New in the Rear Window
Aliyah Winter
30 August 2022
speaking without words
The final days of August will see Aliyah Winter’s video work speaking without words (2019) installed in the Rear Window space. In speaking without words (2019), Winter draws from the statements of pro and anti-trans people and groups to form an amalgamation of spoken and written language. Among these are quotes from writer and scholar Sara Ahmed, echoes of poet Jos Charles’ stylistic adaptions of Chaucerian Middle English, and alternative forms of spelling, such as womxn. The work was first exhibited in 2019 in Hobart, Australia for HOBIENNALE in association with Meanwhile art space. At the time, the Tasmanian state government was passing reforms to the Births, Deaths and Marriages Act allowing greater civil and political rights for trans people. Winter has said that an intention of this amalgamating technique is to expose and reverse some of the damaging and transmisogynist language used by anti-trans activists. In this work, she uses a feminist critique to peel back ‘reasonable’ statements and language, uncovering how language embodies and complicates notions of identity, loss, sex and gender. speaking without words continues the programme of video works curated by Dunedin Public Art Gallery’s 2021 curatorial intern Piupiu Maya Turei. A short essay by Simon Gennard about Winter’s exhibition with Meanwhile at HOBIENNALE can be read here:www.meanwhilegallery.com/aliyah-winter-hb19Noho ora maiSimon PalenskiIhupukutaka Kairauhī Curatorial Intern, Dunedin Public Art Gallery[above: ALIYAH WINTER speaking without words 2019 Film still. Courtesy of the artist]