Alexis Hunter


General summary of the ideas, beliefs, attitudes etc that motivate the artist

*Alexis Hunter was born in Auckland in 1948. She became involved in feminist groups in the early seventies and curate the opening exhibition at the Women's Free Alliance Gallery in 1976. From that year Hunter worked on a series of photographic narrative images, exhibiting feminist and other subjects involving social comment at a number of shows including the Hayward Annual 1977 and in 1978 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts.
*'Approaches to Fear', shown at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, as with other works from this phase, explored and challenged the construct of femininity in Western culture.
*In 1982 she returned to painting, developing a version of neo-expressionism. This change roughly coincided with her series of works relating to Greek and Christian mythology (the Male Myths series) where she engaged in a conscious re-visioning, a 'looking at historical myths as gender propaganda'. More recent work has explored animal/ monster imagery to express meanings of sexual and socio-political significance.


Examples of 2 Representative works by the artist
OBJECT SERIES, 1974 - 75

SUBJECT
Object Series, 1974-75, consists of a series of truncated views of the male body painted in a photo-realist style.
The large rectangular painting is divided into six panels. Each shows a different part of a muscular male bikie.
The subject is not identified, except by street culture icons, such as his Harley bike and leathers.

MEANING
In such a work, Hunter, literally 'turns the table' on men. Instead of the female body being objectified, the male body is the subject of a female artist's gaze.
Hunter attempts to produce a work for the female audience.


Conflicts of the Psyche series
THE STRUGGLING BETWEEN AMBITION AND DESIRE II, 1984-85

SUBJECT
This work is part of a series called Conflicts of the Psyche in which battling mythical creatures express complex internal conflicts. It is unclear in the work which figure, the woman or the beast, represents ambition or desire. This ambiguity was deliberate as Hunter believes that conflict results precisely because the two elements cannot be separated.

MEANING
The subject matter Hunter explores ideas about female sexuality and creativity. She considers that animals represent untamed female sexuality and she uses animals as metaphors to consider the representation of women. So, the animals in Hunter's paintings effectively act as 'stand-ins' for women.
In these works she deals with mythical beasts who are used as symbols of the masculine and feminine in a painterly and expressive manner.

STYLISTIC FEATURES
Hunter's style underwent change in the mid-80s. From approximately 1981 she concentrated on using painting to portray subject matter that combines mythology with bestiary images. The style used in The Struggle between Ambition and Desire II is typical of Hunter's work after 1981. She applies the paint expressively in long rhythmical strokes.
Throughout these stylistic changes Hunter has kept her focus upon feminist issues.





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