October 24–February 11, 2018
About:
This exhibition of sculpture and interactive artworks by artist Sidney Mullis playfully and incisively explores coming-of-age in a gendered society. Mullis’ works break down social conventions into their component forms and behaviors and uses those raw materials to imagine something new.
Related Events:
Roundtable Conversation with Sidney Mullis and Erica Delsandro:
Wednesday, November 29, 6pm
Iron Front Cowork Space, 434 Market Street, 3rd Floor, Lewisburg
Closing Reception Pajama Party:
Friday, February 9, 6pm, Downtown Gallery, 416 Market Street, Lewisburg
Curatorial Text:
Who is puberty and how does she hit?
Your teenage years can be one of the most challenging periods of your life. It’s a period when the lessons that you have been learning as a child about how to be a man or woman get cemented into an adult identity. Playtime is over; time to get serious about your gender.
One way to think about those lessons is that they are recipes or scripts. One script says that if you sit one way (but not another) and wear this color (but not that one) and perform a hundred other specific actions, then you’ll become a woman. You must learn these scripts well because you’ll need to repeat them for the rest of your life.
Mullis’ artworks ask how these scripts are played out on our bodies and in physical space; what is the motion, the shape, the fabric, and the language that our culture has determined is feminine? By breaking gender down into these building blocks, Mullis also seems to suggest that they can be put back together in new combinations. Scripts can be re-written or improvised. Performing them can be experimental rather than rote memorization. Even the end goals – becoming a man or woman – may be expanded or redefined as an ongoing lifelong exploration.
It’s playtime again; do try this at home.
Exhibited Works:
Installation Images:
