"Off the Beaten Path" at the Chicago Cultural Center | Art review

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  Miwa Yanagi, Tsumigi, from the Grandmother series, 2007. Courtesy of the artist.

  Photo: Miwa Yanagi311.ar.ar.rv.Beaten1476.jpg1775131
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  Gabriela Morawetz, J

  Photo: Gabriela Morawetz311.ar.ar.rv.Beaten2476.jpg1775152
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  Miri Nishri, Still from Esther: Queen of the Swamp, 2009. Courtesy of the artist.

  Photo: Miri Nishri311.ar.ar.rv.Beaten3476.jpg1775073
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  Laylah Ali, detail of Untitled, 2002. Courtesy of the artist.

  Photo: Laylah Ali311.ar.ar.rv.Beaten4476.jpg1775054
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  Wangechi Mutu, still from Cleaning Earth, 2006. Courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins & Co.

  Photo: Wangechi Mutu311.ar.ar.rv.Beaten5476.jpg1775115
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  Hung Liu, From the Field, 2008. Courtesy of the artist.

  Photo: Hung Liu311.ar.ar.rv.Beaten6476.jpg1775096

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Miwa Yanagi, Tsumigi, from the Grandmother series, 2007. Courtesy of the artist.

Photo: Miwa Yanagi

Both a gathering of impressive art and a call to action, this engaging exhibition—subtitled “Violence, Women and Art”—addresses the question of whether art can foment social change without offering a definitive answer.

Nonprofit curator Art Works for Change intersperses pieces by established artists including Yoko Ono and Louise Bourgeois with those of talented but less well-known artists from around the world, comparing the impact of violence across cultures. Patricia Evans’s photographic series documenting the aftermath of her sexual assault on Chicago’s lakefront path hangs near an installation of photos from an International Rescue Committee project, which gave cameras to women in African conflict zones. One violent act altered Evans’s entire life; similar violence has become part of the African photographers’ everyday experience.

Some pieces are so visceral they’re hard to watch. In Marina Abramovic’s video Balkan Erotic Epic: Banging the Skull, a half-naked woman whose long hair covers her face pounds a human skull against her exposed stomach with increasing force until she’s almost sobbing. The combination of anonymity, death, nudity and self-harm implicates viewers as guilty bystanders who do nothing to help.

Young Japanese women imagine themselves as strong elders in Miwa Yanagi’s “Grandmother” photos (pictured, 2007), which provide a note of optimism. But “Off the Beaten Path” reminds us that the effects of violence are too often invisible.