Portraits in Dynamics - K8 Hardy
Power, presentation and twin illuminations.
Self-portraiture, feminism, and high-concept hi-jinx are hallmarks of the intelligent, literate and always stylish work from artist K8 Hardy. Her photos, videos, and performances often feature the chameleonic artist in various guises addressing political themes and poking at gender presentation, many times employing the smoke and mirrors of fashion photography. This work has been exhibited at museums and galleries throughout the world, including the Tate Modern and the 2010 Greater New York exhibit at P.S.1. At “New Paintings,” her December solo show at Reena Spaulings Fine Art (New York), she presented herself painted in a trompe l’oeil style, as if dressed in a white t-shirt and jeans. Standing on a canvas, flanked by security guards, viewers were invited to pose with the artist in a play on status, the body, and the concept of painting.
How did you get started?
I started making experimental video art. I was part of the Riot Grrrl movement, listening to bands like Bikini Kill. I had a very clear sense of a sub-culture and of people expressing themselves, and then I started learning about contemporary art. I had no idea it was out there. And once I did I was like “Oh my God, that’s it!”
What did you study in school?
I have my MFA with a focus on film and video. I have a degree in Women’s Studies. My focus has always been feminist theory and history. I love politics and I love deconstructing and thinking about our roles and power and how things happen. I think formatively for me being a feminist is having a twin brother. Growing up in a sexist society and watching what happens to your equal, your exact equal. Your twin brother. By the time I was eight or nine, I was really aware of the differences in treatment. I was like, “Well, that’s not fair! We are kinda the same person.” I think that was VERY formative.
You are so punk, I am surprised you didn’t go into music.
I did play a little bit. I was just terrible at music. I was tone deaf or something. As soon as I made my first experimental video and people responded really well to it I was like, “That’s it!” I sold my guitar, I sold my bass, I was like, ”I am done with this! Get this out of here! I’m getting a video camera!”
How old were you?
Nineteen. I also made zines in high school and mailed them around. I was getting mail when I was fifteen or sixteen every day. I have an amazing, huge box of teenage Riot Grrrl letters. I would rush home to get the mail. And everyone was making the crazy envelopes and…
When was this?
1992-96. So, I didn’t know how to articulate it, but I knew it was important to express myself. I loved poetry, but it was an epiphany when I made my first video art. It’s this hyper-stylized me in costumes. Me in a suit and tie, me as a girl, and knives and drama and memory and using Super 8.
How did people see this video?
I made it into a zine. I made a paper cover for it and then I sold it and mailed it out like a zine.
How did you advertise it? How did people find it?
I sold it at punk shows, at places like DUMA. Sometimes I would give it to bands that were traveling. (Showing video) Isn’t that so cute? VHS tape! (Reads cover of tape.)
“This tape has the first three video movies that I have ever made on it. I call it a Cinezine cuz it’s like a zine in how it will get to people and how it’s low budget and super independent style. I made them all within about 8 months from 97 to 98 and they are placed in chronological order so you can see the evolution of my work. I am currently working on Super 8 film and plan to continue making movies, SO WATCH OUT!”
I didn’t know about galleries and that much about museums even. So I was never looking for that as a platform. I was like, “Um, your band is playing, should we screen my films before your band? Please?” I was so excited. For my first performance art piece I booked myself a tour down the West Coast.
Where did you tour?
I did clubs and art venues. I went from Olympia all down the West Coast.
I thought that was a bong or a homemade women’s urine funnel. (Casey points out an object in K8’s studio.)
It’s from a protest in Santiago, Chile. I meet with a lot of different activists there. It was for International Day Against Violence Against Women, which sounds better in Spanish. I met a radical queer group that made these headbands that I thought were super fashionable that say “For A Feminism without Women.” It was the talk of the town. They were purposefully being provocative. It means they are against biological essentialism.
What does that mean?
Feminism is against biological destiny – like if you are a woman, you are meant to be a wife and a mother. A lot of how those ideas have moved forward is being against biological essentialism and your place in society based on…
Based on your gender?
…Or your sex. Because gender is not about sex, necessarily – just to get technical. So they had a feminist conference at the University of Chile and this is a radical queer group called Disidencia Sexual. They are upset with the Biological Essentialists and the feminists that are Biological Essentialists.
Saying that you have to be a woman to be a feminist?
Or that women have to be inherently protected. There is a kind of conservative side of feminism where people use the rhetoric to keep women in this limited, protected bubble. I mean, it is more complicated than that; it is very interesting.
Wait, I want to know more about gender and sex.
Gender is not sex. Gender is an expression of….
Your sexuality?
No.
Because your sex is physical?
Your sex is physical. Your sex is your genitals.
Your gender is theoretical?
Well your gender is like…you could be really fey and girly or you could be butch. That’s your gender, you see.
It’s not male or female?
It could be simplistically that, yes. The idea of gender is more social than biological. A lot of people find this stuff intimidating, but for me it’s really philosophical because it is about language. And it’s not that it is necessarily strict, it is asking for pulling a little bit more out of the way we talk about sex and men and women. I like that. A lot of people get hung up on words and identities and labels and stuff. I don’t care. It’s just language.
Casey Spooner & Adam Dugas's Biography