Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf [18]).

Thesis (M.F.A.)--West Virginia University, 1999. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains iii, 22 p. : col. ill. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 17).

In the sense that women have been hystericized by male theories about femininity, Freudian psychoanalysis has functioned as an institution which seeks women's silence. Hysteria is the dis-ease of this silence; that is to say, it is a set of eloquent symptoms--a "writing" on the body--which signify women's oppression/repression. It is within this apparent contradiction that feminine representation takes place. The figure for such representation is, therefore, hysteria: working "in the gaps," "between the lines," telling the story of patriarchy only to disrupt this story, Frida Kahlo, Anais Nin, and Kathy Acker create feminine fictions. Kahlo's autobiographical painting is inextricable from her obsession with husband Diego Rivera, just as Nin's erotica is inextricable from her relationship with Henry Miller. Likewise, Acker's postmodern production is entangled in the androcentric agenda which attempts to recuperate patriarchy by appropriating the figure of Woman. The "engine" of transference/counter-transference becomes the most viable description of the hysterical process these women employ to represent themselves. The epilogue contains original fictions which extend comment on both hysteria and feminine representation.

This research is documented in three volumes, and is the study of a series of three Doctoral exhibitions. The first of these, Australian moon over Cumbria and the procession of life, evolved from a series of watercolours based on the biblical figures of Eve and the serpent.The volume contains images and a critique from Australian moon over Cumbria. Also included are images that influenced the work, essays, and information on relevant minor exhibitions. The second, Sisters and spinsters, the Misses Swann of Elizabeth Farm, was designed and executed as site-specific.The Misses Swann were nine sisters, and the exhibition focused on the sisters' working lives, their contribution to their local communities, and their personalities.Needlepoint and damask table napkins were used as vehicles for the storytelling.Critical writings and extensive reference material are included. The third in the series, Constructing identity within Catholicism, was based on the hypothesis that images of the culture of Catholicism have the capacity to influence personal identity. All of the work was designed to complement the design and spiritual meaning of the chapel. Included along with the essays are supporting images and documentation. / Doctor of Creative Arts

The thesis explores the visual narrative concerning a journey of empowerment for women. To enable the journey to advance the inquiry is directed into two areas. The first area is female gender, which is argued to be socially constructed and implicit in the marginalisation of women in western society. The second area is ‘feminine authority’, which is gained by developing an understanding and acceptance of the characteristics which have historically been considered as belonging to the feminine. Granting these characteristics agency would recognise their authority and assist in the elevation of the female to a position of equality in western society. Beginning from a feminist position, the research supported the belief that the female is marginalised in western society. It also confirmed the notion that empowerment and authority can be attained by women if they actively pursue the following; • Explore their own psychology beyond the existing socially constructed gender roles. • Develop an understanding of their feminine self by applying Jung's theories on individuation and archetypes. • Expose the underlying patriarchal influence in western epistemology and science by challenging existing deeply held cultural and scientific beliefs and by actively contributing as feminists to the areas of epistemology and science. Archetypal myths of the ‘feminine’ have developed from an androcentric position. They enforce and perpetuate gender imbalance which contributes to the disenfranchisement of women in western society, ‘Individuation’ is a process in which a person explores aspects of themselves to bring forth parts of their unconscious into their conscious mind in an attempt to gain a deeper understanding of themselves. As a consequence the consciousness develops closer links with archetypal memories which assists the exploration. The ‘true feminine’ is the feminine not restricted or defined by the dominant androcentric view. Knowledge of the feminine empowers women to address the marginalisation of the female in western society and assists in the process of gaining female authority. This enquiry also investigated the four stages of female psychological development with regard to patriarchal influences. Of particular importance is the second stage of psychological development where the female identifies with historically perceived inferior characteristics of the female. This is when she rejects her connections with the primacy of female power and her deep connections with nature which were inherited from archaic times. It is at this stage that she absorbs the myths associated with western patriarchal society which effectively disempower her. Western epistemology, with its emphasis on ‘objective’ investigation and empiricism contributes to the support for and promotion of ‘inferior’ female gender. This type of investigation is brought into question when areas of research into primates and human evolutionary theory is shown to develop from an androcentric view. Western knowledge has associations with power and justice and power is commonly associated with dominance. Regard for ‘truth’ and ‘absolute’ can be viewed as key elements in the support for knowledge and its associations with power. Knowledge has historically maintained suppression of individual experience which promotes a universalised account. This suppression of beliefs other than the dominant authority maintains the existing dominant social structure. Foucault's view of the genderised or inscribed body alerts us to areas where dominance, resistance and power play a part in maximising masculine power and control. Gender becomes an instrument of power within the existing patriarchal structure. Gender, knowledge and power are identified as areas obstructing female empowerment. Part 3 of this exegesis examines the imagery which embodies the visual narrative. Particularly, the harlequin image, its historical background and connections with ancient mythology including reference to Jungian psychology. The harlequin image is developed sequentially in the earlier black and white drawings on paper. These drawings contained a female figure which was often placed in juxtaposition with a Venus or goddess image, reference was also made to ‘eve’ and the ‘siren’. These elements provided the framework which enabled the harlequin image to emerge and evolve. The narrative developed with an understanding of the ‘feminine’ aspects of the psyche which resulted in the harlequin acquiring the elevated authority of a goddess. The Harlequin evolved from my need for symbolic representation of the female psyche. It represents contradiction and dualism. It is a composition of opposites, reflects masculine and feminine traits, the dark and light of the conscious and unconscious mind, it houses both comic and sinister elements, is a trickster and menace. The costume, colours and patterns are expressive elements conducive to fragmentation and layering within the composition of the paintings. Jung examined the harlequin in Picasso's paintings. He concluded that as Picasso drew on his inner experiences the harlequin became important as a symbol; it was a pictorial representation from the unconscious psyche. It travelled freely from the conscious to the unconscious and represented the masculine and feminine, chthonian and apollonian. The final painting in the series, a triptych, completes the narrative and stands alone as a salutatory work. It unites the series by combining existing compositional devices and technique while making reference to imagery from previous works, ‘The Three Graces Victorious’, expresses the authority of the feminine. It completes a victorious stage of a journey where the harlequin is empowered by archaic memories and knowledge of the psyche. The feminine is hailed, elevated and venerated. Other elements which assist in expressing the visual narrative are; colour, technique and influence. Colour is explored and its use as an emotive devise in expressionism. Paul Klee's writing on the use of colour and it's symbolic meaning and Julia Kristeva's investigation on colour from a psychoanalytic and semiotic view are also discussed. To indicate influences and connections within my oeuvre, reference is also made to the following: Jasper Johns' for his use of imagery in his ‘Four Seasons’ series with it's reference to a journey of maturation and Louise Bourgeois' work which deals with issues of gender, memories and past journeys. Although ‘The Three Graces Victorious’; the concluding painting for the investigation is celebratory and represents a finality to the thesis, it points to further areas that impede feminine development and need future examination. Reference is made to a continuation of the exploratory journey by plotting the Harlequin/Goddesses future directions. Although the Harlequin/Goddess is empowered with newly acquired authority, her future journey does not need to be bound by mathematics or limited by rationality. She does not require power to dominate or gender structures to subjugate, but requires limitless boundaries and contexts. The Harlequin/Goddess's future journey is not fixed.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

