A Different View: Artists address pornography

Media release
12 August 2013

Pornography exposed

An exhibition by New Zealand artists at The Gus Fisher Gallery brings together twenty works that illuminate the visual conventions of pornography.

The show A Different View: artists address pornography is intended to ‘make space for addressing sexism and racism within the production, representation and consumption of mainstream pornography’.

The exhibition accompanies research by psychologists from The University of Auckland, Associate-Professors Nicola Gavey and Virginia Braun, into how pornography affects contemporary New Zealand society.

Gavey says “We are looking to art to spark new ways of seeing and understanding pornography.”

From painting to performance, the artists deploy every artistic medium to make their mark. Artists/works include:

Judy Darragh – paints over a centerfold spread,
Lonnie Hutchinson (Ngai Tahu) – laments the colonial sex trade in a video called Black Pearl,
Hye Rim Lee – creates a digital animation fantasy world called Strawberry Garden,
Lauren Lysaght – devises her own DVD collection with an Adult Section,
Peter Madden – cuts up explicit material to make his own Museum of Creep.

“Pornography has always exploited technology: first photography then HD video, now the internet, animation and gaming. Pornography has become a transmedia consumer item available on a variety of platforms. Many of the artists in this exhibition are using these same new media technologies to call into question the role that pornography has assumed in New Zealand life”, says Associate Professor Linda Tyler, Director of the Gus Fisher Gallery.

A Different View: artists address pornography
Gus Fisher Gallery,
74 Shortland Street, Auckland.
23 August - 12 October. Opens 5.30pm, 23 August.
Featuring: Kushana Bush, Liyen & Clara Chong, Judy Darragh, Sorcia Forgan, Amelia Hitchcock, Lonnie Hutchinson, Esma Kazal, Shigeyuki Kihara, Hye Rim Lee, Lauren Lysaght, Liz Maw, Richard McWhannell, Peter Madden, Sam Mitchell, Reuben Paterson, John Pule, David Thomas, Yvonne Todd, Rohan Wealleans and Joyoti Wylie.
www.gusfishergallery.co.nz
www.sexualpoliticsnow.org.nz (launching soon)

ENDS

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