The wonderful Parumveer Walia returns to The Feminist Lecture Program for a study of the Abject as a psycho-social space and its connections to feminism.

Tate Modern defines the Abject as that which “transgresses and threatens our sense of cleanliness and propriety, particularly referencing the body and bodily functions”.

In Excreta and the Abject in Art History, a study of the Abject as a psycho-social space will be undertaken, and its connections to feminism analyzed. Our relationship to bodily material, and thereby ourselves and each other, will be discussed. Works that utilize such bodily by-products – urine, semen, menstrual blood, faeces, etcetera harness the Abject and produce an encounter that centers our relationship to the parts of us that lie beyond care and social acceptability. The policing of the female body and its functions are reworked and addressed in the works the lecture will discuss. Studying across a wide range of disciplines, including Painting, Photography, Sculpture, and more, this class will help attendees better understand the Abject as a mode of meaning-making beyond (and against) cultural concepts of ‘the proper’ and its historical use in the Arts.

We will study works that utilize the Abject either through material or through aesthetic, and discuss how these choices shape meaning and affect. A historical survey of the Abject in Art will be used to reveal the gendered politic ingrained in the subject: while the industry revered the ‘brave’ genius of artists like Marc Quinn for his Shit Painting (1997) and Shit Head (1997), the abject looks different when in the hands of Women Artists, who initially, and perhaps still, are not afforded the same liberties as their male counterparts. Artists like Carolee Schneemann and Sarah Lucas, however, offer an exciting antidote to study.

We are committed to making our sessions as accessible as possible. If you are unable to pay the full amount for this class, please reach out to us via email at [email protected] and we will provide you with a discount code.