Radical art show exploring sex and gender opens in New York
- Text by HUCK HQ
A major new exhibition exploring gender’s place in contemporary culture is opening at New York’s New Museum this week. The show, titled Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon, celebrates radical artists who are looking beyond the binary and adopting “more fluid and inclusive expressions” of identity.
More than 40 artists working across film, video, performance, painting, sculpture and photography are set to be featured. This includes up and coming artists Sable Elyse Smith and Paul Mpagi Sepuya; activists Vaginal Davis and Nancy Brooks Brody; as well as more established names like Josh Faught and Reina Gossett. The work will vary from the political to the poetic.
“Representing no single point of view, and in some cases presenting productively contradictory positions, Trigger will assemble artists for their singular efforts in considering gender’s capacity to represent a more general refusal of stable categorisation—a refusal at the heart of today’s most compelling artistic practices,” a spokesperson for the museum explained in a statement.
Trigger will occupy three floors of the New Museum, and will be on view from September 27 to January 21, 2018.
Troy Michie, Arroyo, 2015. Courtesy the artist
Simone Leigh, Queen Bee, 2008–2012. Courtesy the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York
Christina Quarles, We Gunna Live With Water Fer Tha Resta Our Lives, 2017. Courtesy the artist and David Castillo Gallery, Miami
Tuesday Smillie, Street Transvestites, 2015. Textile, beads, buttons, bits, 48 × 83 in (121.9 × 210.8 cm). Courtesy the artist
Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Darkroom Mirror (0X5A1531), 2017. Archival pigment print, 51 × 34 in (129.5 × 86.4 cm). Courtesy the artist and Yancey Richardson, New York
Tschabalala Self, Loner, 2016. Courtesy the artist and Thierry Goldberg, New York
Tschabalala Self, Floor Dance, 2016. Courtesy the artist and Thierry Goldberg, New York
Troy Michie, Nobody Knows My Name, 2015. Courtesy the artist
Christina Quarles, Butt Hidden in Lacy Groves (Hell Must Be a Pretty Place, Fire n’ Brimestone Allright…), 2017. Courtesy the artist and David Castillo Gallery, Miami
Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon will run at New York’s New Museum from September 27, 2017–January 21, 2018.
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
Latest on Huck
Bobby Gillespie: “This country is poisoned by class”
Primal Scream’s legendary lead singer writes about the band’s latest album ‘Come Ahead’ and the themes of class, conflict and compassion that run throughout it.
Written by: Bobby Gillespie
Vibrant photos of New York’s Downtown performance scene
‘Balloons and Feathers’ is an eclectic collection of images documenting the scene for over two decades.
Written by: Miss Rosen
Picking through the rubble: Glimpses of hope in the US election results
Clambering through the wreckage of the Harris campaign, delving deeper into the election results and building on the networks that already exist, all hope is not gone writes Ben Smoke.
Written by: Ben Smoke
US Election night 2024 in Texas
Photographer Tom “TBow” Bowden travelled to Republican and Democratic watch parties around Houston, capturing their contrasting energies as results began to flow in.
Written by: Isaac Muk
In photos: “Real life is not black and white” – Polaroid x Magnum Open Call winners
See pictures from the competition organised by two titans of contemporary photography, which called upon artists to reject the digitalisation and over-perfectionism of our modern world, technology and image-making.
Written by: Huck
In photos: Rednecks with Paychecks
‘American Diesel’ is a new photo series that looks at the people, places and culture behind the stereotypes of rural America.
Written by: Ben Smoke