Tesis sobre el tema "Sex in art"

The goal of this research was to understand the potential challenges and benefits of an integration between art and sex therapies. Three interviews were performed: two with certified art therapists, one with a certified sex therapist, in order to understand how each of these professionals has chosen to approach issues of sexuality and creative expression within his or her practice. The data from the interviews was critically compared within and between each interviewee, producing three overarching themes that provide a framework for understanding the potential benefits and challenges of this integration. These three themes are defined as: 1) The importance of theoretical training and scope of practice in unlocking sexuality; 2) Opening the door to sex and sexuality in clinical work using creative expression; and 3) Concerns and challenges for the clinician using artistic expression with sexuality. Through discussion of these themes, it was found that there is great potential for an integration of the two therapies, provided clinicians have access to appropriate training, as well as a deeper understanding of individual attitudes toward sexuality as provided by cultural experience.

In Edo-Japan (c.1603 – 1868) shunga, sexually explicit prints, paintings and illustrated books, were widely produced and disseminated. However, from the 1850s onwards, shunga was suppressed by the government and it has largely been omitted from art history, excluded from exhibitions and censored in publications. Although changes have taken place, cultural institutions continue to be cautious about what they collect and exhibit, with shunga largely remaining a prohibited subject in Japan. Since the 1970s there has been a gradual increase in the acceptance of shunga outside Japan, as evidenced in the growing number of exhibitions and publications. The initial impetus behind this thesis was: Why and how did shunga become increasingly acceptable in Europe and North America in the twentieth century, whilst conversely becoming unacceptable in post-Edo Japan? I discuss how and why attitudes to shunga in the UK and Japan have changed from the Edo period to the present day, and consider how definitions can affect this. My research examines how shunga has been dealt with in relation to private and institutional collecting and exhibitions. In order to gauge modern responses, the 2013 Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art exhibition at the British Museum is used as an in-depth study – utilising mixed methods and an interdisciplinary approach to analyse curatorial and legal decisions, as well as visitor feedback. To-date there are no official or standardised guidelines for the acquisition, cataloguing, or display of sexually explicit artefacts. It is intended that institutions will benefit from my analysis of the changing perceptions of shunga and of previous shunga collections and exhibitions when dealing with shunga or other sexually explicit items in the future.

This paper will explore the intersections of gender, sexuality and revolution in contemporary Chinese art through the lens of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. As an integral part in the process of narrative reconstruction, the propaganda imagery from the Cultural Revolution provides important insights into societal expectations for the masses. This paper will also analyze how contemporary artists seek to appropriate and respond to the events of the Cultural Revolution through their artwork, and describe the processes by which the I interpreted this information in order to create my own artwork.

A lack of adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) increases the risk of onward human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission and mortality. The purpose of this cross-sectional study based on Andersen's conceptual framework was to test the associations between age, marital status, job/occupational status, education, membership in a peer support group, community, and facility ARV drug refill and alcohol and substance use, and adherence to ART among female sex workers (FSWs) who are 15 years and older in Rivers and Cross Rivers states Nigeria. Data were abstracted from existing program data collected between January 2015 and December 2017 by Heartland Alliance International, Nigeria. Results from chi-square statistics showed that age, job/employment, and marital status were not associated with adherence to ART. Binary logistic regression analyses showed that respondents with senior secondary education were 1.385 times more likely to adhere to ART than other education levels (OR = 1.385, 95% CI = 1.203, 1.593). Respondents who had ARV refill in the facility were 1.737 times more likely to adhere to ART than respondents who had community ARV refill (OR= 1.737, 95% CI: 1.297, 2.326). Also, respondents who were a member of a support group were 6.430 times more likely to adhere to ART compared to those not in a support group (OR= 6.430, 95% CI: 4.682, 8.831). Lastly, respondents who did not abuse alcohol or substance were 1.820 times likely to adhere to ART compared to those who did (OR= 1.820, 95%: CI: 1.356, 2.444). All-inclusive key population policies could aid in lessening the barriers the FSWs face in receiving comprehensive health services as well as endorsing interventions such as alcohol and drug rehabilitation, counseling, and incentives to join peer support groups that could benefit FSWs, their clients, and families.

