‘There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender; … identity is performatively constituted by the very “expressions” that are said to be its results.’
Judith Butler in Gender Trouble (1990)
Contested Bodies is a group exhibition that interrogates and celebrates the performativity of gender as a social construct. It understands gender as a cultural fiction with no fixed, natural or innate characteristics, but as an act that is performed and reproduced at individual, societal and institutional levels.
Contested Bodies brings together the work of over forty artists from across the gender spectrum who use the human body as a medium or as a subject matter. In their respective practices, some explore gender stereotypes, self-representation or shapeshifting through fashion, while other artists address notions of race, class, objectification, pleasure or desire. Many artworks in the show also allude to aspects of vulnerability, empowerment, kinship, community building or humanity’s relationship with the environment.
Featuring works made over the last decade in painting, sculpture, photography, drawing, printmaking and video, this exhibition also reflects the philosophy of the Marcelle Joseph and GIRLPOWER Collections from which all the artworks on display in the gallery derive. Appropriating the title of a course from the MA in Gender Studies at the University of Leeds, Contested Bodies fractures and intersects discourses, from feminist and queer theories to postcolonial studies. This exhibition attempts to eliminate gender, sexual and racial hierarchies altogether in order to recognise every person’s humanity.
As a clarion call for cultural legitimacy and political viability for these previously marginalised voices, this exhibition attempts to transgress, subvert and disrupt imposed societal norms and exclusionary gender binaries in favour of more fluid, hybrid and complex gender subjectivities.
Participating artists: Larry Achiampong, Rebecca Ackroyd, Nel Aerts, Saelia Aparicio, Jonathan Baldock, Boris Camaca, Eileen Cooper, Leo Costelloe, Coco Crampton, Jesse Darling, Maryam Eisler, Kira Freije, Penny Goring, Martine Gutierrez, Neil Haas, Lisa-Marie Harris, Sam Keelan, Paul Kindersley, Jakob Lena Knebl, Sandra Lane, Jessie Makinson, Richard Malone, Alexi Marshall, Lindsey Mendick, Ad Minoliti, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Rose Nestler, Sola Olulode, Rithika Pandey, Anna Perach, Amber Pinkerton, Paloma Proudfoot, Zayn Qahtani, Agnes Questionmark, Alicia Reyes McNamara, Devlin Shea, Sin Wai Kin, Tenant of Culture, Jala Wahid, Alberta Whittle, Gray Wielebinski, Caroline Wong, Zadie Xa.
Co-curated with UK-based independent curator and collector Marcelle Joseph.
