More info from the press release:
Adel Abidin: Camel ToeTurku Art Museum, Studio space, 25 Jan – 17 Mar 2013Aurakatu 26, Turku. Exhibition opening on Thursday, 24 Jan 2013, from 6pm to 8pm.Welcome!
The year's first Studio exhibition in Turku Art Museum is Camel Toe (2013) by Adel Abidin (b. 1973). The installation consists of large-format photographs of puffed-up alpha males that invite viewers to reconsider their ideas about sexuality and gender. By shamelessly mixing masculine and feminine stereotypes, Abidin arrives at a grey area between the two sexes. Appearances can be deceptive, and a tiny gesture transform a macho man's symbol of power into its very opposite. The pictures pose questions about our fundamental duality and ingrained tendency to define others through gender and sexuality.
Abidin's installations, videos and photographs are familiar to art audiences from international venues and his solo exhibition in 2010 in the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma. After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bagdad in 2000, Abidin moved to Helsinki, where continues to live and work. Styling himself a global nomad, Abidin moves smoothly between cultures and eras. His works are openly political and often focus on such problems as cultural alienation and exclusion. In spite of his serious and controversial themes, Abidin nevertheless says his most important medium is humour and sarcasm, which have in fact become his trademark.