Includes abstract.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-117).
At a dinner party in Durban after the opening of Come, a 2007 exhibition of Michaelis MFA students, a woman asked me about my work. When I told her it was "the bullets", by way of description (One Hundred Bullets With Your Name On Them), she said something along the lines of "oh, that's so fascinating, I really had thought a man had made them".

My purpose in this essay is to analyse sexual messages and symbolism in music videos. Sexual contact can be depicted in various ways, like symbols of something hidden, not only how men and women relate to each other through a sexual act. I’ve demarcated the study into two music videos: Rammsteins Pussy, and Tommy Chashs Surf, based on the videos controversial reputation from the public. My question at issue is how sexual messages depicture and how symbolism indicates. The study is based on a semiotic model based on Roland Barthes' theory of character, as he presents in the book, Elements of Semiology. The result of this study is that the depiction of sex in these videos is presented as a symbol of personal message, and as a provocation. It reflects previous views on sexuality through the centuries. The provocation itself reinforces the artists image.

This thesis develops the concept of a field of fascination to denote the importance of curiosity in the processes of making in fine art practice. Through an exploration of the methods used in the production of my own artwork, including the appropriation of archival and found material pertaining to the history of women in the fields of magick and mediumship, it offers a way of expressing the material experimentation and selection that occurs in the development of an artwork. Additionally it references the practical exploration of how an atmosphere conducive to fascination could be established through employing techniques of theatrical staging, directly considered in my own exhibition Escamotage (2014). The core material of this thesis established from an interest in the shared language of ‘channeling’ within the fields of mediumship and fine art practice in which the body is positioned as a conduit. In particular, this thesis argues that the centrality of the female body as a ‘channel’ in the practice of mediumship offers a unique and unexplored nuance for the discussion of the materiality of the body in new materialist feminist theory. Through a theoretical framework employing the writing of Elisabeth Grosz, Karen Barad, Judith Butler and Susan Hekman the double-edged power dynamic of the female body as a ‘channel’ is interrogated and repositioned within the context of artistic production. This takes account of the recent re-engagement with the work of Hilma af Klint (1862 – 1944) and Georgiana Houghton (1814 – 1884) two female practitioners who produced astoundingly important abstract painting under the guise of spiritualist mediumship. Contemporarily, it critically addresses Susan Hiller’s practice as one that continues to interpret the periphery of the occult and interrogates the emergence of ‘not knowing’ as a descriptor of artistic methodology in the writing of Rachel Jones and Rebecca Fortnum. The original contribution of this thesis is the positioning of the term ‘claircognizance’ ‘clear-knowing’ within the field of artistic practice as a replacement for the concept of ‘not knowing’ as defined by Jones and Fortnum. Borrowing from the language of clairvoyant mediumship ‘claircognizance’ sidesteps the negative connotations of the lay meaning of ‘not knowing’ to describe the clarity of thought that emerges through studio experimentation as a form of ‘clear knowing’. Finally, the negotiation of critical discourses from fields including feminist theory, philosophy, the history of art and contemporary artistic practice provides a unique interweaving of approaches that is useful for future interdisciplinary research.

