Fetishism, violence and desire: Alexis Hunter in London

The pervasive, perversive nature of advertising fascinated Alexis Hunter (1948-2014), who experimented with the rapid-fire power of images in her work created in the 1970s. Now, an exhibition at London’s Richard Saltoun Gallery, ‘Alexis Hunter: 10 Seconds’ – referring to the minimum time it takes for an advert to have an impact –delves into the photographic narratives she created in this period.

‘The Tate Britain exhibition, “Women in Revolt“[until 7 April 2024], opened just as I was navigating Hunter’s archive [last November],’ curator Natasha Hoare tells us. ‘The exhibition features a key work, The Marxist’s Wife (still does the housework) (1978/2005), which displays Hunter’s wit and intellectual engagement with second-wave feminism. Given that the [Tate Britain] exhibition is a far-reaching group show, with often only singular works to represent each artist, it seemed important to have a concurrent exhibition in London that provided a broader perspective on this seismic period of Hunter’s life and practice. This period also shows an evolution of her political consciousness expressed through visual means – from initial investigations into identity, perception, and sexual politics, through the photo narratives that so powerfully merge personal experience with psychoanalysis and feminist political and aesthetic theory.’

‘Alexis Hunter: 10 Seconds’

Hunter brought a palpable anger to this string of academic references, reflecting on advertising’s tendency to manipulate gender norms in lazy images reverting to stereotypes. A narrative runs throughout her images – the painting of red nails, stiletto shoes on fire, grease-covered motor parts, demolishing a domestic interior – creating an alternative account, separate from the male-dominated mainstream media of the time.

In this prescient skewering of an instantaneous visual language, Hunter’s work foreshadowed the digital revolution that followed her death in 2014. ‘The dominant image cultures of platforms such as Instagram and SnapChat demand we constantly absorb and negotiate short bursts of video and scroll through thousands of images,’ Hoare adds. ‘The space of attention for media today is as short as the ten seconds that Alexis perceived her photo narratives unfolding across – probably even shorter. Alexis’ practice shows that it is entirely possible to hijack this space, to use these formats to disrupt flows of images that are deployed to shape our opinions, control our body image, articulate gender relations, and mould us as endlessly desiring consumers.

‘We live in a time that is much more intersectional in its engagement with gender, race, sexuality, disability. The second-wave feminist movement that Hunter was part of was limited in regards to these intersectionalities. Nonetheless, her merging of the personal with the political, through a spirit of bold experimentation and storytelling (at a time when photographic printers would refuse to print her images because she was a woman, and male exhibition staff refused to hang them because they deemed them offensive) makes her work continually engaging and relevant for women today, especially in cultural fields which remain dominated by men.’

'Alexis Hunter: 10 Seconds' is on until 30 March 2024 at Richard Saltoun

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