Cutting Realities – Gender Strategies in Art (2008)
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Cutting Realities – Gender Strategies in Art
23 September–29 November 2008
Austrian Cultural Forum, New York
Curator: Walter Seidl
More than four decades of reflecting on and discussing the boundaries and restrictions of sexual identity, standardizations and transgressions of physical appearance, and mentally pre-configured constructions of social behavior have given rise to a wide range of artistic output on the theme of gender relations and everyday perception thereof. What began as a female concern—pertaining to women’s under- and misrepresentation within society and the need to break down a male-dominated system of thought and action—has seen the increasing growth of male interest, at first mainly within the gay community and later on at the mainstream level through a heightened awareness of visuality and media representation.
“Cutting Realities” was an exhibition that linked the historic year of 1968 with contemporary approaches to issues of gender, demonstrating how artists articulate their concerns on the visual and performative levels. This show presented works from the Kontakt collection that spanned a timeframe of almost 50 years, reflecting not only the beginnings of feminism and gender activism but also the current status of gendered lifestyles in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Regarding the body’s public positioning during the 1960s, the situation in the conservative, postwar climate of Central Europe was not all that different from that of the neighboring Communist countries, and thus generated similar reactions—especially towards the negation of woman’s role in society. Hence, the formation of subcultural movements has been an important tool in communicating artistic concerns. In the case of Eastern Europe, these concerns were not revaluated until the 1990s. “Cutting Realities” presented the gender-related approaches inherent in a great number of artworks since the 1960s; its focus on a particular region of the world was intended to offer new insights into the topic in order to draw parallels to what had happened on the international art scene, especially in the U.S. On the fortieth anniversary of 1968, this presentation provided an insightful look at how attitudes toward physicality and sexuality had developed.
Austrian Cultural Forum New York
11 East 52nd Street
New York, NY 10022
USA
23 September–29 November 2008
Austrian Cultural Forum, New York
Curator: Walter Seidl
More than four decades of reflecting on and discussing the boundaries and restrictions of sexual identity, standardizations and transgressions of physical appearance, and mentally pre-configured constructions of social behavior have given rise to a wide range of artistic output on the theme of gender relations and everyday perception thereof. What began as a female concern—pertaining to women’s under- and misrepresentation within society and the need to break down a male-dominated system of thought and action—has seen the increasing growth of male interest, at first mainly within the gay community and later on at the mainstream level through a heightened awareness of visuality and media representation.
“Cutting Realities” was an exhibition that linked the historic year of 1968 with contemporary approaches to issues of gender, demonstrating how artists articulate their concerns on the visual and performative levels. This show presented works from the Kontakt collection that spanned a timeframe of almost 50 years, reflecting not only the beginnings of feminism and gender activism but also the current status of gendered lifestyles in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Regarding the body’s public positioning during the 1960s, the situation in the conservative, postwar climate of Central Europe was not all that different from that of the neighboring Communist countries, and thus generated similar reactions—especially towards the negation of woman’s role in society. Hence, the formation of subcultural movements has been an important tool in communicating artistic concerns. In the case of Eastern Europe, these concerns were not revaluated until the 1990s. “Cutting Realities” presented the gender-related approaches inherent in a great number of artworks since the 1960s; its focus on a particular region of the world was intended to offer new insights into the topic in order to draw parallels to what had happened on the international art scene, especially in the U.S. On the fortieth anniversary of 1968, this presentation provided an insightful look at how attitudes toward physicality and sexuality had developed.
Austrian Cultural Forum New York
11 East 52nd Street
New York, NY 10022
USA