Kinsey institute to open new exhibit

Although reproduction and gender roles are often seen as controversial topics, a new Kinsey exhibit will bring these parts of life to the surface.

The exhibit, titled “Nature & Nurture; Exploring Human Reproduction from Pregnancy through Early Childhood,” will open Friday through Dec. 22.

Yara Clüver, associate director of Collins LLC, contributing artist and self-proclaimed feminist, will kick off the exhibit with a lecture at 4 p.m. Friday in Morrison Hall 007.

The speech will highlight Clüver’s experiences with her daughter’s medical complications, her personal art controversy and social perceptions of the female body.

An opening reception of the exhibit will follow at 5 p.m. Friday.

“Certain images of the female nude become controversial, and in this instance it’s motherhood,” Clüver said. “Other images of the female breast are fine, as long as they’re used in a certain way, they’re okay.”

Along with Clüver’s pieces, the exhibit will showcase borrowed and contributed artworks about reproduction, children and gender roles.

“We’ve wanted to do a reproduction show for seven years,” said Catherine Johnson-Roehr, curator of art, artifacts and photographs for the Kinsey Institute. “In 2003 there was a human sexuality show, but few images dealt with reproduction. Since then we have been acquiring images, and now we have plenty.”

In addition a smaller exhibit on contraception will deal partly with the Themester theme
of “sustainability.”

“Reproduction obviously sustains humans by creating them,” Johnson-Roehr said. “However, contraception helps to deal with problems such as overpopulation, which affects things like the environment.”

Michael Wenzler, contributing artist, MD and psychiatrist for the IU Health Center, said he is looking forward to the show.

“Reproduction is closely related to sex and not talked about in any detail in public,” he said. “IU students are very fortunate that we have the Kinsey, a resource a lot of other students don’t have.”

Clüver’s speech and the exhibit will not only focus on the female’s role in reproduction.

“Gender issues in society go beyond the artwork to equity and social issues,” she said. “This is not just women’s liberation, it’s important to men too. In a society concerned with social equity, it benefits everyone. When we have multi-faceted expressions of experience, it leads to richer and more complex lives.”