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| Me and Christina Zwart who's piece, 'Fearless' is a show stopper. See photo below of Zwart installing the piece. |
It was an honor to see my newest sculpture, 'for the love of ...' (created for this exhibition) greeting all museum visitors at the entrance of the exhibit. It was even a greater thrill to witness museum visitors reading my statement about the piece. After doing much research about the marathon and particularly women in the Boston Marathon, I was greatly moved by Bobbi Gibb, the first woman to run the Boston Marathon is 1966. Besides the fact that she was a trailblazer and ran the marathon even though her application had been denied because 'women cannot run the distance of a marathon', it was her love of running and her passion for life that really captured my interest. Here is the longer version of my artist statement about 'for the love of ...'
‘for the love of …’ was inspired by the spirit and courage of Roberta ‘Bobbi' Gibb; lawyer, neuroscientist, artist, single mother and the first woman to run the Boston Marathon in 1966. Not only has Bobbi Gibb been a trailblazer for women’s running and women’s rights but she has a love for life and a passion for life that needs to be celebrated.
"I have always had a vision of a world where men and women can share all of life together in mutual respect, love and admiration; a world where we find health through exercise and through the appreciation of the spirit and beauty of the world and of each other; a world based on love and individual integrity, where we all have a chance to do what we most passionately love, to help others, and to become all we can become."http://runningpast.com/gibb_story.htm
Since Bobbi entered this world, in the elevator of the hospital, she has been on the move. As a girl, she loved to move and to run, however, in the 1950's and 1960’s the expectations for women were to get married and start a family. As Bobbi approached adolescence, she saw her girlfriends stop running and playing:
“As soon as you became an adolescent, everything changed,” Gibb told Women in the World. “You started to become a woman and suddenly there were all these incredible constraints. I could see coming down the line that I was going to have to live in a box as a woman—literally, locked up in the house. We were expected to be housewives, and that’s all … We weren’t expected to have minds, and we weren’t expected to have bodies that ran.”“[Running] was sort of a spiritual thing, and I could get away from society and its rigid ideals,” she said. “It had nothing to do with sports. I knew nothing about the sporting world. I never stopped running when normal girls would stop running and settle down. I never became a normal girl.”https://womenintheworld.com/2015/04/20/the-incredible-story-of-bobbi-gibb-the-first-woman-to-run-the-boston-marathon/
In 1964 Bobbi’s father took her to see the Boston Marathon for the first time. As a spectator, she felt a kinship with the runners. She didn’t notice that it was only men running, what she saw were others who understood her love for running. Witnessing the marathon was a spiritual experience for Bobbi, one that she wanted to participate in.
“I knew these people felt the same way I felt when I ran. I was reconnecting with some ancient potential almost lost in modern society, some deeply moving fundamental core of what it means to be human. And I felt that they were too--that we shared this bond.” Bobbi recalls. Interview with Bobbi Gibb April 2011; http://www.billrodgersrunningcenter.com/inwibogi.html
After watching the marathon, Bobbi began to train and to test the distances that she could run. One time she was running on the beach in Southern California and ended up running into Mexico. She had no ID and her appearance caused some alarm among the border guards, they did not believe that this woman was just out for a run. Fortunately, the confusion was soon resolved and Bobbi returned to North of the border. Needless to say, Bobbi knew that she could run distances and at the beginning of 1966 she sent in her application for the Boston Marathon. What she received in response to her application was a rejection, telling her that women were not physically capable of running marathon distances, that under the rules that governed amateur sports set out by the AAU, women were not allowed to run more than a mile and a half competitively.
