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n.paradoxa

Artworks by women artists on 30 topics
related to Feminism and Contemporary Art

Introduction

About this topic: Ecstatic Bodies

The works in this topic explore a contrast between external appearance and an internal self-narrative or exploration of particular emotions. The representations explore what it means to "be" a woman: judged by physical appearance while thinking, feeling and acting in the world in particular ways. The subversion of external appearance (and conventions of representation) as the exploration of a key feminist slogan "the personal is political" is central to all these works. These works are not about the production of a "feminine" subject as a singular entity but one which is plural, fractured and has many facets. The works also ask how a subject and their interior/exterior view of subjectivity may be shared, communicated, analysed or projected to an audience with the aim of shifting their understandings of what it means to be a woman.

  1. Lene Adler Petersen with Bjørn Nørgaard (Denmark) From the series The Female Christ (1969) performance documented in photo, film of Petersen, naked, carrying cross through Copenhagen Stock Exchange    Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen  


  2. Canon Club (Denmark) Damenbilleder (1970) performances on different days, Danish Art Academy      


  3. Kirsten Justesen and Jytte Rex (Denmark) Sleeping Beauty (1971) film, 7 women present their dreams in stylised tableau   Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen  


  4. Joan Jonas (USA) Vertical Roll (1972) video 19.07 min  Video Data Bank  


  5. Ana Mendieta (USA, Cuba) Siluetta series, made in Mexico (1973 - 1977) photographs of performance actions creating body shapes in landscapes      


  6. Lynda Benglis (USA) Female Sensibility (1973) video 13.05 min  Video Data Bank  


  7. Katharina Sieverding (Germany) Transformer (1973) video installation, 8 slide projectors    MOMA  


  8. Gina Pane (France) Action Autoportrait(s): mise en condition/contraction/rejet, 11 Jan 1973 (1973) multiple photographs documenting actions, 100 x 300 cm     MNAM, Paris 


  9. Lisa Steele (Canada) Birthday Suit: with Scars and Defects (1974) black and white video, 12 min      


  10. Ulrike Rosenbach (Germany) Glauben sie Nicht, dass ich eine Amazone bin: Don't Believe I am an Amazon (1975) installation with photography, video documenting a performance in Paris in 1975, fifteen arrows shot into reproduction of Madonna of the Rose Bower (1435-1440)     Museum Kunst Palast, Dusseldorf 


  11. Rebecca Horn (Germany) Dreaming Under Water: Exercises in Nine Pieces (1975) 35 mm film      


  12. Carolee Schneemann (USA) Interior Scroll (1975) performance, East Hampton, New York      


  13. Martha Rosler (USA) Vital Statistics of a Citizen Simply Obtained (1977) video, colour, sound 40 min     


  14. Friederike Pezold (Pezoldo) (Austria, Germany) Toilette (1977 - 1979) book, film, photography      


  15. Anne Gauldin and Cheri Gaulke (USA) The Malta Project (1978) performance at pre-historic temples in Malta      


  16. Kate Craig (Canada) Delicate Issue (1979) black and white film, 12 mins      


  17. Terry Wolverton (USA) An Oral Herstory of Lesbianism (1979) theatre/performance, Lesbian Art Project, Women's Building     Women's Building archive, Otis College of Art and Design 


  18. Ewa Partum (Poland) Selbstidentifikation : gedruckt, aus der gleichnamigen 12-teiligen Serie (1980) 12 photographs of performance on street      


  19. Dara Birnbaum (Germany, USA) Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman (1983) video 5.45 min  Video Data Bank  


  20. Judith Barry (USA) First and Third (1987) video/sound projection      


  21. Cathy Sisler (Canada) Aberrant Motion #1- Aberrant Motion #4 (Face Story, Stagger Stories) (1993) four videos, approx 10 mins each   V-Tape  


  22. Mona Hatoum (UK) Corps Etranger (1994) 1 structure cylindrique, 1 videoprojecteur, 4 haut-parleurs, 1 bande vidéo, PAL, couleur, with stéréo, 30 min   Centre Pompidou  


  23. Alicja Zebrowska (Poland) Onone - a world after the world (1995) video and photographs    Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw  


  24. Marina Grzinic and Aina Smid (Slovenia) Troubles with Sex, Theory and History (1997) Interactive CD-ROM/DVD, produced with ZKM, Art Intact      


  25. Pipilotti Rist (Switzerland) Extremitaten (Weich, Weich), Extremities (Smooth, Smooth) (1999) audio/video installation      Flick Collection 


  26. Sigalit Landau (Israel) Barbed Hula (2000) DVD  1.52 min     


  27. Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook (Thailand) Reading for Female Corpse (2001) single channel video of performance 5.54 min     


  28. Itziar Okariz (Spain) Mear en espacious publicos o privados (2001 - 2006) 9 actions, 1 video  1 min     


  29. Elena Kovylina (Russia) Waltz / Walse (2001) video of performance  5. 57 min     


  30. Dorota Nieznalska (Poland) Passion / Pasja (2001) video installation     


  31. Shilpa Gupta (India) Untitled (2004) video installation, interactive   Daimler Art Collection  


  32. VALIE EXPORT (Austria) glottis (2007) DVD, multi-screen installation, THE PAIN OF UTOPIA, La Biennale di Venezia. 52nd International Exhibition 2007      


  33. Zanele Muholi (South Africa) Faces and Phases (2007) photos and video shown at Documenta 13, Kassel