Sidsel Meineche Hansen - SECOND SEX WAR

SECOND SEX WAR at Trondheim kunstmuseum is Sidsel Meineche Hansen’s first solo show in Norway. The exhibition’s title refers both to The Second Sex by French writer and intellectual Simone de Beauvoir, as well as to the so called ‘sex wars’ that split the feminist movement into anti-pornography and anti-censorship groups in the early 1980’s. Alongside this historical trajectory, the exhibition SECOND SEX WAR explores a new cyber feminist position against the patriarchy and white supremacy underlying the (re)production of the gender binary in virtual reality.

Through her exhibitions, interdisciplinary seminars and publications, Meineche Hansen foregrounds the body and its industrial complex from a queer feminist perspective. On the occasion of her TKM exhibition, the artist will present several new commissions alongside an existing body of work. The show as a whole will include a large wall relief, a series of lazercut drawings, ceramics works and a new animation and VR production, to be viewed on the virtual reality headset Oculus Rift.

Central to Meineche Hansen’s most recent work is the female avatar ‘EVA v3.0’, a royalty-free product sold online by TurboSquid, a company that supplies stock 3D models for computer games and adult entertainment. Meineche Hansen uses EVA v3.0 both as a main character in her animations and as an object in her research into the status of 3D bodies in X-rated digital image production. At the same time, her analogous work aesthetically embraces the Scandinavian tradition of Vandalism, as defined by Danish artist Asger Jorn (1914–73), whose presence in the TKM exhibition is recalled by the large-relief collectively produced by the artist together with the artists: Manuela Gernedel, Alan Michael, Georgie Nettell, Oliver Rees, Matthew Richardson, Gili Tal and Lena Tutunjian. Meineche Hansen insists on collective authorship, in order to question the socio-economic dimension of virtual sex work as well as skilled and causal labour in the production of contemporary art.

Sidsel Meineche Hansen studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, Städelschule in Frankfurt a.M. and Goldsmiths in London. She is a London-based artist who also currently works as an associate professor at the Funen Art Academy, Denmark. In 2015 she co-edited Politics of Study (London and Odense: Open Editions and Funen Art Academy) and will be a visiting scholar at CalArts in Los Angeles in autumn 2016.

Her recent exhibitions include: SECOND SEX WAR Gasworks, London; NO RIGHT WAY 2 CUM, Transmission, Glasgow International, Glasgow; FLUXESFEVERFUTURESFICTION, Azkuna Zentroa, Bilbao; Liquid Identities – Lynn Hershman Leeson, Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg; Visceral Blue, La Capella, Barcelona (2016); Uncanny Valley, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge; Rehearsals in Instability, Andreas Huber Gallery, Vienna; ONE-self, Temporary Gallery, Cologne and Künstlerhaus Bremen (2015); INSIDER, Cubitt, London, Schizo-Culture: Cracks in the Street, SPACE, London; J’ai froid, castillo/corrales, Paris and Late Barbarians, Gasworks, London (2014).

Her recent seminars include: What is an art work doing? (together with Andrea Fraser), Wattis Institute, San Francisco (2016); This is not a symptom, South London Gallery (2014–15); Methylene Blue diluted by Female Ejaculation, SPACE gallery, London; Why does Fred Sandbeck’s work make me cry?, Cubitt, London and If I Can’t Dance I Don’t Want to Be Part of Your Revolution, Amsterdam; and HIS HEAD, Gasworks, London (2014). Meineche Hansen has also recently presented artist talks at the Serpentine Gallery and LUX, London; Witte de With, Rotterdam; and 98 Weeks, Beirut (2015).

Trondheim kunstmuseum would like to inform visitors that this exhibition contains imagery that some may find offensive or disturbing, including images with violent and sexual content. It is not suitable for minors.