Bettina Rheims' body of work, Gender Studies, looks at gender identities and gender representation through trans and non-binary models. The exhibition comprised large format colour prints mounted on aluminium, from editions of 5.
The foundation of this project emerged from a request to republish Modern Lovers, a body of work concentrating on androgyny and transgender identity, shot in the late eighties and exhibited at Hamiltons in 1990. At the peak of the AIDS crisis this series was a particularly timely critical approach towards the politics that both policy and represent bodies. In that same year - 1990- the seminal work Gender Trouble by philosopher Judith Butler was published defining the discourse around queer theory and gender studies during the 1990s. Here Butler thought of gender as a set of norms and performances assigned to bodies – these norms organised bodies socially but they were also subject to be subverted and changed.
Rheims decided to take the proposal of republishing Modern Lovers a step further and explore the differences and mindsets in the discourses and dissidences of gender today in comparison to twenty plus years ago.
Posting a message on Facebook encouraging those that 'felt other' to get in touch with her studio, further conversations began to take place over Skype, and Rheims conclusively invited twenty-seven people from around the world to visit her studio to be photographed.
Rheims became particularly struck by the accounts, tones and chosen words of her subjects. This inspired her to record their voices, which were subsequently audible throughout the exhibition, adding a powerful dimension to the works.