It runs deeper than #MeToo
It may be argued that the male gaze is nowhere more obvious than in art. Over the past couple of millennia, paintings and sculpture depicting women could be viewed as exploitative by today’s #TimesUp standards.
German curator Susanne Pfeffer has extended the idea of the male gaze, focusing on the structural violence affecting the lives of contemporary women. Pfeffer — the director of Frankfurt’s Museum of Modern Art, (Museum für Moderne Kunst, or MMK) — brought together local and international artists for a site-specific show at Tai Kwun Contemporary. Called “Performing Society: The Violence of Gender”, the show was commissioned by Tai Kwun’s head of art, Tobias Berger.
“This exhibition is completely different than when I first came up with the idea three years ago,” admits Pfeffer. “Trump and Brexit have changed the world.” Her concept for the show was to explore how “the everyday presence of structural violence causes a mute paralysis. The definitions of gender based on symbolic, cultural and physical boundaries are as hard and clear as they are painful to experience. Upbringing, cultural attribution, existing power structures, social codes, religious traditions, and biological manifestations unite to form a violent normative framework that governs body, sexuality, identity, and behavior.”
The exhibition gives voice to females of all ages and backgrounds, with a few male voices as they relate to women. For example, Dong Jinling’s self-portrait and video illustrate the Beijing artist’s decision to feed her newborn with milk solely from her left breast, exposing a very private moment for public consumption. Frankfurt-based Jana Euler revisits the archetype of a woman descending a staircase by showing herself ascending a staircase in the buff to defy objectification in her oil-oncanvas work. London-based Marianna Simnett examines how beauty is linked with chastity and obedience in her repressive film The Udder. Hong Kong artist Wong Ping’s Who’s the Daddy employs cheerful primary colors with childlike simplicity to critique stereotypical notions of masculinity that harm both genders. Although many of
the exhibition’s images are disturbing — some contain explicit graphic content and are open to viewing by those over 18 — Pfeffer also finds humor in works such as Wong Ping’s animation. “It’s funny,” she says. “It invites people to not take things too seriously.”
The Beijing artist Ma Qiusha’s video shows cosmetics being consumed quite literally. Pfeffer remarks that an obsession with beauty can be simultaneously entertaining and alarming. “When it comes to beauty, there are standards for women on how to optimize their body,” she says. “This places huge pressure on females, and causes them to suffer due to unrealistic expectations of how they are supposed to look. Ma mistreats the product to emphasize that it’s not a good idea to consume them thoughtlessly.”
Pfeffer says the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements “didn’t happen in Germany — though they do raise women’s concerns that they can’t flirt anymore,” she notes with a smile. “This show, however, goes much deeper than #MeToo. It touches upon the historical gender power struggle and the need to speak up against it. It takes a position for standing up versus speaking up, as speaking up depends on who is talking.”