Toil & Trouble: Feminism and Art Now

Overview

In this module we will explore recent engagements between art and feminism from the last five years. Based around a close engagement with the work of a young generation of artists, together we will address some of the most pressing themes and questions that define the field: from the reproduction of labour in the digital economy, to the relationship between art and the environment, to thinking about race and representation. The development of new networked communication technologies will form an important backdrop to the course as a whole, and we will think about technology not only in relation to feminist theory and practice but also consider the construction of models of masculinity and the importance of trans scholarship to theorizing the Web (and vice versa).

We will critically engage with some of the new discursive frameworks that have emerged in the last decade – including the anthropocene, the posthuman and the so-called new-materialisms – and analyse how these have informed artistic responses to thinking about identity and subjectivity. The course aims to situate these practices historically, and we will consider possible points of connection – and disconnection – with earlier moments such as performance practices of the 1960s and 70s, body art of the 1990s and cyberfeminism.

Aims

By the end of the module, students should have acquired:

• specific knowledge of the critical interpretations and debates within contemporary feminist practice
• broad knowledge of the histories of art and feminism from 1960 to today
• knowledge of the major theoretical debates that have informed current art practice
• an understanding of the wider social forces that have shaped current art practice
• an understanding of the importance of different artistic media within contemporary feminist practice

By the end of this module, students will have developed:

• high level skills in the visual analysis of works of contemporary art
• an ability to write critically and to develop a sophisticated written argument
• excellent verbal presentation skills and the ability to argue persuasively

Preliminary Reading

• Karen Barad, Meeting the Universe Halfway, Duke University Press, 2007
• Donna Haraway, 'Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective', Feminist Studies, Vol.14 No.3, 1988 
• N Katherine Hayles, How We Became Posthuman, University of Chicago Press, 1999
• Linda Zerilli, Feminism and the Abyss of Freedom, University of Chicago Press, 2005
• Isabell Lorey, 'Becoming Common: Precarization as Political Constituting', E-flux #17, June 2010
• Catherine Grant, 'Fans of Feminism: Re-Writing Histories of Second-Wave Feminism in Contemporary Art', Oxford Art Journal, Vol.34 No.2, 2011
• Hilary Robinson, 'Feminism Meets the Big Exhibition: Museum Survey Shows Since 2005', On Curating, Issue 29, May 2016
• A. Dimitrikaki & L. Perry (eds.), Politics in a Glass Case: Feminism, Exhibition Cultures and Curatorial Transgressions, Manchester University Press, 2013