Exhibition
Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon
09/27/17-01/21/18
Tours · Exhibition-Related
New Perspectives Tour
Material/Immaterial
Cover Image:
ektor garcia, mariposa, 2015. Deer antlers, fur, lace, ostrich egg, steel, wood, Craftsman vice, and nails, 58 × 21 × 28 in (147.3 × 53.3 × 71.1 cm). Courtesy the artist and Sargent’s Daughters, New York
Leather, beads, hair, and paint. Air, light, scent, and white noise. The artists in “Trigger: Gender and a Tool and a Weapon” engage with a staggering range of media, from the tactile to the ephemeral and intangible. In this tour, we will look closely at a selection of works in which the chosen artistic medium(s) are integral to the viewer’s experience of the expression of identity. Sometimes the material may be significant because we as visitors bring with us associations related to certain materials, such as nail polish, neon lights, embroidered textiles, or lace, or because materials express personal or community-based histories—as with braided hair, leatherwork, and old photographs. Other times, a material’s significance arises because it is fundamentally immaterial (like sound, scent, or mist), asking us to rely on sensorial perception beyond our eyes and hands to experience the work. Together, we will discuss the role of materiality and immateriality within an exhibition that asks us to consider the innumerable forms that gender—in its categorization, fluidity, and undoing—can take.
New Perspectives tours are led by the New Museum Teaching Fellow, an emerging scholar in art history or a related field. The topics of the tours are based on the Fellow’s ongoing research and change monthly, engaging participants in uniquely focused examinations of selected objects and installations. New Perspectives tours are free with Museum admission. Due to limited capacity, please preregister here and meet in the Lobby at the time of the tour.
The current New Museum Teaching Fellow is Maggie Mustard, a PhD candidate in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University, where she is completing her dissertation on postwar Japanese photography.
Sponsors
This program is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
