Exhibition worklist:
-Loveless 1, 2021. Photo series on aluminum printing plates, screen print
-Loveless 2, 2021-2024. Suitcase, boxing wraps, A5 photo series, mini boxing gloves, mini heart chain, A2 tying instructions poster, mini artist’s book, packaged boxing shorts logos, mini boxing ring
-Loveless 3, 2021. Artist book (edition of 4), boxing gloves
-Loveless 4, 2022. Boxing ring
-Loveless 5, 2023. Boxing shorts with interchangeable logos, boxing wraps made of ribbon
Photos by Kertu Rannula
22.08-06.09.2024 Keldrisaal of Kanuti Gildi Saal, Tallinn. Curated by Mikk Lahesalu, exhibition designer Riin Maide
Boxing is inherently violent, hypermasculine and deeply performative. Violence is central to a patriarchal society, and boxing as a sport enables it to normalize and celebrate this through carefully constructed rules, chosen attire and choreography. Similarly, there are rules that govern the performance of gender. As writer and philosopher Paul B. Preciado explains in his film Orlando, My Political Biography, masculinity and femininity are socially constructed political fictions, which we have learned to perceive as natural through repetition, violence and discipline. Yet, the rules for performing gender are much more abstract than those in boxing.
Maria Izabella Lehtsaar explores the common ground between boxing and gender performance. According to stereotypical gender norms, boxing symbolizes everything that one must not represent when growing up as a girl in society. Both boxing and gender conformity involve violence – it can be painful to force oneself to adhere to societal expectations, and failing to conform to these expectations often leads to punishment. However, both can also offer moments of beauty, the pursuit of perfection and opportunities to express oneself and act out.
The exhibition presents the series of works titled Loveless, through which Lehtsaar reflects on the experience of coming of age as a queer individual. Through humor and unique use of materials, they emphasize the importance of self-care and self-understanding. While boxing gear is predominantly designed to protect the boxer, the insides of the bruised lilac boxing gloves in the exhibition are lined with simple foam that can’t protect the hands, rendering them beautiful but useless. By creating miniatures of the artworks on display, the artist plays with notions of kitsch and industrial manufacturing, queering and parodying boxing gear and their own work, seeking liberation and navigating the world of boxing on their own terms.