Alien Sex Club is a practice based PhD that addresses current modes of representation of HIV in art, which grows out of the minimalist aesthetic developed during the earlier part of the AIDS crisis by artists such as Felix Gonzalez-Torres. Today however, it is acknowledged that HIV is an interconnected web of problems that should be represented in a holistic way. Rates of HIV transmission are increasing among gay men in the West. HIV is no longer a life threatening illness due to the availability of highly effective antiretroviral drugs. A resulting decrease in the perception of risk, leading to condom fatigue, unprotected sex and recreational drug use may be some of a number of factors that are contributing to the increase in transmissions. Despite changes in the cultural, social and scientific context of HIV, artistic representations of the subject have remained the same as those originated before effective treatment was available. In this PhD, I use art and architecture and draw from contemporary scientific and political approaches in ways that differ from previous modes of representation, to raise new questions about HIV. Alien Sex Club seeks to re-politicise art as an arena for addressing HIV by mobilising a range of visual and aesthetic genres in a curated installation. This take the form of a cruise maze that addresses the complexity of contemporary HIV problems in an academic context. It makes use of spatial design and a maximalist aesthetic to update the representation of HIV. It transposes knowledge about HIV from science, sociology and philosophy into a visual art practice. It uses live art in the form of hospitality and fortune telling in order to question the existing conventions of the art gallery and engage audiences to consider HIV in new ways. It uses autoethnography, a qualitative research method drawn from the social sciences to theorise the methodology of its making. The installation is used as a test site for gathering data of audience responses, which are subjected to textual analysis. In these ways, Alien Sex Club operates as a counter discourse to the prevailing minimalist representations of HIV. The PhD generates knowledge about how to educate audiences on continuing rates of HIV transmission and extends understandings of the nature of the artist as activist.

“In Speculum I wrote that to re-establish a political ethics a dual dialectic is necessary, one for the male subject and another for the female subject (pp223-4). Today I would say that a triple dialectic is necessary: one for the male subject, one for the female subject and one for their relationships as a couple or in a community. The weak and strong point of this quest concerns the issue of subjectivity and objectivity for women.” Pg 39 Irigaray, L (1994) Thinking the Difference: for a peaceful revolution trans Karin Montin, Routledge New York The Feminine Fictions project takes on Irigarays challenge for "A Peaceful Revolution” to find its genesis between men and women through enabling dialectics - an interaction between masculine and feminine subjectivities at the point of difference and within the context of relationship and community. For Irigaray, historically repressed feminine subjectivities must continually be (re)constructed/ transgressed in order for such dialectics to be both possible and empowering. In Feminine Fictions I take up Irigarays engagement in the hope that doing so will re-create bonds of relationship and community for and with women that yield such enabling returns. To do so I use the axes of symmetry and scale that Irigaray identifies - working from the subject to the transcendent, from the cosmic to the divine and from the microcosmic to the macrocosmic. Masculine and Feminine appear as continually coalescing co-ordinates rather than limits in these axes, moments of opportunity rather than fixed references points and using subjectivity as a portal for viewing the cultural construction of “objective” experience. I adopt Irigarays mechanisms of mimesis, alterics and transgression (Irigaray 1981 a & b, 1985 a & b, 1986,1987 a&b, 1989, 1990, 1994, 1999,2000) through autobiography (Miller 1991, Benstock 1988, Brodzki & Schenk 1988) to inquire into my own embodied, engaged subjective experiences. I work from that position to cross and re-cross ontological thresholds, and through that continual movement, to articulate feminine subjectivities that arise in dialogue with the Other, amongst community. Feminine Fictions poses a series of questions: What can embodied aesthetic engagement reveal through/for “the feminine” as a site of difference? How does this impact through/on my particular ontological and subjective experiences (and vice versa)? How is this significant for contemporary feminisms? I use written and factured terms – aesthetic practice and performance - to re-member, generate and extend my subjective experience and finally articulate and record that experience of being-in-the-world in response to these concerns (MacDonald: Swindells 1995). The project culminating in an embodiment of the ontological research through an installation and performance event at Fremantle Prison on December 8 2002 involving 55 members of my epistemic community (Babbit: Alcoff & Potter), including my family. The evening provided an opportunity to undertake multiple ‘readings’ of the work and a way to mimetically re-construct my personal inquiry process in collective terms. The organising metaphorical structure of the event, the Stations of the Cross, foregrounded the incarnational aesthetic of embodied difference, ontological construction and transgression central to the project (Bozarth 1997, Irigaray 1986 & 2000). The prison became a laboratory that could be used collectively and personally by each participant to explore their own embodied experiences of being-in-the-world and explore their own ontological orientations and philosophies-in-action. The entire project was then produced into an exegetical theses as a CD ROM in website format to extend the proposal of embodied ontology into cyberspace and contemporary technological constructs (Wiley: Price & Shildrick 1999). The website format also allowing for a labyrinthine structure that can bring together the factured and conceptual work through geographical space into the alteric space of the internet.

