Gender: Classification and Ambiguity
Co-curator with Ian Carstens ('14)
October 19 - November 7, 2012
Union Gallery, Luther College
Decorah, Iowa
In a world where pop stars and social icons reach the level of performative nongender have we moved passed the need for classification of gender? Gender arrives at the base of our conceptual framework through ambiguity and classification by way of offering a characteristic essential to survival, and yet it is a constructed necessity that does not come empty of misunderstanding, misinterpretation and manipulation. Ambiguity, present in all forms of language allows for the arrival at multiple interpretive absolutes, yet when placed upon gender does it add to the complexity of progress or regress? When gender is being defined via classification does it stimulate misconceptions, absolutism or discrimination? Can gender, essential to the survival of the human condition, be ambiguous or must it be classified, and if so can there be any understanding of it at all? This show invites artists to investigate the concept of gender and all of the characteristics, which define it.
Contributing Artists:
Cassie Bormann
Jacob Clausen
Robert Scott
---
October 19 - November 7, 2012
Union Gallery, Luther College
Decorah, Iowa
In a world where pop stars and social icons reach the level of performative nongender have we moved passed the need for classification of gender? Gender arrives at the base of our conceptual framework through ambiguity and classification by way of offering a characteristic essential to survival, and yet it is a constructed necessity that does not come empty of misunderstanding, misinterpretation and manipulation. Ambiguity, present in all forms of language allows for the arrival at multiple interpretive absolutes, yet when placed upon gender does it add to the complexity of progress or regress? When gender is being defined via classification does it stimulate misconceptions, absolutism or discrimination? Can gender, essential to the survival of the human condition, be ambiguous or must it be classified, and if so can there be any understanding of it at all? This show invites artists to investigate the concept of gender and all of the characteristics, which define it.
Contributing Artists:
Cassie Bormann
Jacob Clausen
Robert Scott
---