Ongoing
Read My Lips

Read My Lips

Presented by Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The four videos installed in the Krupp Gallery consider the female voice—where it’s accepted and how it’s suppressed; its treatment as simultaneously alluring and repulsive; and its relationship to the body.

Works by Patty Chang and Marilyn Minter subvert idealized images of women by introducing an element of the grotesque. In Hand to Mouth (2000), Chang parodies the superficial roles women occupy in fetish films, while Minter’s Green Pink Caviar (2009) features an artfully made-up mouth lapping and regurgitating green slime in slow motion—blurring the line between desire and disgust.

Other works give visual form to the sound of a woman’s voice. VALIE EXPORT goes to the literal source of speech in i turn over the pictures of my voice in my head (2009), training a medical endoscopy camera on her own larynx while she recites a poem. In Fingernails on a blackboard: Bella (2014), Sharon Hayes displays a conversation between a vocal coach and former US congresswomen Bella Abzug as white text on a blue screen. The dialogue shows the stentorian Abzug practicing a number of absurd vocal exercises in order to achieve a softer tone.

Admission Info

Adults $25
Seniors (65+) $23
Children 6 and under Free
Youths 7–17* Free / $10*
Students (18+)** $23**

*Youths 7–17 admitted free weekends, weekdays after 3 pm, and Boston public school holidays; otherwise admission for youths is $10.
**Participants in the University Membership program receive free admission. NH and ME resident students also receive free admission.

Dates & Times

2019/10/26 - 2020/05/04

Location Info

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115

Parking Info

Self Parking Options

Visitors to the MFA have three self-parking options: the Huntington Lot, the Fenway Lot, and the Museum Road Garage, all of which have entrances on Museum Road. The Huntington lot offers closer parking to the Huntington Avenue Entrance and the Fenway parking lot is more accessible to the State Street Corporation Fenway Entrance.

All parking facilities have handicap spaces.

Please take your parking ticket with you; all parking facilities are automated. Payment for parking may be made in the garage lobby, or by credit or debit card at the exit lanes of the lots. Scan your membership card to receive the discounted rate.

For additional information, please call the garage at 617-369-3657.