Body/Language in the Works of Jenny Saville, Mira Schor, Lesley Dill and Katie Helms

Katie Helms

Date of Award

2003

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Hassold, Cris

Keywords

Art History, Gender Studies, Fine Arts

Area of Concentration

Humanities

Abstract

This project focuses on the work of Jenny Saville, Mira Schor, and Leslie Dill. These three body artists share a number of traits both in their ways of working and their use of language as visual image. In each case, the context of language is shifted from mind to body. All are informed by feminism and all are to some degree transgressive. Each artist employs discomfort to stimulate her viewer and incorporate his/her experience into the work. They all layer physical and linguistic experience to assert the influence that language has on our bodily existence. And all three emphasize their medium/materials to reiterate some bodily quality. Each artist inserts herself into the physical presence of the work either with selfportrait, mirrors, handwriting, or mark making. Saville, Schor, and Dill all use a dynamic combination of theoretical and artistic voices, which allows their work to respond to Elizabeth Grosz's call for a move towards corporeal feminism. Each of them critiques contemporary culture, resists the patriarchy, and transcends the category of body artist. In the final chapter I relate my own sculptural work to the work of these artists and discuss how they have influenced me both as an artist and as a feminist.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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