Alexis Hunter | |
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| Born | Alexis Jan Atthill Hunter (1948-11-04)4 November 1948 Auckland, New Zealand |
| Died | 24 February 2014(2014-02-24) (aged 65) London, England |
| Alma mater | Elam School of Fine Arts |
| Known for | Photography, painting |
| Movement | Stuckism |
| Spouse | Baxter Mitchell |
| Website | alexishuntertrust |
Alexis Jan Atthill Hunter (4 November 1948 – 24 February 2014)[1] was aNew Zealand painter and photographer, who usedfeminist theory in her work.[2] She lived and worked inLondon UK, andBeaurainville France. Hunter was also a member of theStuckism collective.[3][4]Her archive and artistic legacy is now administered by the Alexis Hunter Trust.[5]
Hunter's parents emigrated to New Zealand fromSydney in 1947, and she was born inEpsom,Auckland. Her twin sister is the printmaker and photographerAlyson Hunter. Hunter was raised inTitirangi in the Waitākere Ranges in Auckland.
From 1966 to 1969, Hunter studied atElam School of Fine Arts, where she was influenced by a tutorColin McCahon's ethics that the artist has responsibility as a member of society.[2] In 1970, she lived in a commune inCairns. In 1971, she completed a teaching diploma in art and history.[6]
In 1972 she moved to London and worked in film animation. She was a member of the Women's Workshop of the Artists Union (1972–1975) and the Woman's Free Arts Alliance. She has said that during this time of her feminist stance, "We were ridiculed in the press. We couldn't get work", and that she also found it difficult to get photo labs to print her work.[2]
She started to study European tattoos, after listening to a lecture at theRoyal Academy, which described them in a belittling way; she said, "I was angry because I know from New Zealand culture that tattooing was a very important part of Maori social structure."[2] She took photos in the street of men with tattoos and received sexist accusations, which she rejected.[2]
She used the image of hands in her work. A series,Approach to Fear II: Change – Decisive Action (1977), depicts red nail varnish being taken off and fingernails being cut with a razor blade.[7]Sexual Warfare (1975) is a grid of photographs with text, where her own hands show different methods of killing a male partner, such as a pair of scissors being clutched and the text "Castrate, dedicated to Delilah".[7] Threat and humour combine, and the word "Compete" is hand with the book,How to Make it in a Man's World.[7] Images in the series,The Marxist Housewife (Still Does the Housework) (1978), show a manicured hand cleaning a poster ofKarl Marx, referencing both class issues and Marx's lack of recognition of domestic labour in his writing.[7] The seriesIdentity Crisis consists of six photographs of Hunter, each taken by a different person over a two-week period, showing how they saw her, ranging from the feminity of wearing a pearl necklace to a defiant stance wearing ahard hat.[7]
She also photographed men, in common with feminist practice of the 1970s, to reverse the traditional position of men's visualization of women - 'themale gaze'.[7][8] HerSexual Rapport series (1972–1976) consists of image of men, whom she had photographed in the street inHoxton, London andLittle Italy in New York: they include workers on lunch break and policemen, who are shown in a friendly and good-natured fashion. Hunter then marked the photographs, "Yes", "No" or "Maybe", to indicate the level of sexual rapport she felt existed with the subjects.[7]
In 1978 her photographic exhibitionApproaches to Fear was staged bySarah Kent, who was then Exhibitions Director at theInstitute of Contemporary Arts in London.[9] That year she showed at theHayward Annual, in 1979 at thePalais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, and in 1981 at theSummer Show 2 at theSerpentine Gallery, London.[6] She was included inContemporary Acquisitions (The Imperial War Museum, London, 1981),Mythic Landscapes and Memory Series (Totah Gallery, New York, 1984),Whitechapel Open (Whitechapel Gallery, London, 1987),Alter/Image: Feminism and Representation in New Zealand Art 1973-1993 (City Gallery Wellington andAuckland Art Gallery, 1993–1994),Fantasy (Touring:United Arab Emirates andEngland, 1994), andTechnomyths (Whitespace Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand, 2002). She showed work in group shows at theStuckism International Gallery in 2003. In an interview with Lisa Sabbage, she explained how she returned to painting in the early 1980s to explore the political difficulties of the medium, using it to examine psychology and fantasy from a feminist perspective.[10]
A revival of interest in early feminist art led her in 2007 to stage a show of older work,Alexis Hunter: Radical Feminism in the 1970s, shown at theNorwich Gallery, England,[7] and at the Whitespace Gallery in New Zealand.[2] Kathy Battista inFrieze said the show, "situated her practice as an important contribution to Britain's feminist movement within the visual arts." Hunter said:
"In the 1970s we felt empowered to change society, and thought we could do so by making art. People now don't feel that, and they want to learn how we did it.[2]
The black-and-white image used for the exhibition catalogue cover from her 1970sSexual Rapport series, showed a man's bare torso, wearing leather trousers, with the twin towers of theWorld Trade Center in the background as the "ultimate phallic symbols",[7] while he holds a smoking cigarette at the level of his penis.[7] The image sums up her "combination of intellectual inquiry into desire and subjectivity, but handled with tongue-in-cheek humour and ease."[7]
In 2007, her work was also included inWACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution[2]Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), Los Angeles, and theStuckist show,I Won't Have Sex with You as long as We're Married, at the A Gallery in London.[11] In 2008, she founded the Camden Stuckist group inCamden,London.[3]
In 2013 her work Approach to Fear XIII: Pain – Destruction of Cause 1977 was purchased by the Tate Gallery.[12]
She lectured at art schools in the United Kingdom and other countries and in 1986 was visiting Associate Professor of Painting and Photography atUniversity of Houston, Texas.
Hunter was married to ex-rugby player Baxter Mitchell, and together they ownedThe Falcon pub in Camden, which supported independent bands such asBlur in the 1980s.[13]
The reputation of Alexis Hunter has continued to grow since her death in 2014 through a series of exhibitions and public purchases:
2016/2017 exhibition atCooper Gallery, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee.Of Other Spaces: Where Does Gesture Become Event?
2016 - exhibition at theMuseum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.[14] The Model’s Revenge
2018 - exhibition with publication atGoldsmiths, University of London[15][16]Sexual Warfare
2020 - two-part exhibition atRichard Saltoun Gallery[17][18] Alexis Hunter: money, art, sex - part 1 ‘A Goddess Confronting Patriarchy’; part 2 ‘Callisto’
2021 - purchase by theTate[19] Approach to Fear XVII - ten photographs mounted in two rows on two boards
2022 exhibitionThe Margate School[20]Passionate Instincts: paintings and boards from New Zealand days 1976 - 1988
2023 - atKunstverein, Amsterdam … An Emergency Exit Sealed Shut - photographs by Lou Hubbard and Alexis Hunter
2023 - work in exhibition at theTate'Women in Revolt! Art, Activism and the Women's Movement in the UK 1970 - 1990'
2024 - major solo exhibition at Richard Saltoun Gallery[1]‘Ten Seconds’
Hunter's work is represented in theTate Modern,Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art,Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa,University of Otago and theArts Council of Great Britain collections.[6]
