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The inescapability of sexual difference

Toni Ross
Eyeline 28
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An essay response to the exhibition Discovering the 'Feminine'? held at the David Pestorius Gallery, Brisbane, 10 March-1 April 1995

In scale and in the number of participants Discovering the 'Feminine'? was a rather modest group show. Nonetheless, it was framed by an extremely ambitious curatorial premise: to intervene with a negative ges­ture in long-standing debates about the pos­sibility of identifying a specifically 'feminine' aesthetic. The accompanying catalogue brought together a curatorial statement by David Pestorius and a short essay by Rex Butler.1 The trick enacted by the curator was that only male artists, Hany Armanious, Adam Boyd, Tony Clark and A.D.S. Donaldson, were included in the show.

The all male make-up of the show places the female critic, committed to feminism, in something of a quandary. For her there are at least three possible responses. First, to pass over the exhibition in silence, ensuring a form of rejection through neglect. Second, to simply attack the show as a regressive and opportunistic promotion of male artists at the expense of female. A third response, and the path I shall take, would be to acknowledge the seriousness and perti­nence of certain questions posed by this exhibition. 

Since Discovering the 'Feminine'? con­forms to what Rex Butler has elsewhere named an argument show-one that articulates a hypothesis regarding certain shifts in the game of contemporary art-my main focus will be on the arguments put forward by Pestorius and Butler.2 The question asked by both is whether a set of inherently masculine or feminine qualities may be attributed to particular art practices. In other words, whether the sex of the artist makes a difference to the kind of art produced. To paraphrase... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline

Adam Boyd, Lived Green

Adam Boyd, Lived Green, 1995. Polyurethane foam and polymer pigments. 280 x 170 x 10 cm. From Discovering the 'Feminine'?. Courtesy David Pestorius Gallery, Brisbane. 

Discovering the 'Feminine'?, 1995.

Discovering the 'Feminine'?, 1995. Installation view. From left to right works by A.D.S. Donaldson, Adam Boyd, Hany Armanious, Tony Clark. Courtesy David Pestorius Gallery, Brisbane.