Doreen Wittenbols
DO, 2023
Chalk on vintage school chalkboard
11.5 x 16 inches
 
 
DO & DON'T are chalk drawings on vintage school chalkboards from my series Happening (after Annie Ernaux). Using "Woman's Own Book of Flower Arrangements" (1966) as source material, I reworked images from page 41 (a number evoking cultural invisibility for women in their forties) to critique restrictive gender roles and constant scrutiny women face regardless of their choices. The book's dreary black-and-white arrangements & prescriptive "do & don't" instructions mirror current mobilization against women's and LGBTQIA+ rights. The chalkboards quietly resist book bans threatening future generations. Like Dada and Surrealism, I repurpose found objects rejecting traditional materials, transforming dated domesticity into subversive commentary.