This study examines the link between theatre and positive development in adolescent girls. Using Portraiture and Performative Inquiry methodologies, I worked closely with eight girls at a private single-sex school in Montreal over the course of eight months, teaching a theatre curriculum that allows students to create their own dramatic works by looking at topics of concern to them and performing in front of their peers. The theatre class developed their communication, expression and imagination, among other skills. My research also shows how theatre allowed the participants to create deeper bonds of friendship, develop a sense of empathy and an understanding of others, and a greater ability to express their experiences, thoughts and feelings. These abilities enabled a shared experience with their peers and an understanding that they have anxieties, perceptions and fears in common with others. Therefore, this study shows how important it is for theatre to be an essential part of the high school curriculum, since it not only benefits adolescents in their present lives, but also develops individual capacities that will serve them in the future.
Cette étude examine le lien entre le théâtre et le développement positif chez les adolescentes. À travers l'utilisation de la méthodologie portraitiste et de la recherche-action sur la performance artistique, j'ai travaillé étroitement avec huit filles d'une école privée pour fille à Montréal pendant huit mois. J'ai enseigné un programme de théâtre qui permet aux élèves de créer leurs propres œuvres dramatiques en rapport avec des sujets qui les concernent et de les jouer devant leurs pairs. Les élèves de la classe de théâtre ont, entre autres, développé leurs compétences de communication, d'expression et d'imagination. Mon étude montre également comment le théâtre a permis aux participantes de créer des liens plus profonds d'amitié, de développer un sentiment d'empathie et une compréhension d'autrui ainsi qu'une plus grande capacité à exprimer leurs expériences, leurs pensées et leurs sentiments. Ces capacités leur ont permis de créer une expérience partagée avec leurs pairs de comprendre qu'elles ont des angoisses, des perceptions et des craintes en commun avec les autres. Par conséquent, cette étude montre à quel point il est important que le théâtre fasse partie intégrante du programme d'études secondaires, car il bénéficie aux adolescentes non seulement dans la période actuelle de leur vie, mais développe également des capacités individuelles qui leur seront utiles dans l'avenir.

The monumental paintings that Canadian artist Attila Richard Lukacs (b. 1962, Edmonton) created while in Berlin (after 1986) focus on the themes of desire, power, masculinity, and eroticism. This focus, however, is not only a representation of what he sees, but is also an attempt to order things to a political and ethical end. Using the major works of Michel Foucault ( The Order of Things, The History of Sexuality), the thesis demonstrates how Where the Finest Young Men... (1987) and Authentic Decor (1988), may be interpreted as achieving a fundamental ordering and representation of desire. In particular, the thesis shows how Lukacs intervenes on existing codes and conventions of culture through heterotopia, and how he articulates political, sexual, and ethical choices through a concept of self-forming ethics.
If one is to situate Lukacs' work within the dynamic of heterotopia, and support the claim that these paintings not only intercede on existing codes and conventions, but also manifest ethical choices, then one ought to read the work against a prior understanding of sexual politics proper to the art historical and socio-political moment of the 1970s. The basis of that historical glance is established through the work of General Idea and notions of sexual identity. The sensuosity and pleasure characteristic of mass media entertainment formats, such as beauty pageants and variety shows, is similar to that featured in much of General Idea's work created throughout the 1970s. Importantly, the aesthetics that General Idea embraces in their brand of performance art increasingly becomes evident at the end of the 1970s, with the emergence of the New Painting. An assessment of the so-called "return of painting from exile"---as it appeared in Italy, Germany, and Canada---considers the output of Lukacs' contemporaries. The intention there is to establish whether a newer focus exists in the work of the late 1970s and early 1980s, which supports the hypothesis that what Lukacs aims to do is to order things to a political and ethical end. Upon setting forth an examination of the framework in which Lukacs appears, the dissertation then presents a highly detailed analysis of Where the Finest Young Men... and Authentic Decor, with particular focus on the function of heterotopia in these works. Finally, an explication of power and ethics in Lukacs is proposed through the later works of Michel Foucault, in order to demonstrate how, teleologically, the paintings operate as political, sexual, and ethical choices.