This thesis examines, from a feminist perspective, conceptions of the body proposed by poststructuralist philosophy and postmodernist art practice. Within both feminist and postmodern critiques of the humanist subject, the body has come to be understood as a site of cultural inscriptions. In tracing the relationship between postmodernism and feminism, the thesis addresses specifically the shift from celebratory, affirmative female imagery typical of feminist art in the seventies, to the semiotic analysis of images of women which, in the eighties, problematized the question of sexual difference as one of representation. During the eighties women artists generally eschewed figurative representations of the female body in recognition of its over-determined socio-sexual status. Within this historical framework, the tension between the "de-materialized" body of postmodernity and the insistently present body of gendered experience is explored both in the work of feminist theorists and contemporary women artists. In conclusion, three corporeal sites--the cultural, the epistemological and the psycho-sexual--are analysed in the postmodern practices of Jana Sterbak, Nell Tenhaaf and Kati Campbell.

The increasing importance of pornography since its commercialization at the end of the seventies modified the artistic landscape of sexual representation. What has occurred is a transformation of the horizon of expectations of pornographic images, the definition of eroticism and the relationship between the two notions. In this perspective, the thesis concentrates on the analysis of the appropriation of certain distinct traits of hard core pornography in feminist art. Specifically, it is a qualitative analysis of the interrelations between eroticism and pornography in feminist art during the 1980s. The thesis proceeds to an in-depth analysis of several works by Pipilotti Rist, Annie Sprinkle, and Marlene Dumas as well as adding three earlier works of sexually explicit representation by Carolee Schneemann. The analysis of these works aims to redefine notions of pornography and eroticism, drawing on the work of Linda Williams for the first definition and Georges Bataille for the second. The theoretical context of the thesis, which also turns out to be the historical context of the works, is made up of disciplinary approaches that have most contributed to the debate around eroticism and pornography: art history, philosophy, feminist studies, queer theory, semiology and psychoanalysis. / The thesis makes several conclusions. First, the dynamic between eroticism and pornography does not have to be considered oppositional; the two methods of expression are frequently both represented in the same work. Also, women are no longer uniquely victims of pornography (they are increasingly in the role of pornographic auteure) and the analysis of these works confirms that feminists have appropriated the genre to explore a diversity of female eroticisms and propose a form of feminist, intersubjective pornography. Finally, the use by female artists of syntaxes and features typical of pornography helps to bring about a demand for a more complete and complex female subjectivity which is no longer only political, but also sexual.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1993. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 43-44).

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1989. / Pagination includes pages of photographs numbered 23-42. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 48-51).