The exhibition 'Uncanny' at the National Museum of Women in the Arts reinterprets Freud's theory of 'Das Unheimliche'—the unsettling sensation of familiar spaces becoming unwelcoming. Curator Orin Zahra emphasizes that women often navigate spaces that should feel safe but sometimes do not, reflecting broader cultural anxieties. Featuring nearly 70 works from female artists, the exhibition resonates especially in the context of current societal challenges women face, such as fears surrounding reproductive rights and safety. It showcases how artists use uncanny imagery to express distress and trauma related to both domestic and national spaces.
It can mean something very specific-like the domestic space where a woman might feel that home is a burden to them; or it could mean the national space, where the homeland becomes something unsafe.
Women artists want to explore feelings of anxiety, of anguish and traumas in their lives, and the way they often do it is through uncanny imagery.
What happens when a place that should feel welcoming suddenly does not? When a safe space becomes an unsafe one.
The reelection of Donald Trump, whose first presidential term undermined access to birth control and led to an end of federal protections of abortion rights, has many fearful of what the country will look like for women going forward.
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