Curated by Matylda Krzykowski.
In this fourth iteration of Collection #3, I continue to refer to Richard Hamilton’s work from 1956, “Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing?,” which is a relevant sociological report of its time, picturing desired material culture and its two possible consumers. In his latest digital version from 1992 Hamilton put a female bodybuilder, a woman of color, in the center of his image; the male figure was repositioned to the side. Through his work, Hamilton intended to underline social change and self-awareness, and he made us believe that gender roles will be distributed differently. Today’s reality suggests otherwise: the traditional patriarchal white society hasn’t come to its end. We are still used to companies, shows or exhibitions featuring mostly male practitioners.
The final show of Collection #3 was intentionally curated to make space for female practitioners. With this exhibition, I use my privilege as curator to underline the genuine disparity in gender roles and put women center stage. Everyone in “Room With Its Own Rules” has established their own roles by breaking or manipulating the familiar, creating qualities that contribute to our spaces by working with typologies, interactions, material properties and cultural references. There is much about each of the works that is hard to pin down, which is their strength. What they have in common is that they create structures in which you hold power and privilege to control the context of one’s work. Note that we have only a selection of female attitudes here, due to limitations of space. The list of artists, designers, and architects considered for the show was long.
Work by Ana Kraš, Ania Jaworska, Åsa Jungnelius, Buro Belén, Claudia Caviezel, Gun Gordillo, Hilda Hellström, Johanna Grawunder, Katie Stout, Kiki van Eijk, Lindsey Adelman, Liz Collins, Marlène Huissoud, Mimi Jung, Mira Nakashima, Pieke Bergmans, Sabine Marcelis, Sarah Zapata, Sigrid von Lintig, Studio Berg, and Zohra Opoku.
Character of Color Phenomena, Vessel, 2017
Character of Color Phenomena, Rug, 2017
Images by David Brandon Geeting.
