Woman at a Balcony

Mother and Child on Balcony

Majas on a Balcony

Three Women on a Balcony

Women Hanging Laundry to Dry on a Balcony

Women on a Balcony of a Yoshiwara Teahouse

Courtesan watching foreign ship from balcony

Man en vrouw op een balkon en een tweede vrouw achter glas

On the Balcony

The Canary Bird

De verrekijker

Radha and Krishna Seated on a Balcony

Mashrabiya Screen

Mashrabiya Screen with Medallions

Strada S. Giovanni in Valetta, Malta

Malta

Krishna and Consort on a Palace Balcony with Musicians: Vukharo Ragaputra of Bhairav, from the “Boston Ragamala”

Egypt and Nubia, Volume III: Modern Mansion, showing the Arabesque Architecture of Cairo

Design for a Lithograph, A Young Woman Standing on a Terrace

The Balcony

Le Pari Gagné (The Winning Bet), from "Le Monument du Costume"

Sex workers in the gallery of the brothel Nectarine in Yokohama with rickshaw drivers in front of it, c. 1870 - c. 1891

Princess and attendant in trompe l’oeil window

Noblewoman at a Jharokha Window Holding a Rose, from a Portraits of Women series

Balconies have long carried both a practical function and symbolic weight for women. In art, their appearance often signals a woman’s place, marking her visibility, her belonging, and her status within private and public life. Screened and enclosed balcony structures like the Arabic mashrabiya or the Maltese gallarija cast the balcony as a liminal space: a threshold between home and street where a woman can observe the world without being seen. Rooted in cultural ideals of modesty and surveillance, these architectural features delineate a woman’s place as private property. It is even difficult to find a depiction of women in these spaces. In contrast, open balcony scenes in the collection depict women as deliberately visible, whether as prostitutes presenting themselves to the street; as noblewomen in Mughal miniatures framed by ornate railings in keeping with their status; or as objects of domesticity hanging laundry, having a quiet moment alone, taking care of children, or even peering out with a telescope to a world they are wholly separate from. For instance, the late 19th-century photograph of the “Nectarine” brothel in Yokohama shows how women are presented as literal window dressing and highlights them with lavish hand-coloring. In a more positive depiction, the 18th century Rajput painting of a noblewoman at a jharokha (throne balcony) window exemplifies the expansion of the tradition of depicting the Mughal Emperor at the Jharokha. The portrait encloses her as an esteemed member of the royal household. Across these depictions, the balcony becomes a site of tension: between control and expression, enclosure and exhibition. Balconies remind us of the persistent constraints on women’s freedom: of how we’re taught to measure our safety by shrinking our presence, and of how architecture itself can script behavior. As this collection reveals, when artists enlist the balcony to emplace women, it reveals their culture's ideas about where women are allowed to be, how we appear, disappear, and reappear under watchful eyes.

Women and Balconies

Folding ruler and case

sundial compass

Traveling sundial and compass

Mechnical tally counter

Portable Equatorial

Indo-Persian Planispheric Astrolabe

Heliostat

Sundial compass

Patent Model for Estimator Slide Rule Invented by Fredric Maurice Stapff

Computer, Dead Reckoning, Sally Ride

Force Measuring Unit, Skylab

Hoekmeter

Patent Model for Hosley Ship's Model Measurer, 1851

Patent Model for Combination Rule, Protractor, and Calculating Device by Nels Ockerlund

