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Gallery Exhibitions  Narratives / Blogs |
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Amy Antonia Russell | Belfast, N. Ireland Blue is for boys, pink is for girls. Dolls are for girls, cars are for boys. Go to any baby shower in 2006, and the gifts for the mom-to be are still color-coded and selected based on the sex of the child. Should the parents have opted against finding out the gender of their child beforehand, the gifts are gender-neutral: throw-away diapers and diaper bags with cute duckies, bottles, and formula. You couldn't possibly give a matching cute pink coverall, bonnet and booties to a baby boy—the boy will surely become a sissy if he wears pink baby clothes! What will the neighbors think? In her work, Amy Antonia Russell exposes the dangers, hypocrisies, and persisting stereotypes associated with color-coded gender that begin in childhood and can last a lifetime. She notes that from the moment we are born, we are conditioned to act and behave in a way that is socially acceptable: the male is the dominant protector and the female is the sensitive nurturer. The objects she uses in her work are familiar, soft, and cuddly toys that convey a sense of warmth and protection to the child. In Soft Toys, two small and fragile teddy bear-like toys, one pink and one blue are turned inside out and stitched together; their eyes are repeatedly criss-crossed with black thread. On the bottom of the feet of the blue toy, the remnants of the phrase It’s a Boy are visible, thus ensuring that the toy would be given to a male child. Turning the toys inside out adds a strange and unsettling dimension to them that questions the innocence of childhood. The two sexes cannot escape from each other: the stitching unites them like Siamese twins: always together and unable to function any longer if separated, and thus the lines between male and female become blurred. But this union must defend against persisting influences and threats: with eyes wide shut, it proudly holds onto its identity. Russell blocked their senses because "what you get from the outside world is just second-hand information," that will block self-exploration, the uncovering of who you really are and mask your true self Soft Toys questions the gender roles children are assigned by society and expected to fulfill as they grow up. The uneasiness and necessary withdrawal from the outside world conveyed by the work starkly reinforces the isolation felt by those who do not fit the norm (whatever that is). Russell suggests that the world is no more pink and blue than it is black and white, and that, in order to understand, we must challenge all notions of gender-based limitation, even those that begin at birth. by Marina Freeman  Amy Antonia Russell Soft Toys, date Fabric Toys |