focuses on recent official policies of secrecy like “Don’t ask. Don’t tell” in the context of larger patterns in the military that extend the debates in society at large with regard to gender and sexuality, revealing the difficulties that LGBTQ soldiers and their families still face.

*A portion of this exhibition was originally commissioned and produced by Artpace San Antonio.

ABOUT MARGARET MEEHAN

In her expansive multimedia installations, drawings, and photographs, Margaret Meehan juxtaposes the past with the present, evoking questions of race, gender, and cultural memory.

Some of her previous awards and residencies include Artpace, San Antonio, TX (2014), The Lighthouse Works Fellowship, Fishers Island, NY (2013), Bemis Center, Omaha, NE (2009), the Dozier Travel Grant, Dallas Museum of Art, TX (2008). She has shown at The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, The Dallas Museum of Art, Soil Gallery in Seattle, David Shelton Gallery in Houston, and Conduit Gallery in Dallas, among others.