About Women: Hood

“Women: Hood” is a community-based and collaborative art project that started in 2018. The project focuses on interviewing a diverse range of self-identified women from various cultural backgrounds, social statuses, age groups, and educational levels in Iowa City and beyond. Based on interview videos as sources of inspiration, artists create 2D and 3D artworks.

How it has initiated

Satomi Kawai, an immigrant from Japan, initially studied metalsmithing and jewelry design at the University of Iowa. Kawai began creating body adornments that reflected her personal femininity after earning a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa. She has explored physical, mental, psychological, and masculine aspects of her womanhood for many years. Through time and experience, as an immigrant female artist and Zumba fitness instructor in American culture, her curiosity about womanhood has expanded to include other women around her. Kawai started interviewing women in this community about their life experiences and recorded the interviews as her inspiration for creating body adornments.

Team Artists

Satomi Kawai

Overall project direction and artistic creation

Interdisciplinary artist Satomi Kawaii immigrated to Iowa from Japan, where explorations of her identity inspired the “Women: Hood” project. Her art questions ideas of femininity.

Woman with purple hair in a coral blazer and yellow top, wearing a "Yay" necklace.

Vero Rose Smith

Human relations, artistic creation

Vero Rose Smith (American, born 1990) creates, teaches, dreams, and advocates for the arts in Chicago, IL.

A woman with fair skin and long, curly red hair stands against a plain backdrop. She wears a teal top and bold, dangling purple feather earrings. Her expression is neutral, and she looks directly at the camera.

Dani Sigler

Political insight, artistic creation

Dani Sigler is originally from the East Coast and currently resides amongst the fields of opportunity, in Iowa City, Iowa. She creates feminist objects, and she is a reproductive justice activist, and can be contacted directly for inquires about purchasing her art.

Woman with graying hair in blue sweater, standing in a modern building.

Anita Jung

Project advisor in grant writing and project direction, artistic creation

Anita Jung, originaria de Chicago, es una artista multidisciplinaria cuya obra explora la narrativa, la identidad y la transformación. Se solidariza con su ciudad natal en la lucha por la justicia social.

Anita Jung, originally from Chicago, is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores narrative, identity, and transformation. She stands with her native city in the fight for social justice.

Man with beard and glasses looking up against brick wall.

Douglas Baker

Artistic sound/movement creation as Kawai’s performance collaborator

Douglas Baker is an Iowa City-based musician and dancer who works primarily as an accompanist for various dance classes at the University of Iowa.

Partnership

The Women’s Resource and Action Center (WRAC) at the University of Iowa. They provided the project with a free and accessible space for the event. In October 2023, the opening reception of the project's second phase will feature an interview video screening, a performance video screening, a pop-up art show, and a discussion session. In addition, video-screening events will take place in March 2026.

Iowa Women’s Archives (IWA) at the University of Iowa: They archive all digital materials of the “Women's Hood” project, including full interview videos of the project interviewees, interview video clips, and all artwork images of each phase.

Dr. Asha Bhandary, professor at the University of Iowa, Philosophy Department and Gender Studies, provides us with scholarly insights into womanhood. She gave a keynote presentation, “Womanhood vs. femininity,” at the Zoom opening reception for the first edition in 2021. She will be a keynote speaker, continuing to share her scholarly insights on womanhood at the third phase exhibition in 2025.

Maria Bribriesco, former lawyer, lifetime community pollinator, and current Scott County supervisor in IA. She has shared her personal life story and her talent in poetry for the second edition. Additionally, she has been a strong supporter of the project and an advocate for women.