To Gibb, her rejection emphasized the ridiculousness of the situation,
"It was a catch 22; how can you prove you can do something if you’re not allowed to do it? If women could do this that was thought impossible, what else could women do? What else can people do that is thought impossible?” http://runningpast.com/gibb_story.htm
So even though her application was rejected, nevertheless, she persisted, Bobbi decided to run the Boston Marathon. On marathon day, while waiting to run Bobbi hid in some forsythia bushes near the starting line because she was afraid of how people would respond if they discovered that she was a woman, fearful that she would be physically removed and/or arrested. In 1966 many thought it was life-threatening for a woman to run anything longer than 1.5 miles, it was believed that a woman’s uterus would fall out harming a woman’s reproductive capabilities which were thought to be the main raison d'être for women, it was not proper for a woman to be seen exerting herself, it was not lady-like for women to sweat. Bobbi knew that she would be threatening many societal norms for women. But she felt like it was time to challenge these beliefs. Also, Bobbi loved running and wanted everyone, men and women, to be able to experience the nirvana that she experiences when she runs,
"It (running) came naturally to me. When I ran, all the stresses of the day disappeared. I felt like myself, like a bird flying, free and happy. I felt close to something spiritual, close to the mystery of being, you might say. I felt connected with the creative power of life. I feel most alive when I run. I feel the energy of the whole universe pouring through me and I feel grateful to be alive here on this planet in this world.” Interview with Bobbi Gibb April 2011; http://www.billrodgersrunningcenter.com/inwibogi.html
Bobbi ran and won the ‘unsanctioned’ women’s division of the Boston Marathon in 1966, 1967 and 1968. After 1968 her energies and interest turned to her studies. She applied to medical school and was denied because of her gender, but she wasn’t deterred she went to Law school. Bobbi Gibb is a champion of women’s rights, her action on April 19, 1966, added fuel to the Women’s movement of the time which was challenging many of the restrictive beliefs that held women back from contributing to the world and discovering their authentic selves. Bobbi knew that she was making a political and social statement when she jumped into the marathon, and as much as she was happy to shatter many of the prejudices against women, she ran because she loved to run, she wanted to be part of this primitive fundamental experience of running en masse and she wanted to share this experience with women, half of the population.
Thank you, Bobbi.
from the official Boston Athletic Association’s website: Pioneer Era of Women’s Participation 1. Roberta (Bobbi) Gibb (MA) 3:21:40http://www.baa.org/races/boston-marathon/boston-marathon-history/race-summaries/1966-1970.aspx
THEMATIC DUETS:
2. Abby Rovaldi’s “My 26.2 Miles,” composed of 20 etchings, and “Virginia Fitzgerald’s” rock tied ribbon dress installation, “Torqued and Tethered,” offer a conversation about struggle and endurance. To create the 20 dark etchings that depict her personal 26.2-mile marathon journey, Rovaldi attached a 5” x 9” zinc plate to the bottom of each of her shoes and walked 2.62 miles to create the aggressive lines necessary for printing. Fitzgerald’s beautiful cream colored ribbon dress in held to the floor with over two dozen found rocks of various sizes and weights arranged into a circle. This piece offers a puzzling shamanistic energy; it’s remarkably graceful and buoyant and yet contains a vexed tonality communicating a women’s struggle to break free from what’s holding her in place — she is twisting upward while fixed in place.
https://artscopemagazine.com/2018/04/thematic-duets-in-a-long-distance-relationship-the-26-2-mile-journey-at-attleboro-arts-museum/
In the News
NBC WJAR-TV previews the Attleboro Arts Museum’s “A “Long-Distance Relationship: The 26.2 Mile Journey” – http://turnto10.com/news/local/attleboro-arts-museum-opens-boston-marathon-exhibit
The Sun Chronicle previews the exhibition in the “GO” section: http://www.thesunchronicle.com/features/stories/attleboro-arts-museum-goes-the-distance-with-exhibition-on-marathon/article_60056499-5dbf-547a-9924-fbf8ea62d254.html
MassLive Media: http://www.masslive.com/expo/erry-2018/04/4ec11ed2365466/see_artworks_from_attleboro_ar.html#incart_m-rpt-2
The Sun Chronicle coverage of exhibition opening reception: http://www.thesunchronicle.com/news/local_news/runners-high-attleboro-arts-museum-features-marathon-themed-art/article_4f7ea9b0-6155-5137-9804-0bd2055e4ac8.html
Artscope Magazine review: https://artscopemagazine.com/2018/04/thematic-duets-in-a-long-distance-relationship-the-26-2-mile-journey-at-attleboro-arts-museum/
Boston.com: https://www.boston.com/news/boston-marathon/2018/04/13/boston-marathon-bombing-anniversary
Providence Journal review: http://www.providencejournal.com/entertainmentlife/20180414/attleboro-arts-museum-exhibit-examines-art-of-marathon
