Artist Linda Marks' exhibit lampoons 'A Woman's Place is in the Home'

In "A Woman's Place," an exhibit opening Oct. 17 at the Cuninggim Women's Center on the Vanderbilt University campus, Nashville artist Linda Marks lampoons a most repugnant, yet tenacious, cliche.

"A woman's place is in the home" is the ironic subtext of this exhibit, which is part of an ongoing series depicting costumed women in contrived domestic environments. But Marks' women are more than mere housewives. They are icons of domestic duty, "postured with objects that circumscribe them in female roles," Marks says.

In "The Handbook," for instance, a prim but hollow-eyed young woman stands in a kitchen reading, an inverted saucepan on her head.

According to Marks, a graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania who now works at Sarratt Student Center, such juxtapositions "are meant to evoke both wit and pathos."

Marks' work has been shown at various Nashville venues including Vaangard Gallery, Cheekwood Fine Arts Center and Zeitgeist. Her work has been collected by notable Nashvillians Rosanne Cash and Alice Zimmerman.

"A Woman's Place" will be on display through November, with an artist's reception Thursday, Oct. 19, from 5 to 6 p.m. at the Cuninggim Center. For more information, call 322-4843.