The purpose of my graduate thesis creative project, Girl Is a Four-Letter Word: Gender Biased Imaqe and Language is to call attention to the subliminal messages about stereotypical female qualities and female role expectations transmitted through the use of our language. My focus is on classroom visuals and reading textbooks used in the 1950s and 1960s, which illustrate very separate paths of gender social development. I have created a series of twenty-two paintings, in which I have juxtaposed images inspired from old textbooks and mild four-letter words to illustrate double-entendre associations and implied sexual innuendoes in everyday language.The creative project began with extensive research to find examples of textbooks from the 1950s, to review the textbooks in the historical context of America's educational goals and to study artists who have investigated themes of language and meaning of images in their work. Specific artists researched who have explored these ideas historically include Rene Magritte, Jasper Johns and Barbara Kruger. The actual artworks of several abstract expressionists were examined closely because of a similarity in painting technique and style.The paintings produced for this thesis project were executed with oil paint on recycled stretched canvases. Thick paints were applied straight from the tube and layered in thick impasto. The composition of all paintings include a vignetted image or isolated object in the center of the canvas with a label placed below, similar to the format of flashcards used for learning to read. The image and words together create a relationship pointing out blatant gender-biased associations, displayed with tongue-in-cheek humor.
Department of Art

I studien undersöks hur bildlärare kan arbeta med frågor som rör sexualitet, relationer, samt sex- och samlevnad i bildundervisning. Undersökningen rör även hur elever kan stödjas i sin identitet genom normkritisk bildundervisning som tar upp frågor kring sexualitet och relationer. Metoden är kvalitativa och tar avstamp ur djupintervjuer med personer som arbetar med bildundervisning och ämnesintegrerad sex- och samlevnadsundervisning. Resultatet visar att sex- och samlevnadsundervisning är mest effektiv när den är ämnesintegrerad. I bildämnet finns det många olika ingångar och verktyg inom arbetsområdet som bl.a. skapar tillfällen att diskuterar relationer och värderingar, medvetgörandet av normer och stereotyper, samt uttryck och undersökande av den identiteter. Genom att använda sig av olika kreativa läroprocesser och horisontell mediering så kan elever förstå sin egen person och kropp, samt sig själv i relation till andra och till samhället. Detta är en god förutsättning för identitetsskapande och för ett kreativt och välfungerande liv.

This research explored how art therapists create a safe and inviting environment for clients to discuss topics related to sex and sexuality in therapy. Our research consisted of three main questions: How do art therapists use art therapy techniques, materials, and directives to create a therapeutic environment in which clients can open up about their sexuality? How comfortable and/or experienced are therapists regarding discussion of topics related to sex and sexuality with clients in therapy sessions? What barriers are there to discussing sexuality in therapy, and how does art help overcome those barriers? Our research subjects were practicing art therapists who are alumni of the Marital and Family Therapy program at Loyola Marymount University. We utilized a mixed methods approach through a Qualtrics survey consisting of quantitative, likert-scale questions, as well as qualitative open-ended questions and an optional art making response, and qualitative data gathering through a singular interview including an art response. Through analysis and discussion of the data collected, we identified ways in which art therapy facilitates conversations about sex and sexuality, and ways in which barriers to these conversations and the utilization of art-making to explore them still exist. The data also revealed the importance of therapists’ own comfort level and education regarding these topics, as well as how therapists’ cultural backgrounds contribute to their comfort and motivation to invite these discussions and to seek out continuing education to increase their clinical competence exploring sex and sexuality in sessions with clients.

