OUGD502: Essence of Gender Exhibition - The Gallery at Munroe House

The Essence of Gender exhibition was hosted at the start of the year by a small group of artists, wanting to express their femininity/masculinity with open, honest communication. At this time in the year, I was quite unsure in which direction to choose for my COP work, and as gender, feminism and conceptual art are something I am interested in I only thought appropriate to go along!

The variety of work on offer was vast, ranging from painting to photography, print and 3D. The whole atmosphere was quite uplifting, with nobody really taking anything as offensive- rather just appreciating the humorous undertone. Self expression and freedom to be who you are, with a satirical statements being made about the human body, ambiguous of gender. The idea of humour being a key ingredient to produce engaging (and provocative) work is playful and clever, something I want to filter into my own practice.

'Another Day Another Dollar', by Romily Alice. Made from Glass tubing and argon gas, being sold for £475. Other artists featured below.

Later that day I also visited The Tetley, helping my friend curate and put on his own exhibition. In a way to drum up publicity, I visited Josiah Craven, The Tall Boys Beer Co and some other creative local minds to give out invitations to the 'Record' Exhibition. While I was there, I saw some extremely eyecatching work in the gallery, including a humungous 3D roof-floor scale sculpture of fruit. The whole experience was so engaging it was hard not to take hundreds of photo's.

Instillation at The Tetley, Sept 16'

The above collage represents the woman in all her glory, expressing what society expects us to be, see's us as, and often what we really are. This is just my interpretation, with no side card featured with this piece. The flow of the composition is quite sparse get it all works in harmony. The incorporation of fashion, collage and illustration are all aspects I want to incorporate into my practice so this piece was extremely inspiring to see.

Instillation as a satire about the health care system and what we put into our bodies. The Tetley, Sept 16'.