Curatorial Statement:

Boys are doctors, girls are nurses; girls wear pink, boys wear blue; boys have short hair, girls have long hair. These are just a few examples of social constructions of gender. While some of these examples are a little out of date, there still exist many examples of how gender is manufactured, divided, and presented to the public. In fact, the relationships between time and gender, according to Judith Butler - a theorist of gender, sexuality and identity – are very much intertwined. She argues that gender is “instituted through a stylized repetition of acts… instituted through the stylization of the body and… understood as the mundane way in which bodily gestures, movements, and enactments of various kinds… [require] a conception of a constituted social temporality.” [1] In other words, these acts - or performances - rely on a current, socially constructed view of the performance of a gendered identity. Butler adds that “gender is an act which has been rehearsed.” [2]

“Performance” can be understood in several ways: “one involving the display of skills, the other also involving display, but less of particular skills than of a recognized and culturally coded pattern of behavior.” [3] Similar to the notions of gender, “all performance involves a consciousness of doubleness, through which the actual execution of an action is placed in mental comparison with a potential, an ideal, or a remembered original model of that action.” [4] Connections between performance, performance arts, and the performance of gender are unavoidable; successes and failures are gauged on constructed social expectations that are in a constant state of flux.

This exhibition contains performances which highlight or blur the binary model of gender – one that is either masculine or feminine. In addition, this exhibition will focus on the realm of performance-based video - artistic performances executed for and recorded on video.


[1] Butler, Judith. “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution.” Performance Studies Reader. London: Routledge, 2003, p. 154
[2] Butler, Judith. “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution.” Performance Studies Reader. London: Routledge, 2003, p. 160
[3] Carlson, Marvin. “What Is Performance”. Performance Studies Reader. London: Routledge, 2003, p. 70
[4] Carlson, Marvin. “What Is Performance”. Performance Studies Reader. London: Routledge, 2003, p. 71