Angela Washko

Angela Washko (born 1986) is a New York-based new media artist and facilitator who works to mobilize communities and creates new forums for discussions of feminism where they do not exist.^[1] She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Art at Carnegie Mellon University.^[2] Washko has been creating performances inside the online video game World of Warcraft since 2012 in which she initiates discussions about feminism within the gameplay. She's the founder of the Council on Gender Sensitivity and Behavioral Awareness in World of Warcraft to bring attention to and protest the sexist language from players in the game.^[3] Since 2015, Washko has been carrying out an ongoing project focused on noted pick-up artist Roosh V, called BANGED.^[4]

Work

In 2014, Creative Time commissioned an essay from Washko on her findings as the Council on Gender Sensitivity and Behavioral Awareness in World of Warcraft.

She is the first person to ever sell a Vine (software) video,^[5] which was bought by Dutch art advisor, curator and collector Myriam Vanneschi for $200 at the Moving Image Art Fair. "Tits on Tits on Ikea", the title of Washko's sold Vine, was an extension to a Vine she submitted to the #VeryShortFilmFest, which was selected as a runner-up in a project called "The Shortest Video Art Ever Sold," curated by Marina Galperina and Kyle Chayka.

Her video work "Chastity" won the Terminal Award from the Center of Excellence in the Creative Arts at Austin Peay State University. She was the 2013–2014 Recipient of the Franklin Furnace Fund Grant for her World of Warcraft performances.

Art practice

Angela Washko's interdisciplinary practice of performance, video, and installation investigates public opinion regarding proper etiquette, appropriate lifestyle choices, limited gender designations.^[6] She works in mostly online public spaces of contemporary American culture in order to reach a larger audience with a feminist discourse.^[7] Her work has been exhibited by the Museum of the Moving Image (London) in the National #Selfie Portrait Gallery,^[8] Biennial of the Americas in The World is !Flat, Denver Digerati in Denver, Colorado,^[9] TRANSFER Gallery in Brooklyn, New York,^[10] and Super Art Moderne Museum: SPAMM.^[11]

She is currently a contributing writer for ANIMAL NY.^[12]

Curatorial and related activities

She has organized exhibitions and programs at the University of California, San Diego, New York University, Flux Factory, and Temple University's Tyler School of Art. She curates and compiles A Feminist Art Movement Online, an archive of artists, writers, curators, and cultural producers with various practices addressing issues regarding gendered experiences. These practitioners primarily make and/or distribute their work online and contribute to a shift in making the internet a more inclusive space for women and their cultural work.^[13] She was the Department Events Coordinator of Vis Arts at the University of California, San Diego until 2015. She's written for .dpi Magazine.^[14] In 2013 she hosted podcast "A Cups" with new media artist Ann Hirsch made possible by the Radiohive collective^[15] in which they interviewed guests such as Nate Hill, Carla Gannis, Chris Gethard, and Genevieve Belleveau. In 2017, she curated the exhibition "Hacking/Modding/Remixing as Feminist Protest" at the Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA.^[16]

Education

Washko graduated in 2009 from Tyler School of Art of Temple University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting/Drawing/Sculpture. She studied at the Post Graduate Apprentice Program at The Fabric Workshop and Museum in 2009. She graduated in 2015 with a Master of Fine Arts in Visual Art from the University of California, San Diego.

Exhibition

2017

• Survival Rates In Captivity (Free Will Mode #5) (2017), Blinding Pleasures, February 10 - March 18, arebyte Gallery, (London, UK). Curated by Filippo Lorenzin.^[17]

2016

• FREE WILL MODE (SERIES) (2013-2014), XXI Triennale International Exhibition: 21st Century Design After Design, GAME VIDEO/ART: A SURVEY, Contemporary Hall Gallery, IULM University (Milan, Italy). Curated by Matteo Bittanti e Vincenzo Trione.^[18][19]
• THE COUNCIL ON GENDER SENSITIVITY AND BEHAVIORAL AWARENESS IN WORLD OF WARCRAFT, The 3rd Shenzhen Independent Animation Biennale, Dec 2nd, 2016 - March 2, 2017, C2 Space, OCT-LOFT, Nanshan District (Shenzhen, China).^[20]
• Performing in Public (Four Years of Ephemeral Actions in World of Warcraft), Gallery@CALIT2 (San Diego, CA)^[21]
• The Game: The Game, Transfer Gallery (New York, NY).^[22][23]

2015

• FREE WILL MODE (#1, #3, #4), Memory Burn, July 10 - August 16, 2016, Bitforms Gallery (New York, NY).^[24]

See also

• Feminist Art
• New media art
• Video Art
• Performance Art

References

External links

• Angela Washko – Official site
• A Cups – Podcast hosted by Angela Washko and Ann Hirsch
• Gender Sensitivity and World of Warcraft – Documentation of Angela Washko's WoW Performances