GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER TOO? 2017/2023
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner Too? is a community art project by which started in 2017. This work delivers an artistic critique on Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party (1979), which celebrates strong women but under represents women of colour. Inspired by this work, the installation consisting of a large triangular dining table, full of symbolism, where Black women and women of color are honored. These ‘heroines of resistance’ deserve much more attention because of their fight against injustice.
In the latest iteration developed in the summer of 2021 for four Dutch museums – The Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Centraal Museum in Utrecht and the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven – another 22 Black women were added bringing the total up to 60. The amount of table runners, vessels and biographies is adjusted accordingly. The work can now also be split up in four separate triangle formed tables. In its smallest form every museum can show 15 Black heroins at one table each. Till 2 January 2022 this configuration is exhibited at the Frans Hals Museum.
The table is by no means a static object but is activated to bring different groups and communities together. For example the table runners are not finished and probably never will be. But they can be used to embroider further and whilst embroidering stories could be shared.
Click here to read an essay about the work by Vivian Ziherl.
Click here to read the artist statement about the work.
Click here to download full credit list.