What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/1173940
publicly that represent those risks, for me, creates vulnerability. This scares me. I call it unbalancing the feminine within. I call it empowerment for all. Q. How do you hope having your work presented in the context of being paired with your peer's work will impact the viewer's connection with the exhibition's themes? Gordon: I think that our work is authentic and powerful, but the issues that we are dealing with are hard to access for a lot of people. By offering two perspectives, we are hoping that the viewer has more chances to find an entry point and make a meaningful connection to the work. Hennon: Rob and I see that our personal experiences are a part of our creative processes. That shows up in my work with the female figure. I'm not wanting to objectify her, but rather show her as an empowered androgynous human being. In Rob's and my presentation of F/M themes, I think the viewer will be able to see the connections between passion and vulnerability. There's a playfulness in our work. Q. Why are your pieces and the exhibition an important addition to the conversation surrounding gender and creativity? Gordon: In short, I believe we need to complicate the conversations around gender and sexuality. Within contemporary photography, the queer experience or body are predominantly described in relation to existing assumptions about gender. For example, a male is queered only by a feminine act or accessory. I believe that this sort of feminization (or masculinization) only serves to reinforce the binaries of straight-gay or male-female. Genderqueer is then only that which is not male and not female — the space is only defined by what it is not, and not what it is. How, then, are we expected to navigate a space that is so loosely defined? I think this uncertainty is felt deeply, certainly by Pat and I, but by innumerable people. As an artist I am seeking to define this space for myself, and share what I have learned with others. Hennon: I think this exhibition's greatest offering is that it visually demonstrates personal power within suffering. The important thing about suffering, I learned, is how to hold what hurts without becoming a victim and then share what I hold creatively. Our society hurts individuals with different gender choices or ambiguities. Q. Can you offer an idea of what you will discuss at the Artist Talk on Oct. 11? Gordon: I will be discussing the development of the work and talking briefly about representation, and contextualizing the work within contemporary photography. Hennon: I will talk about how the internal feminine and masculine dynamics are necessary for attempts to find balance. Balance seems like an illusion to me for, if ever attained, all action would stop. Historically there has been an imbalance between these two forces. My talk makes a point to say to the feminine aspect within, "Go ahead, be unbalancing." Let our feminine self be vulnerable but well contained internally. Men and women can share this value equally, no longer having to be warriors or Amazons all of the time. Creatively, I can become more fully human. I can cry, be scared and work hard to be my imagined best at the same time. Jonathan Newman, Blow It Up, Start Again Beethoven, Violin Concerto Jennifer Frautschi, violin Rachmaninov, Symphonic Dances Masterworks I: Beethoven's Violin Concerto NOV. 9, 2019 – 7:30PM Walton Arts Center Jennifer Frautschi Tickets On Sale Now! sonamusic.org / 479.443.5600 Celebrating 65 Years Symphony of Northwest Arkansas Paul Haas, Music Director SEASON OPENING CONCERT 6 WHAT'S UP! OCTOBER 6-12, 2019 Artists Continued From Page 5 Courtesy photo "JERKBAIT" (2019)—"Growing up, I fantasized about being assimilated into The Borg Collective from 'Star Trek.' Life as a cyborg drone was an appeal- ing alternative to the oppressive labels of male or female," photographer Robert P Gordon muses. "The ['Jerkbait' series] honors the spirit of this childhood fantasy; by emulating artificial fishing lures, I am seeking to reject the binary as the framework for these sort of aesthetic examina- tions. In doing so, I think the work enters this uncomfortable space where we can start to complicate our understandings of gender and sexuality." 5X5