Larin, Eli (2020) Fourth Wave Feminism, Shadow Feminism, and the Explicit Body in the Performances of Kate Durbin, Ann Hirsch and Faith Holland. Masters thesis, Concordia University.
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Abstract
Abstract
Fourth Wave Feminism, Shadow Feminism, and the Explicit Body in the Performances of Kate Durbin, Ann Hirsch and Faith Holland
Eli Larin
This thesis explores fourth-wave feminist art through the critical analysis of three performance-based works in the 2015 online independent exhibition Body Anxiety: Kate Durbin's performance Hello, Selfie!, Faith Holland's Lick Suck Screen 2, and Ann Hirsch's video dance party just us girls. I argue that these works speak to four common characteristics of fourth-wave feminism, starting with the dominant use of social media and commonly accessible technology. In all the performances we also see the continuation of the strategies and themes of cyberfeminism, as well as a focus on the apparatus that is central to post-internet art. Both have influenced fourth-wave feminism, a new wave of feminism which is to be understood from within an alternative narrative of waves that is linked to an affective temporality determined by a specific socio-economical context. Another characteristic of fourth-wave feminist art is a critical engagement with “shadow feminism” (antisocial feminism), which queer theorist Jack Halberstam argues provides alternative tools of resistance through negative actions such as failure and refusal. Finally, fourth-wave feminist art is largely influenced by its relation to Internet pornography, the pornification of culture, and the rise of porn studies, which artists Durbin, Hirsch and Holland mediate through the use of the “explicit body” in digital spaces, a concept introduced by Rebecca Schneider to discuss earlier explicit feminist performances of the 1970-1990s. In the discussed artworks, all three artists use the explicit body to gain agency from the binary model of a gendered (male or female) gaze.
| Divisions: | Concordia University > Faculty of Fine Arts > Art History |
|---|---|
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
| Authors: | Larin, Eli |
| Institution: | Concordia University |
| Degree Name: | M.A. |
| Program: | Art History |
| Date: | 20 August 2020 |
| Thesis Supervisor(s): | Jim, Alice |
| Keywords: | fourth-wave feminism; cyberfeminism; queer theory; antisocial feminism; porn studies; post-internet art; feminist art history; new media; internet art |
| ID Code: | 987150 |
| Deposited By: | Elicia Larin |
| Deposited On: | 25 Nov 2020 15:41 |
| Last Modified: | 25 Nov 2020 15:41 |
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