FE?MALE

Sugar and spice and everything nice,
That’s what little girls are made of.
Snips and snails and puppy dog tails,
That’s what little boys are made of.
Old nursery rhyme

I always wondered if inanimate objects held distinct traits that allowed people to categorize them as masculine or feminine. Is it common for people to think about objects in this way? Are there objects that can be attributed to either of these categories unanimously by people with different backgrounds?
To explore this question audience was invited to participate in a visual and tactile study of variety of ceramic objects. They were asked to pick a wrapped object from the box, unwrap and explore it, and place it in one of the boxes marked as MALE and FEMALE. Inspired from everyday life, the objects, altough mostly abstract, retained a link to the real world, so that participants would be able to base their choices on their everyday life experiences.
The installation caused a lively discussion on gender and possible gender charachteristics of inanimate objects but to be honest most of the objects visited both boxes over the course of the exhibition. So I reckon that shows that perception of gender is purely individual.

The project was featured in Anthony Merino’s book Politics of Perception: Post-Foucualdian Ceramics.