Female Lunacy & Hysteria
At the root of all religions, whether they may be fundamentally derived from the Abrahamic Faiths or other, Pagan religions, lies the underlying desire to characterize and generalize. This can be seen in a spanning variety of tales of all kinds. Most substantially, this is seen in the key groundwork laid for all Abrahamic Religions. The story of Adam’s first wife Lilith, cast aside due to her insubordination, set a precedent for what would reverberate in the core of society for centuries and millennia to come, specifically in the late 19th and early 20th century. In a time of societal upheaval and sociopolitical chaos, with tensions of the First World War on the rise, the tenuous civility between opposing beliefs was strained. What resulted was a boom in philosophical, literary, and artistic thought, a boom that all too well would encapsulate the pondering zeitgeist of the 20th century. In the modern day, the ephemerality of women, and the constant state of flux and change that they inhabit, has sparked a plethora of debates. The argument between the philosophies of Modernism, glorifying the objective, versus the Ecological Postmodern, prizing fluidity, sparked novel discussion. Now, nearly one hundred years later, these discussions stand strong. In these discussions lay the underlying premise and purpose of my exhibition; to discuss and analyze the common misconceptions of Female Lunacy and Hysteria, and the vilification of women through a modern lens. A note to observe the ingrained marginalization of women through the words “Lunacy” and “Hysteria”, both responsible for representing insanity as well as femininity, which negatively correlates the two. To properly present the concepts of the exhibition, I intend to use a variety of mediums, hoping to pay homage to the benefits of growth and change. These mediums include ceramics, jewelry, textiles, painting, and printmaking. By the conclusion of the exhibition, I hope to achieve an oeuvre that encapsulates the plight of the ecological-postmodern mindset and projects the raw and unadulterated beauty in female Lunacy and Hysteria.
To properly convey the concepts and themes of my exhibition, I took careful consideration in selecting the mediums to be used, as previously mentioned. I wanted to reject some of the extraneous binaries of art, instead choosing to do what was most thematically relevant and familiar to me. So, I chose to use a large variety of mediums. By doing this, I allowed myself to expand on whatever idea I hoped to express, also while characterizing it in the most relevant fashion. This meant that I would be challenging myself to utilize all mediums I had previously been accustomed to, stretching these mediums to the max, and observing how the manipulation of these mediums achieved exactly what I intended. One specific example of this tailored, matching of theme to the medium was observed when I used textiles to speak to how the societal evaluation of fashion and its purpose has been regarded as lesser, and how this is a negative stereotype that only propagates to harm the identity of women. I attempted to keep this level of medium-matching throughout my entire exhibition.
In sum, I hope that the way I have selected the visual and physical representation of the ideas and concepts of my exhibition sum to express the rich history behind my exhibition. In every minute aspect of my exhibition, I ensured that all my themes, concepts, and ideas were projected properly. An example of this is how I wanted all my pieces to leave the audience vaguely unsettled, leaving them either comforted or disturbed. To do this, I focused on humanizing seemingly inanimate objects, such as the heart, flowers, or the moon. This linked back to my background of Ecological feminism and ecological ideals. This can be seen as a common motif throughout my pieces. Another motif that can be observed is my use and appreciation of the ‘extravagant’, as seen in my jewelry and textile pieces. Extravagance has often been correlated to some of the most iconic women in history, such as Cleopatra or Marie Antoinette. I wanted to indulge this and figure out why women are so often villainized for their likes or dislikes. Above all, I desire for my exhibition to discuss and challenge the past categorization of women and show that the proposed “weakness” of female lunacy and hysteria is also our greatest of strengths.
To properly convey the concepts and themes of my exhibition, I took careful consideration in selecting the mediums to be used, as previously mentioned. I wanted to reject some of the extraneous binaries of art, instead choosing to do what was most thematically relevant and familiar to me. So, I chose to use a large variety of mediums. By doing this, I allowed myself to expand on whatever idea I hoped to express, also while characterizing it in the most relevant fashion. This meant that I would be challenging myself to utilize all mediums I had previously been accustomed to, stretching these mediums to the max, and observing how the manipulation of these mediums achieved exactly what I intended. One specific example of this tailored, matching of theme to the medium was observed when I used textiles to speak to how the societal evaluation of fashion and its purpose has been regarded as lesser, and how this is a negative stereotype that only propagates to harm the identity of women. I attempted to keep this level of medium-matching throughout my entire exhibition.
In sum, I hope that the way I have selected the visual and physical representation of the ideas and concepts of my exhibition sum to express the rich history behind my exhibition. In every minute aspect of my exhibition, I ensured that all my themes, concepts, and ideas were projected properly. An example of this is how I wanted all my pieces to leave the audience vaguely unsettled, leaving them either comforted or disturbed. To do this, I focused on humanizing seemingly inanimate objects, such as the heart, flowers, or the moon. This linked back to my background of Ecological feminism and ecological ideals. This can be seen as a common motif throughout my pieces. Another motif that can be observed is my use and appreciation of the ‘extravagant’, as seen in my jewelry and textile pieces. Extravagance has often been correlated to some of the most iconic women in history, such as Cleopatra or Marie Antoinette. I wanted to indulge this and figure out why women are so often villainized for their likes or dislikes. Above all, I desire for my exhibition to discuss and challenge the past categorization of women and show that the proposed “weakness” of female lunacy and hysteria is also our greatest of strengths.
