Kiss My Genders - Hayward Gallery

 This show exhibits over a hundred artists pieces of work from thirty five artists over fifty years. It seems timely that this exhibition that looks at the fluidity of gender identity is put on now. There is much discussion over gender neutral toilets, self identifying, non-binary genders in the media. The work on display shows us that artists have regularly grappled with gender identity for over fifty years if not long before. Indeed Claude Cahun whose photographs does not appear in this show was making work in the 1920s. The video work of Victoria Sin greets the viewer as they enter the exhibition. This is an impressive start. The area is sectioned off by plastic sheeting, heavily draped to create deep folds. On it is an oversized projection of what looks like a heavily made up starlet/model reclining in lingerie. The figure is speaking, reciting something in a foreign language in a sexily suggestive manner. Or that is at least how I interpreted the scene. The folds of fabric scatter the image, break it up and overlap in a way that plays with the notion of fixed identity. It is a striking piece of work that holds the attention.

There is the work of Peter Hujar whose dark and foreboding photographs of the Hudson river hint at gender fluidity and the oppressive situation that non-conformist lives were/are compelled to live and the intolerance they suffer. Nevertheless the waves are changing, refusing to remain fixed countering entrenched gender narratives.

There is an impressive array of work spanning the period from Pierre Molinier's secret black and white images of himself in lingerie to another Hujar piece 'Candy Darling on her Deathbed' which shows the transgender Warhol muse reclining on her hospital bed with dignity while dying from cancer.

I was transfixed by Hunter Reynolds sculptural piece, a spinning memorial dress that names countless AIDS victims. A second dress now has over five thousand names printed onto the fabric which had been collated into a memorial book during the artist's wearing of the dress in a performance space.

This show is too large to cover in one post and requires at least two visits to take the wide ranging works. It is a show that challenges gender assumptions and the definition of gender. It is certainly worth a visit.