ABSTRACT
WORKING BODIES: Feminist Alternatives to Passive
Representations of "Feminine" Corporeality
Caroline Stevens
1996
This thesis proposes that the exhibition, Survivors, In
Search of a Voice - The Art of Courage, and specifically two works included in it, Hive
Bodice by Aganetha Dyck and Bread Rising by Mary Pratt, provide a feminist alternative to
passive representations of feminine corporeality which have been constructed by art
historical and medical discourses. Both discourses have an entrenched interest in
representations which separate and hierarchize the mind and body, male and female. The
alternative suggested here takes the form of a "working body". The "working
body" places female gendered experience at the centre of its analysis,and questions
the discursive motivations of dichotomous thought. The "working body" which is
represented in the images of Pratt and Dyck, and embodied through their labour, alludes to
the social production and reproduction of life, and attests to the cultural production of
art. It positions women as active agents, controlling both their medical treatment and the
visual representations of their bodies. Ultimately, the "working body" attempts
to disintegrate dichotomous relationships and challenges the hierarchical ordering of the
sexes and gender.
Return to the Main Listing
of Theses or
use your browser's BACK button to return to the previous page
