Published on the occasion of the exhibition 'Sexual Warfare; Alexis Hunter', a solo presentation of key work of New Zealand and London-based photographer and painter Alexis Hunter (1948-2014) made between 1968 and 1986, at Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA), London, United Kingdom, 23 November 2018 - 3 February 2019, curated by Sarah McCrory, with Natasha Hoare.
The publication features a selection of works in which Hunter confronted sexism, misogyny, rape, and the male gaze and objectification of women by subjecting men to the same sexualized gaze; an essay on fear, feminism and art; and an essay on feminist archives like the Women's Art Library (WAL) and the Alexis Hunter Archive.
Patti Smith (1946-) and Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) found each other on the streets of New York City in the late '60s and made a pact to keep each other afloat until they found their voices--or the world was ready to hear them. Lovers first and then friends as Mapplethorpe discovered he was gay. Mapplethorpe was quicker to find his metier, with a Polaroid and then a Hasselblad, but Smith was the first to fame, transformed from a poet into a rock star. Mapplethorpe soon became famous too before his death from AIDS in 1989. Smith's memoir of their friendship, Just Kids, is open-eyed with the oracular style familiar from her anthems like 'Because the Night,' 'Gloria,' and 'Dancing Barefoot' balanced by her powers of observation and memory for everyday details .