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Woman, Flesh, Affect, Abject

'It is not easy to play the idol, the fairy, the faraway princess when one feels a bloody cloth between one’s legs'

Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1949

 

Current work researches ideas of rawness, blood, staining, women, affect and the body. The work presented here discusses the viscerality of being a woman, drawing on ideas of fluidity, containment and leakage.

 

Phenomenological thought and the idea of the other, speak strongly to my work. I am interested in materials - not just observed - but experienced as ‘in the world with me’. Flowing substances and elements of smell are used to illustrate the fallacy of impermeable boundaries between self and other. Discomfort and disgust is used to highlight the othering of the body (especially of women) in society and interactions of self/other bodies.

 

'There are several ways of treating [what discomforts]. Negatively, we can ignore them, just not perceive them, or perceiving we can condemn. Positively we can deliberately confront the anomaly and try to create a new pattern of reality in which it has a place'

Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger, 1996

 

My work has moved from a two dimensional approach to working in three dimensions during this project, yet the work continues to incorporate collage, manipulation and processing of found objects. My work is deeply personal and situated in my experiences of being a woman. References to growing up within a Catholic household and having studied and worked as a Chemical Engineer are also evident.

 

Work from this exhibition is held by the Office of Public Works in the National Collection of Ireland.

 

Relevant concepts: Women, flesh, affect, abject - smell, blood, yeast, roses – hide, contain - viscerality, animality - hurt, stigmata, odour of sanctity, sub rosa, body – disgust, conceal, conform - ephemeral, fluid - degrade, contaminate, repeat - symbol, ritual, - dissect, stain, strain, constrain – unstable - control, neutralise – unsafe - tension, fecundity, decay - deny, order - leakage

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