The Georgia Museum of Art will show three short pieces of video art in the exhibition It’s Not Polite to Stare from Jan. 7 to March 20.
Ranging from 1-8 minutes long, the films pursue the theme of looking and being looked at. Artists Charles Atlas, Valie Export and Shelly Silver address the “rules of looking.”
Scenarios include: a woman allowing the public to touch her chest through a mini-curtained theater constructed on her torso; a man dressed in a “Mrs. Peanut” costume strutting down the street in Lucite heels; and a woman stalking men through the streets of Paris as they try to evade her.
The films address the norms of looking in public versus looking in private and ask whether it is acceptable to stare in any situation.
“Even though all three artists tackle serious, complex issues such as what separates a public space from a private one and how gender affects the ‘rules’ of looking, the videos are also really fun to watch,” said Laura Valeri, curator of the exhibition and associate curator of European art at the museum. “I think their humorous aspects not only make for entertaining viewing, but also make the issues at the heart of them more accessible.”
