Exhibition “Gender in Isolation: Right for Self Construction under the Conditions of Patriarchy” shows how people try on social roles, play with each other in order to distinguish themselves in the society. There is an ambiguous perception of gender issue in Ukraine that is why curator Olena Chervonyk very carefully formed the zones of the exhibitions. The exhibit features 14 works of contemporary art and photographs from the Museum of Pasha Anhelina, first female tractor operator. Excursus on gender begins with works by Ksenia Hnylytska and continues in the hall with works dedicated to social games. The second hall is dedicated to the abject art – art of disgusting. Works by Maria Kulykovska, Alina Kleitman, and Liubov Malykova are presented there. All three young artists in their works have a common concept of body and beauty, pleasant and artificial. The media image of an ideal woman from works by Alina Kleitman passes on to the work by Oleksii Salmanov where a girl is not undressing but instead is putting clothes on. Works by Alina Kopytsia and duet “Synchrodogs” are dedicated to relations between a man and a woman. At the end the exhibition returns to the first hall with the stereotype behavior models from Zhanna Kadyrova’s Honors Board and Lesia Khomenko’s Cottage Madonna, which reminds of a poem by young poet from Donetsk Vitalii Chornohryz about a woman who works on the railway:
In railway points,
junctions, lamps
Similar to railway
Sit, crossing each other
Woman’s legs all covered
in nylon on the outside…
And it is clear what is up higher
Above the shameless linen
checkered skirt
Tight bust
In orange railway west.
Tetiana YERESKOVA, sociologist, Ph.D. in Sociology, professor at Donetsk State University of Management:
“For me the issue of gender is the social role that I take for myself. And if we talk about the construction of one’s own self, for young artists this construction took place in a different way. These are the life stories, experience, books they read, and imitating someone. It is difficult to say that you either like or dislike such things because they are thought-provoking. There was an astonishing series of photos where a young woman is gradually undressing. The process itself is more surprising than the final result. She can stop at any moment. I was most impressed that when she finally took everything off, she was unhappy. There is no feeling on the photograph like: ‘Hey look, I won, I overcame it.’ On the other side she is putting clothes on. One could view it both ways. But in both cases she is equally unhappy. Why then did she do it?
“Such projects are useful because they certainly break some stereotypes. The exhibit makes us think, the placement of works is very smart. At first a woman is showing stereotypic behavior and in the end a person starts to ponder. We were shown that there is such a reality. And what should we do with it now? What should do we do with this freedom? And to what extent are people willing to accept it?”
