Hidden in Plain Sight

Feminist Disruption in Decorative Art

MFA research project via Dunedin School of Art

April 2021

The project's primary focus centres on mental health and body autonomy issues connected to women and the social histories relating to this. The main objective is to examine the relationships between women, the domestic sphere, and the patriarchy through a series of interactive public installation works. Currently, the project is based in Dunedin, New Zealand and will look at deploying creative disruptions into targeted social spaces. The project anticipates that by engaging with the public in social spaces, alternative exchanges will occur + work will incite discussion around mental health issues and women. 

Charlotte Perkins Gilmore's Victorian short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892) will be revisited through a feminist lens wherein, motifs from the narrative will be reinterpreted on the basis of creating a body of work that operates as a contemporary commentary. The short story will also serve as the conceptual framework for the project where wallpaper functions as a signifier for patriarchal oppression, and women as decorative objects (of servitude) or, things to control within the space. 

 

 

In the Studio

Currently, the creative outputs are focused on several Billboard installations which will pair wallpaper with text based "protest" signs. The language has been taken from exisiting info signs found within social spaces around Dunedin's CBD district. Several organisations and institutions have been engaged with as a means to deploy the work into specific geographical locations - this is planned for August 2021.  

 

 

More details soon. You can also follow the project on Facebook and Instagram by clicking on the icons at the bottom of the page.