Approach to Fear XI - Effeminacy Productive Action (1)

Between 1967–77 Hunter created a large body of work called Approaches to Fear, in which she pictured hands performing actions that challenge gendered expectations. In advertising, hands are quite often depicted touching the object to give it a tactile reality. The six works from this series in the Collection feature hairy male hands fixing a bike, but bedecked with ornate feminine jewellery. The green paint on top of the photograph signals the artist’s own presence. About this series, feminist critic Lucy Lippard noted: ‘Fetishism and a hint of S&M lurk just beneath the surfaces of Hunter’s photographs … Her rage at capitalism is focused upon the mass media which have, as Judith Williamson puts it, been “selling us ourselves for profit”.’