Alexis Hunter, Anxiety/Sexual Warfare, 1974
THIS EVENT STARTS AT 6PM
Join us for a talk presented by New Zealand-based art historian, Elizabeth Eastmond on Alexis Hunter, within the framework of the exhibition 10 Seconds at the gallery.
Two generations on from second-wave feminism, Elizabeth Eastmond's focus is on shifting responses to Alexis Hunter's work. Considering the significance of her background in an Aotearoa/New Zealand of the nineteen-sixties, emerging feminism, and an early, significant, exposure to the work of Baroque artist Artemisia Gentieschi. Later in London Punk had its impact. The 1970s photographic narrative sequences boldly expose and challenge asymmetrical power relationships, frequently lacing these with a gleeful anarchic humour. Troubling ambiguities can enter the mix too, as in the major 1978 Dialogue with a Rapist, where early critiques of the work contrast dramatically with recent 'intersectional' approaches. Eastmond will explore these, while anchoring the work in 1970s art practice and proposing an alternative reading.
*Content Warning*:
This talk contains discussions of sensitive subject matter, including explicit references to attempted sexual assault and rape depicted in certain artworks.
About Elizabeth Eastmond:
Elizabeth Eastmond (b.1945) was born and studied in the UK, taking up a teaching post in Art History at the University of Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand in the 1970s. She started the first course on women artists in 1981 and has written widely on women artists, including publishing and curating exhibitions of two major expatriate New Zealand artists: Frances Hodgkins (1869-1947) and Alexis Hunter (1950-2014). Involved in the women's movement in the 1970s she co-founded Women's Community Video in 1975. In the 1980s she co-edited the arts/literature journal ANTIC . In recent time she ran Tivoli, a gallery/specialist bookstore. Recent exhibitions curated: 'Bad Ambassador', by the collective et al. (2022) and 'State of Palestine' (August 2023).