Persian Planispheric Astrolabe

Hartman's Planispheric Astrolabe

French Planispheric Astrolabe

English Planispheric Astrolabe

Italian Planispheric Astrolabe

Planispheric Astrolabe Engraved with Arabic Script

Planispheric Astrolabe from Muslim Spain

measuring device

Log and Rotor, Patent Model

Taffrail Log Recorder, Patent Model

Krausch Engine Indicator Patent Model

G. H. Crosby Indicator, Patent Model

Sentinel Scale

Ruler

Hem Marker

Sliding caliper used by Dr. Montague Cobb

Protractor

Protractor, Model 3-B, United States Army Air Force

Decimal Scale

Cubit measuring rod

Fragment of a Cubit Measuring Rod

Bore Measuring Rod

Meetlat uit het wrak van de Oost-Indiëvaarder Hollandia

Artificial Horizon

Salinometer

Carpenter's Combination Tool, Patent Model

Tool Gauge

Flow Regulator, Liquid Oxygen, Rocket Engine, R.H. Goddard, 1926

Vacuum Gauge

Hair Hygrometer

Barometer

Diagonal barometer and thermometer

Wheel barometer

Pillar barometer

Torricellian barometer

Instruments for measurements of all kinds have been meticulously crafted objects throughout the ages. From astrolabes dating back to the 15th century used for astronomical calculations, to 18th century barometers for gauging air pressure, to 20th century calipers and protractors for engineering problem solving, tools reveal systems of thought distinct to their era. For instance, the Persian Planispheric Astrolabe from the 1610s featured below includes on its front a star map of the northern sky. If the user knew their latitude, they could use aspects of this tool to determine the time of night just from the height of the stars. The astrolabes circles track the zodiac and the annual movement of the sun. Delicate engravings often record the arc of the horizon and scales of latitude. The carvings in these astrolabes offer a window into the users understanding of the entire universe and planetary relations. Similarly, the precision and elegance of a multi-faceted tool like the Combination Rule by Nel Ockland below harkens to a later era in the nineteenth century, but also offers many functions for how its user might study and quantify relationships in the physical world around them. Some tools were for simple measurements, like a folding ruler and a hem marker. Simple or complex, each of these measuring tools were carefully designed objects that also aesthetically symbolize the path toward understanding the world within particular worldviews.

Tools for Measuring the Universe

Mask

Shell with traces of blue paint

Snail Shell

Shell with Inlaid Feline

Conch Shell Trumpet

Top-Shell and Various Shells

Snuffbox

Shell Inscribed with the Cartouche of Senwosret I

Casket

Turret Shell

Nautilus pompilius shell from the wreck of the Dutch East India ship Witte Leeuw

Inlay

Shell engraved with winged female deity, sphinxes, and lotus plants

Liturgical Spoon

Ceremonial basket adorned with cowrie shells

Carved Conch with Lakshmi-Narayana

Engraved Conch Shell

Shell Game (Kaiawase) Set

Shell, possibly a Bursa rubeta, from the wreck of the Dutch East India ship Witte Leeuw

Nautilus Cup

Seal Amulet in the Shape of a Cowry Shell

Conch Shell Trumpet Effigy

Covered container

Oesterschelp, beschilderd met een bloemtak

Oesterschelp met zeefiguren en een rots met planten

Schelpen

Stoomschip op zee met schelpen op het strand

Schelpen en vissen

Nautilusschelp van parelmoer gesneden met bloemenranken

Nautilusbeker

Unidentified mythological subject

Pearl Oyster Shell with Perseus and Andromeda

Shell

Shell fragment

Shell Fragment

Fragment of a shell with a sculpted female head

Conch Shell

Box of Cowrie Shells

Ceramic Whistle in the Form of a Shell

Spouted bowl or oil lamp

Design for a Plate with Thetis on a Shell in a Medallion Bordered by Sea Monsters

Carved Conch

Ritual conch shell

Gifts of the Ebb Tide (The Shell Book) (Shiohi no tsuto) 潮干のつと(都登)

Shell Flower Arrangement

“She pressed both hands to the parabolic sides of the shell. She closed her eyes and smiled—it felt like being parenthesized.” —Karen Russell, The City of Shells A common enough item on eBay these days are small figurines of poker players mid-game made almost entirely out of shells. The players’ faces might be made from cowries, their arms and hands augers, the game table a scallop, and precious little shells for chips. Centuries earlier, shells were actually traded as currency: wampum in the Americas or cowry shells in pre-Imperial China, for example. From money to a kitschy souvenir representing money, the time that has passed and the things that have changed are parenthesized by the lasting primacy of the shell. As a deeply efficient container for past and present, the shell continues to captivate as a memento originis. It endures as a physical link to the ocean from whence we came, and to the romance of what we can not readily see. In keeping with its liminal and littoral identity, the shell has also long been used for calling upon unseen mythological and spiritual worlds, as with the Khmer Buddhist ritual conch shell or the engraved Mississippian conch. Certain shell artifacts evidence a colonial drive away from the spiritual in favor of the scientific, decorative, or the touristic. However they retain their ability to enchant. See the examples of the ornate 17th century Dutch nautilus cup, for example, or an 18th century Victorian box. Most dizzying is the journey of the shells recovered from the wreck of the Dutch East India ship Witte Leeuw. These shells are natural specimens that were colonial trade goods. Loaded as cargo on a ship sunk during wartime, the shells are now resurrected from the ocean as artifacts of a shipwreck. The use of shells ranges from raw material and ritual object to specimen, aesthetic motif, and souvenir. This collection surveys the shell’s consistent presence as a contextual shapeshifter that slips between the worlds of spirituality and commodification.

Gods and Goods: Shell, Spirit, Souvenir

keondra bills freemyn is a 2024 Curationist Critic of Color. She is a DMV-based archivist, writer, Wikipedian, and former diplomat originally from South Central, Los Angeles. keondra serves as Archives Director at Black Lunch Table, a radical archiving project centering Black visual artists and operates the small press 67th Street Storytellers. A poet, essayist, and scholarly writer, she is author of the poetry collection _Things You Left Behind_ and is founder of Black Women Writers Project, a digital archival initiative highlighting the contributions of Black women and gender-expansive writers to the literary canon. Her research interests include digital archiving, memory work, and Black cultural production.