With evidence that arts engagement and nonlinear thinking style both utilize insight, intuition, and emotion in the decision making process, the literature has driven an investigation of the relationship between levels of arts engagement and thinking style preference. This nonexperimental correlational study (N = 101) explored (a) the prevalence of linear, nonlinear, or balanced linear/nonlinear thinking style of professionals working in museums. (b) Whether thinking style has a relationship with (i) age; (ii) sex; (iii) academic major; (iv) occupation; (v) levels of arts engagement. Two theoretical frameworks underpinned this study: (a) new literacies and (b) cognitive styles. A Web-based self-report survey instrument was used to investigate the relation among the variables of interest. Existing literature was used to provide a foundation for the study and guide the research. Correlational, means, and hierarchical regression analysis were used to test the hypothesized model and examine the hypotheses. The means analyses at the descriptive level revealed that females, those in the 60 or older age group, Humanities majors, and those who worked in education demonstrated more balanced linear/nonlinear thinking styles. The correlations results indicated that there was a statistically significant relationship between thinking style and sex and thinking styles and academic major. The hierarchical regression results suggested that after controlling for select demographic variables, only being a Humanities major uniquely predicted significant variance in thinking style. The lack of significant findings of a relationship between thinking style and age did not correspond to existing research that supports a correlation. Additionally, a significant relationship between thinking style and levels of arts engagement was not found during correlational and hierarchical regression analysis. A limitation of this research study was that the Web-based self-report survey version of the Linear/Nonlinear Thinking Style Profile (LNTSP) instrument did not transfer well to online use because the participants had some problem understanding how to score their answers properly. This issue could be handled readily and recommendations are made to revise the Web-base self-report version of the survey for future research use.

Thesis (MA (VA)(Visual Arts))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006.
As manufacturing jewellery artist, I have found that it is now most often women rather than men who commission or purchase jewellery. These women often earn substantial salaries and therefore they are in a position to indulge freely in what traditionally was considered the frivolous pursuit of beauty. Consequently, women are challenging expectations that they be submissive and desirable display objects, thereby signifying their dependence on male economical power. The aim of this research is to encourage transformation and the development of an individual and independent feminine identity by exposing the pressures placed on women to construct their identities as prescribed by patriarchal institutions, dress codes, fashion, science and therefore also gender stereotyping and gender inequalities. The three chapters of my thesis are titled Restriction, Change and Liberation?, which is followed by a discussion of my practical work in the addendum. The thesis and practical work were developed in support of one another.

In the past and present the inter-gender relationship has been based on male domination resulting in the overlooking of the female role and value. Many male-inspired theories helped to establish this hierarchical relationship and to perpetuate the belief that men and women have been created differently and not equally privileged. My research on the status of Korean women verifies these theories by examining how much social and cultural conditions have contributed to the difference between the genders to the disadvantage of women. It also reveals the distortion of patriarchal theories by investigating the principle of Confucianism which led to the depravation of Korean women's opportunities to develop themselves. The present level of achievement for women's equality is the result of these women's struggles. I as a women artist, present my work so that it will help both men and women to raise their awareness and to eliminate the prejudice towards females in society. The early principle of the Yin and Yang, distorted later for political benefits, implied a cooperative relationship of two forces for creation and development. Although these force are different and independent, when used cooperatively, they make a complete picture of stability and harmony. If they remain separate forces there is no resulting completion of creation, but instability and misfortunes. By disclosing this principle of harmony in Shamanism and early Confucianism, I also present the notion that all kinds of misfortunes come out of a broken harmony between creatures, peoples, and genders.

