Tom and I went to our first private view showing for the opening of a new exhibit put on by MA students from Central St. Martin's (London).
I'm really glad I went - it was good to see what fellow students are up to. One of my art friends, Ben, had a piece in the show (a video installation), something about comparing/contrasting various cultural sources to "uncover...the instigation of a binary gender system in society" (a sort of "how did it get to THIS point" question and trying to dig out the answer).
I felt his piece (two projections - one a white man, the other a black woman looking out, looking at each other, looking away, etc.), as just one step in Ben's study, was quite effective in giving the viewer an opening into the idea that the distinctions between man/woman, black/white, gay/straight, are not quite so distinct as many of us think they are or would like to believe.
I myself tend to being a very black/white thinker (eek! no shades of gray!), yet Ben's piece put a little smudge on THAT kind of thinking... his work offers the suggestion that labels, especially where humans tend to label other humans, these are not so clearly defined.
I really liked Ben's piece and the exhibit as a whole. The one that honestly spoke to me for whatever reason was the gay S&M knitter on a chair. Humm not sure what to make of that from my own viewpoint :)
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