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A sepia tone carte-de-visite of a young woman, captured at the Ball & Thomas Photographic Art Gallery in Cincinnati, OH. Standing in front of an elaborate outdoor backdrop, a dark-haired woman poses before the camera, slightly smiling, dressed in a floor length checkered dress with her hair styled in a chignon. She holds a feathered dark hat in her proper left hand, with her proper right hand resting on the high back of an ornate wooden chair. The front of the chair, which faces the camera, features a patterned fabric seat, scroll and floral carvings, and an oval painting of a man and child on the chair’s back.

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Bearing Witness: James Presley Ball, Black Image Making, and the Promise of Freedom in the American West

Abbad is a 2023 Curationist Critic of Color. He is a free knowledge enthusiast who contributed to the Wikimedia movement for about fifteen years. As a volunteer, he contributed to thousands of articles on the Arabic language version of Wikipedia, co-founded and chaired Wikimedia Levant, and led Arabic language translation efforts on Khan Academy. He currently works as a Knowledge Manager with the Wikimedia Foundation, helping implement the Wikimedia 2030 strategy. He authored two e-books in Arabic: "Story of Wikipedia" (2017), and "Art of Translation" (2021). In his free time, he writes on his blog and works on the manuscripts of novels, yet to be published! 

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The Phoenix: A Universal Mythical Bird?

Reina Gattuso is a content writer on the Curationist team, and an independent journalist covering gender and sexuality, arts and culture, and food. Her journalism connects analysis of structural inequality to everyday stories of community, creativity, and care. Her work has appeared at _Atlas Obscura_, _The Washington Post_, _Teen Vogue_, _The Lily_, _POPSUGAR_, and more. Reina has an MA in Arts and Aesthetics (cinema, performance, and visual studies) from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India, where her research focused on sexuality in Hindi film. She writes and teaches writing to high school students in New York City.

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In this intimately scaled crucifix, the artist depicted Christ alive on the cross, an iconographic type known as Christus triumphans.

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Women Artists and the Divine

Chin-Jie Melodie Liu is a 2024 Curationist Fellow. She is a Taiwanese-American artist/curator and writer based in Kamberri/Canberra, Australia. Her research and interdisciplinary practice is informed by her heritage with a focus on contested histories and collective memory. She is interested in varying forms of creative collaboration and the use of text as visual material. 

Liu is Publication Manager at _Art Monthly Australasia_, Australasia’s flagship visual arts publication, and the Events & Collections Officer at the Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University (ANU), where she manages the centre's gallery and collection.  

She holds a Master of Museum and Heritage Studies and a double degree with a Bachelor of Visual Arts (First Class Honours) and a Bachelor of Arts (French & International Relations) from the ANU. Liu studied at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris on exchange in 2019. 

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Illustrating Taiwan: Travelogues and Their Visual Narratives

Mi'Jan Celie Tho-Biaz, Ed.D. is a 2024 Curationist Critic of Color. She is a Kennedy Center Citizen Artist who moves between realms of oral history, art, media & ritual to produce forward-facing cultural projects and events. As a Huntington Library Short-Term Fellow, Mi'Jan is researching Octavia E. Butler's archives. She is also a 2023 Fulbright Specialist Awardee, a 2023-2024 New America Us@250 inaugural Fellow, and an expert speaker for the U.S. Department of State. 

Previously, Mi'Jan curated and hosted Unfinished Network's 2022 salon on the theme of multiracial democracy with CNN's Van Jones and MSNBC's Maria Teresa Kumar, and led the Gloria Steinem Initiative's public policy digital storytelling pilot at Smith College.

One of Mi'Jan's greatest joys is connecting to audiences through her story-rich talks at a range of institutions, from Carnegie Hall to the Institute of American Indian Arts to SXSW. Making history contemporary, personal and futures-dependent, she surfaces the stories that need to be heard.

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A small tin box with a sliding lid, partially opened to reveal a piece of paper covered in handwriting.

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Free Black Women’s Private Pleasures and Rest

Dalina A. Perdomo Álvarez is a 2024 Curationist Fellow. She is a Puerto Rican curator and writer, and currently Assistant Curator at the MSU Broad Art Museum. Previously, she was the 2018–2020 Curatorial Fellow at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, and has also worked at the Video Data Bank and The National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture. She has collaborated with several film festivals, and was selected to be the Inaugural Curatorial Fellow for the Chicago Underground Film Festival in 2021. She is a member of Blue Sky/The Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts Exhibitions Committee and is Michigan state representative for the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries. She holds an MA in Film Studies from the University of Iowa, and a BA from the University of Puerto Rico - Mayagüez.

Interior view, Treasury Department exhibits in the United States Government Building.

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Panorama of Possessions: Film, Photography, and the War of 1898

Woman before a Mirror

Man-Bird Effigy Ocarina

Leaf from a Kalighat album: Sheetaladevi: The Smallpox Goddess (recto); Durga (verso)

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