Gallery 44 Database
of Contemporary Canadian Photography

Exhibitions: Normal Work

Exhibition Name: Normal Work
From: May 1, 2008
To: May 31, 2008
Gallery Space: Main Gallery
Artists: Pauline Boudry
Hannah Cullwick
Renate Lorenz
Description: From 1855 to 1902, Hannah Cullwicks photographed self-portraits where she was engaged in domestic labour. Cleaning floors, blistered hands and shining shoes are the focus. Cullwicks fascination with domestic labour and servitude was directly connected to her sexuality. In her letters and self portraits she clearly promotes her desire and love of a submissive role, which in contemporary language translates to BDSM (Bondage, Domination, Sado//Masochism. In her images, Cullwicks dons a leather bracelet to indicate her sexual position as well as a lock and chain around her neck to which only her “master” has the key. Renate Lorenz discovered this series of self portraits at an archive in the UK, which she shared with Swiss video artist Pauline Boudry. Boudry used the Victorian imagery to inspire Berlin-based drag performer, Werner Hirsch to perform the actions, costumes and poses of Cullwicks photographs with seminal queer photographer Del La Grace Volcano’s series Daddy Boy Dykes in the background. There is profound dialogue between the subjects and the use of technology. Normal Work negates an overly simplistic view of sexuality and labour that challenges audience members to scratch the surface of familiarity, the role of portraiture in archiving identity and photography’s growth into new technologies.

Media & Techniques:

approaches:

historical
staged

body/sex/gender:

sexuality
queer
gender
feminism

subjects:

portraiture
politics
sociology

themes:

time
representation
domesticity

This database record last modified: Thu, Jun 5, 2008