XXXIV
Who Decides?
Created by Lilly Williams, 2019
Contributed by Alejandra Benítez Silva, 2019
Commissioned by GRACE
Keywords: Collage, Women, Sport, Inequality
The collage —or moving drawing— explores objects related to sport and associated with gender. The piece gives the audience the opportunity not only to challenge traditional gender norms and discourses, but also to create narratives to find new ways of being in the world —in this case, in the sport world. The piece aims to create the feeling of excitement, of seeing someone —even just for a moment— liberated from the gendered expectations forced upon them. In the words of the artist, the title attests, ‘to the autonomy of the viewer within the piece —being able to make their own narrative and decide for themselves how this picture looks. But also inviting them to question who is making the decision about how we are seen, what we do, in our own lives, and in society in general.’
Sport is an integral part of our contemporary societies in which sex and gender differences are reproduced. In sport, notions of what must be considered female and masculine are socialized and written and unwritten rules about what people can do according to their biological sex are transmitted and used to legitimize a system based on male power and privilege. However, sport is also a site where sex and gender power relations are challenged and contested making possible social and cultural transformations.