User:Alissamustre/gap analysis

Gap analysis: Regina José Galindo

 * What is the title of the article in which you identified a gap. If no article exists at all, what should the title be?

Regina José Galiendo


 * Document the gap you found, describe how you identified it, and analyze its impact on knowledge.

I am very interested in human rights activists’ artworks. When I started researching for women activists’ art, specifically Latin America women, I was surprised to find only a few articles existed for these women, which is probably due to the fact that they are mostly famous in their native countries and not featured in the U.S. Wikipedia. Regina José Galindo does have a Wikipedia page, but provides very little information about her activism. She is a Guatemalan woman whose works of art concentrate on activism, specifically in protest against Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt. I believe the little information provided on her Wikipedia page is not giving enough information on why she does the type of art that she does (body art as a form of activism). The period in which Ríos Montt was a dictator in Guatemala was very harmful to indigenous people, especially women, who were abused sexually and forced to live with the perpetrators of said violence. Regina José Galindo highlights the problems that existed in Guatemala and the ones that exist to this day; however, the way her Wikipedia article is written only briefly and superficially explains what some of her works of art consist of. The description would not really show that she is an activist as well as an artist. I want to provide more information on why and how she is considered an activist artist, like Zanele Muholi. Additionally, I want to go more in depth on some of her most famous performances.


 * Propose a paragraph of new or substantially edited content based on reliable sources. (If you are editing existing content, post the current version along with your edited version, and clearly mark which is which.)

Current Version:

Regina José Galindo (born August 27, 1974) is a Guatemalan performance artist who specializes in body art. She was born in Guatemala City.

Edited Version:

Regina José Galindo (born August 27, 1974) is a Guatemalan performance artist who specializes in body art. She was born in Guatemala City. Regina José Galindo uses her body as a form of expression – she exposes herself and her body in such a vulnerable way to be able to criticize the Guatemalan society where she lives, which she considers to be conservative, sexist, and hypocritical. Galindo’s performances are known for her pushing her body to the limit as a means of powerful message sending about the social, political, economic inequalities and atrocities that the Guatemalan community has had to endure throughout the years, especially during their 36 year civil war.

Galindo’s works are often very shocking to the public because of how she uses her body as activist actions. For instance, in her Hymenoplasty work she actually got surgery to reconstruct her hymen in order to challenge the conservative society she lives in, in which women are objectified and not shown respect unless they are virgins. This is especially common in Latin American countries as well as African ones. To represent many anonymous women that have been subject to this surgery she did it to herself to call out the absurdness and brutality of the situation.

In an interview held by the artist and Maura Reilly, Regina José Galindo stated that “I’m a woman and, as such, I can’t un-attach myself from the term “feminist”. However, not all my work is only about this. In many cases, I work on pain and human emotions from a universal point of view. We are all the same and feel the same, regardless of our gender or geographic location.” She shows her own and other’s experiences through her body, she considers it to be collective, because a community’s suffering is individual as well as collective.

References:
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