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Artworks

Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Alexis HUNTER, Co-dependance, 1997

Alexis HUNTER New Zealand, 1948-2014

Co-dependance, 1997
Acrylic and pen on card
30 x 42 cm
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'While the Approach to Fear series commenced during a low period in which Hunter pictured herself jumping off a roof, the fears she explores in her art are often internalised...
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'While the Approach to Fear series commenced during a low period in which Hunter pictured herself jumping off a roof, the fears she explores in her art are often internalised conflicts relating to feminism and women’s sexual liberation. In Approach to Fear I: Violence - identify with aggressor we see a woman’s hand teasing a cat, sustaining scratches, and then returning for more. Hunter herself suggested four alternative readings for the sequence – in the first, the woman is compensated for the pain she experiences by the satisfaction of having the cat respond to her. In another, the cat symbolises the male and the cuts become symbols of the patriarchal oppression that the woman is already too accustomed to sustaining to notice. In the third reading, the cat could represent the woman’s animus – “the masculine part of her unconscious in Jungian psychology” – which she is perhaps afraid of, or struggling to overcome. In the fourth interpretation, the woman is experiencing masochistic pleasure from being dominated by the cat. Far from being prescriptive or dogmatic, Hunter’s sexual imagery is often enigmatic - playful and celebratory, but with an eyebrow arched. In the Untitled (Woman and Beast series) a red-mouthed chimera grabs a naked blond woman in classic Fay Wray style, but the pair then engages in an energetic (and apparently mutually enjoyable) sequence of sexual manoeuvres. It’s a comic scene complete with slapstick banana skins – though whether the banana skins are left there for us to trip on, or the participants, is unclear. The Co-Dependence paintings also show interspecies couplings – here a formerly priapic wolf has melted into the sheep it was looming over, and the sheep has ended up dressed in wolf’s clothing.' - Hettie Judah
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Exhibitions

Alexis Hunter: 10 Seconds, curated by Natasha Hoare, Richard Saltoun Gallery London, 6 February - 30 March 2024
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Richard Saltoun Gallery| LONDON

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