the

Image-Maker: Women in Performance Art

Georgia May Adshead

The 1960s and 1970s were a time of sexual liberation, feminist and civil rights movements emerging across America and spreading across other Western countries. Feminist movements sought equality for women within every aspect of society, with female artists determined to succeed within the male-dominated art scene. Performance art was the medium that female artists were drawn to, exploring female sexuality and other socially taboo subjects. Although performance art was not recognised as a professional medium until the 1970s, artist Carolee Schneemann (1939-2019) had been exploring sexuality and gender within her work since the 1960s. The liberation of the female body in the 1960s and 1970s has helped women take back their bodily autonomy, though there is still progression to be made in the 21st century.

This dissertation examines Schneemann’s more controversial work, Meat Joy (1964), alongside Rhythm 0 (1974) by endurance artist Marina Abramović (1946); exploring the politics of women’s bodies where women across the world are defined by patriarchal societies. This dissertation focuses on the societal context of the United States, where Schneemann grew up, and Yugoslavia, where Abramović was raised. Feminism and equality for women have progressed in different ways within societies across the world, and a starting point for this discussion within the art scene is performance art. Abramović and Schneemann have been described as pioneers of female performance art and have enabled women to embrace and explore their sexuality whilst rejecting the male objectification of their bodies.

TATE BRITAIN.

“Exposed: The Victorian Nude”, TATE. Tate Publishing. 2001. Print.

Gender Constrictions: How Gender Roles Impacted Anatomy in European Artworks During the 19th Century

Trinity Madden

During the 19th century, certain traits were assigned to the male and female genders that had an influencing effect on anatomy in art and design. These traits included men being viewed as strong, logical and practical whereas women were thought of as weak, caring and obedient. These traits can then be seen throughout artworks of the time with artworks of men being hyper-muscular and in active positions whereas women tended to be painted reclined with softened anatomy.

These traits can also be seen to differ based on the gender of the artist with both the limitations to women’s access to nude models and the societies pressure for women to embody their prescribed reserved behaviour leading to artworks by these artists containing less detailed anatomical features.

Along with these traits, other categories within society such as ethnicity and ability influenced the gender roles and can be seen to influence the anatomy depicted. Those labelled as different either for their ethnicity or their disabilities had their anatomy depicted in artworks to reflect this difference. Within these examples, these bodies have either been hypersexualised with exaggerated gendered anatomy or stripped of their gendered anatomy and therefore reducing these images of people to merely images of difference.