Reba Maybury's exhibition "I Come in Peace" interrogates the intersection of feminism, sexuality, labor, and power through interventions across four distinct spaces of the Secession building. The exhibition challenges historical gender hierarchies and critiques institutional power structures.
Reba Maybury, an artist, author, and political dominatrix, presents "I Come in Peace," an exhibition that critically examines the interplay of feminism, sexuality, labor, and power. The project spans multiple sites within the Secession building, including the facade, foyer, graphic cabinet, and the Beethoven Frieze room, engaging directly with the institution's history and architecture. On the facade, Maybury displays user names collected from online platforms where men review sex workers, rendered in a Jugendstil font, subtly referencing the building's aesthetic while highlighting contemporary transactional intimacies and power dynamics.
The exhibition delves into the historical context of Jugendstil, its association with the commodification of female bodies, and the gendered hierarchies present at the Secession's founding. Maybury's work, often performed under the pseudonym Mistress Rebecca, challenges patriarchal structures and capitalist desires by subverting dynamics of dominance and submission. In the foyer, a glass ceiling installation with lipstick marks, inspired by Klimt's "The Kiss," symbolizes structural barriers and the visibility of marginalized identities. The Graphic Cabinet features "Used Men" (2021–2026), an installation of deconstructed clothing left behind by clients, exploring themes of ownership and consent. In the Beethoven Frieze room, Maybury presents a series of "paint by number" recreations of Klimt's iconic work, alongside an architectural model, questioning notions of authorship, genius, and historical authority by translating the masterwork into a collaborative, de-skilled process.