Response: ICA Museum Visit

 Ida Applebroog’s exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art explores a number of different subjects such as sexuality, gender identity, and politics using simplified bold line drawings and paper books. The books were presented as plays through still imagery and one in particular caught my attention. It was named “I Mean It” and you open the first page to an innocent looking scene of a male and a female leaning against his shoulder. At first this seems as if they had gone on a date to the drive-in but as you progress through the book you come to realize she is a prostitute and the last image is of two men and the words say “South Africa is stable”. Her imagery is blunt and violent. She portrays the world as she sees it.

At first glance Susan Te Kahurangi King’s exhibition seems immature in comparison to Applebroog’s imagery however it’s not without reason. Her parents have archived images from since when she 9 and kept every single drawing. The work progresses through her life and exemplifies her growth as an artist and has just as much artistic merit as anyone else.