The Masquerade of the Feminine Emma Louise Boyes Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Arts) (Hons) The Masquerade of the Feminine Emma Louise Boyes Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Arts) (Hons) Faculty: Creative Industries Centre: ClRAC School: Visual Arts Course: KK51 Master of Arts (Research) Submission: 2006 Research Students Centre Level 3,0Block Podium, Gardens Point Campus, Brisbane QLD 4001. Preface 'The Masquerade of the Feminine' is a practice-led research project undertaken by Emma Louise Boyes during 2004 - 2006 at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. This programme of research has been carried out with the supervision and guidance of Jill Barker (Supervisor) and Dan Mafe (Supervisor). Keywords Visual Arts, Practice Led Research, Phenomenology, Feminism and Minimal Art. Abstract This project investigates the apparent contradiction of a female artist who prioritises embodied presence in her art works, but produces Minimalist installations. It does this by describing in detail and analysing, and thus re-evaluating the significance of, the full range of actions and processes that are performed to produce the work. It further proposes that, in the actions of crafting the individual elements and in designing, planning and installing the work in Modernist gallery spaces, conditions are set up for viewers of the finished work to experience a physical awareness that echoes that of the artist in those actions and processes. Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Chapter One Interpretative Paradigms: Feminism and Phenomenology Methodology: Practice-Led Research Overview of Creative Methods and Approaches Contextual Review 3. Chapter Two Art Making Work One: 'Suffice Surface' (2004) 4. Chapter Three Documentation and Development 5. Chapter Four 'Permutations: Configuration One' (2005) 'Permutations' (2005) 6. Conclusion 7. List of References List of Images 1 . 'Suffice Surface' (2004) 2. 'Breakaway' (2004) 3. 'Well' (2004) 4. 'Permutations: Configuration One' (2005) 5. 'Permutations' (2005) List of Abbreviations PLR Practice Led Research QUT Queensland University of Technology QUTAM Queensland University of Technology Art Museum Acknowledgement List Jill Barker, Dan Mafe, Leon Frainey, Hannah Broom, Wade Schmeider, James and Julianne Boyes, Betty and Ronald Chalmers. Statement of Original Authorship "The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted for a degree or diploma at any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no materialpreviouslypublished or written by anotherperson except where due reference is made" Signature Date Introduction 'The Masquerade of the Feminine' is a first person account of my visual arts practice, and details my re-evaluation of Minimalism through alternative gendered readings of Minimalist artworks. Throughout this paper, I write about what may be called feminine qualities such as embodied perception and bodily awareness, qualities that are exposed and explored in my visual arts practice, but which are often masked in my final artworks by a Minimalist aesthetic. My research inquiry is concerned with what it means for a female artist to produce Minimalist art-works. I believe that in my exhibited work, based on actions and responses that stem directly from my being female, the feminine process can masquerade (i.e. put on a false show or pretence) as a continuation of what has been identified as the masculine aesthetic of Minimalism (Kent 1998, 4). It is my intention to provide the reader with a clear and detailed account of my working methods, creative endeavours, emerging research considerations and possible meanings and outcomes for the work. Chapter One of the exegetical component will provide an analysis of the critical, theoretical and historical framework I use to view and engage with my visual arts practice. This section will provide crucial background information to the reader to contextualise my current practice, and will cover interpretative paradigms (feminism and phenomenology), methodology (practice led research and overview of processes) followed by a contextual review, which analyses works from contemporary female artists Anne Truitt, Janine Antoni and Marcia Hafif. Chapter Two, Three and Four describe, interpret and analyse the lived experience of art-making during this programme of research in a sequential way. Chapter Two focuses on the procedure of art-making leading into my first exhibition at the Queensland University of Technology, Tom Heath Gallery, and Chapter Three details the documentation and development of subsequent works. Chapter Four looks at the process of exhibiting 'Permutations: Configuration One' at the Creative Industries Precinct: The Block, and details my final exhibition 'Permutations' at Fox Galleries, in terms of my awareness, emerging from the process, of how the works might operate for viewers. The conclusion will give an overview of the outcomes of this programme of research. CHAPTER ONE Interpretative Paradigms: Feminism and Phenomenology '...Autobiography can be likened to a restless and unmade bed; a site on which discursive, intellectual and political practices can be remade; a ruffled surface on which the traces of previous occupants can be uncovered and/or smoothed over; a place for secrets to be whispered and to be buried; a place for fun, desire and deep worry to be expressed. Many of the most influential women writers of the twentieth century have chosen to make this bed and some to lie in it too' (Smith and Watson 2001, 1). In her 2002 book 'Aftermath', Suzan Brison writes that 'we are beginning to write in the first person, not out of sloppy self-indulgence, but out of intellectual necessity', she goes on further to say that due to feminist ethics, it is becoming more academically acceptable to recognise 'subjective accounts as legitimate means of advancing knowledge' (Brison 2002,25). Within academic writing, first person accounts are essential to expose biases in the disciplines subject matter and methodology, facilitate understanding with others and to acknowledge our own biases as scholars (Brison 2002, 25). My investigation of my visual arts practice is based on 'structures of consciousness', as experienced from first-person point of view. Perception, thinking, memory, imagination, emotion, desire, bodily awareness, embodied action, social and linguistic activity are vital to the creative process. In 'The Theory of the Body is Already a Theory of Perception', Maurice Merleau-Ponty writes 'Our own body is in the world as the heart is in the organism: it keeps the visible spectacle constantly alive, it breaths life into it and sustains it inwardly' (Merleau-Ponty 1945, 196). It is from the anchored position of my body, that I describe, interpret (by relating it to relevant features of context, both social and linguistic) and analyse the lived experience. My body is the mediator between thought and action, it is from this embodied position that my creative process begins. Creative thoughts will often come to me just before I fall asleep, starting as a whisper at the backof my mind, that commands attention. Often, I lie quietly trying to carry the creative thought into language, or an image, which I can decipher. I try mentally to hang on to the creative concept, knowing that if I drift into sleep it may not reappear. Moments of clarity come during this time, where the creative thought develops rapidly and the mind must catch up, awaking from drowsiness. When I turn to switch on the light, to write down my emerging creative thought, it often escapes description. The residual thoughts are left for later contemplation. At other times, thoughts appear as a lucid image or concept (that is articulated in language), which can be transferred into visual material, sketches or writing. For me, the creative process is not fixed and takes many different forms of development. Susan Hiller expresses the creative process in 'Women, Language and Truth' 'It is always a question of following a thought, first incoherent, later more expressible, through its process of emergence out of and during the inconsistencies of experience, into language' (Hiller 2001, 218). Methodology: Practice-led Research Practice-Led Research is the principle methodology utilised within 'The Masquerade of the Feminine', and can be described simply as a form of self-reflective inquiry, undertaken by creative researcher-practitioners, who focus on making as an integral part of the research process. As a researcher-practitioner, I investigate issues that are initiated within my visual arts practice, and respond through my visual arts practice. In 'Inquiry through Practice: Developing Appropriate Research Strategies', Carole Gray describes the role of the researcher-practitioner as a 'generator of the research material-artldesign works, and participant in the creative process; sometimes self-observer through reflection on and in action, and through discussion with others; sometimes observer of others for placing the research in context, and gaining other perspectives; sometimes co-researcher, facilitator and research manager' (Gray 1996,3). The key characteristics of practice-led research reside in the acknowledgement of the researcher-practitioners involvement, subjectivity, reflectivity and interaction with their practice and research. This methodology supports a range of research strategies, which are multi-method in approach, open, transparent and accessible. Within the contextual framework of practice-led