Queer feminist-art activists Sarah Secunda and Rebecca Katherine Hirsch have launched an interactive multimedia exhibition aimed at exploring alternate representations of gender and identity.
Titled “Barbarism,” the exhibition — at Fleisher Art Memorial through the end of next month — aims to challenge injustice through comedy, caricature and art.
Hirsch said the name for the exhibition, like the works in it, has a number of interpretations.
“I think we are interested in the idea of barbarism is consonance with the civilization, and also I, for a long time, called all my friends ‘Barb,’” Hirsch said. “So it’s a wonderful combination of many things. In reference to gender, we’re taking a barbarous approach to upending hetero-normativity and gender norms — all of that which has held us back.”
Hirsch said the exhibition consists of works the two artists have created, along with the works and text of people who inspired them.
“The works we have put into this exhibit cover the last three years,” Hirsch said of the exhibition’s creative process. “We have made a larger and more concerted effort to put it together since we knew we were going to have an exhibition a few months ago. We work really slow and really fast. Some of the texts we have included are written by other people like Judith Butler. The exhibition features our writings and photoshopped images and various videos in various genres. During the exhibition, we are going to have a large space for people to contribute their own images and texts on the wall.” Hirsch hopes the existence of such an exhibition will get people thinking about issues of gender and identity, and thereby evolve their beliefs. “On a naïve level, I think representation of new ways of operating are powerful,” Hirsch said. “Mostly what we do is video. We take on characters of various people. We intermix and mash up a lot of videos in order to give voice to different voices that are a combination of all of our voices. It is the representation of otherness, and otherness being other than what one thinks it might be, that is helpful and powerful.”
Check out “Barbarism” through Jan. 31 at Fleisher Art Memorial, 719 Catharine St. For more information, call 215-922-3456 or visit vimeo.com/barbarism.