Preface: Thank you to all the women in my life who have supported me through this process; to my mother, to my other mother (Susan), to Kara, to Jordan and, of course, to Dolly. Summary: (S)examensarbete is a journey through which I have questioned if knitting can be sexy. It begins as a need to occupy my hands and goes on to encompass social media, a feminist view of the body, Dolly Parton, pin-ups, craftivism, interactivity and humor as a mechanism to hide the urge/need to be sexy. Through the journey, I allow myself to rely on the process to carry the project along and that is why so many aspects of the theme are addressed. Eventually, I, as the artist, am present in the final piece to ask the public to share their personal view of knitting and to show my own process and understanding of this traditional technique. I combine social media in the form of Instagram to show one side of the project, a modern, instantly global form of filtered visual communication, with the performative aspect of being present during the exhibit to knit and interact with an irl audience. 1.1 Background During my studies at Konstfack, I have attempted to understand why I find knitting so satisfactory. According to my knitting bible, The Culture of Knitting by Joanne Turney, “Knitting is both fun and sexy, it is humorous and not particularly threatening.” I have a diplomatic personality and humor is my go-to form of communication so it makes sense that I have a soft spot for a technique with a similar description. To say knitting is sexy on the other hand may raise some questions. In my years of working with this technique I have come to understand that knitting, as both the verb and the noun, is not viewed as desirable or even a method to create art for that matter. Knitting is considered to be the pastime of elderly wimmin who have nothing better to do and the results from this hobby are neither attractive nor practical. In this definition, there is nothing sexy about it. So what is sexy? According to the less-than-credible website Urban Dictionary, one of the popular definitions of sexy is as follows: “An intangible attribute. You need not be model thin nor movie star gorgeous to be sexy. Sexy is the whole package, including that “certain something” that you can’t quite put your finger on.” I have to say that I agree with this definition. And perhaps knitting can have this “intangible attribute” if displayed in a slightly unconventional way. In my exam project, I have presented textile handcrafts on my body through the lens of social media to see if knitting can in fact be sexy. 1.2 Purpose and Questions Knitting and humor seem to go hand-in-hand. In The Culture of Knitting, Turney introduces today’s knitting as a postmodern technique and goes on to explain that one of the main aspects of postmodernism is the use of humor. “Humour arises as a response to the presumed, expected or anticipated; it challenges and distorts what the audience believes they ‘know’. It is also disrespectful, rejecting traditional niceties and etiquette in order to make a challenging and witty statement.” This is indeed one of the reasons I find using knitting to create art so accessible: knitting has a built-in sense of humor. Humor is a way for people to cross social boundaries and communicate and I aim to use it in my artistic practice to do just that. Art that can communicate with a variety of people has a particular strength, no matter how simple the concept. In my exam project, I contrast the popular understanding of knitting and crocheting as outdated and undesirable with images of these techniques as youthful, sexual and thereby desirable in modern society. The purpose of this project is to use this humorous clash to invite the viewer into the piece and prompt the question, “Can knitting be sexy?” Although I have used different textile handcrafts in the making of the images, the focus of the project is on knitting. I have also chosen to briefly mention knitting as a feminist notion but will concentrate on the aspects of humor and sexiness. The images are all of me because this project has been an exploration of my relation to knitting and the “selfie” culture. The intended viewer of (S)examensarbete is the average adult of any sex living in the same society as me, fed daily by instant imagery and social media. 1.3 Method I have chosen to use my exam project as a chance to break routines in my artistic practice. In the past I have always worked with long-term projects that have had little room for exploration in the processes. My last gig at Konstfack feels like the ultimate opportunity to redefine my approach to working with art. I have therefore chosen to have a loosely defined overall theme of using my skill and my own body to project sexiness. I have allowed myself to listen to my gut feeling and focus on the process, not the result. This concept has created a tension in my project which has affected the way I work and has influenced my choice in formatting this paper. I have narrated my process honestly and have included segments of my personal diary to enhance the feeling of sincerity. 2.0 Main Text In December 2015, I began a process that I called Becoming Conscious. It was a step-by-step plan in how I should become more aware of the everyday choices I was making that were ultimately shaping my life. By January I had made some changes, like ending a long-term relationship, being more attentive to how I was dressing myself and brushing my teeth with my left hand. I realized that my “consciousness project” had become more focused on my physical body and I now referred to it as The Conscious Body. January 2nd, 2016: I’m also glad I’ve started photographing my body once a day, starting January 1, 2016. I hope that I will continue with this process as well for atleast the remainder of this project and ultimately every day 2016, 366 days to make a 366 image GIF/video. That would be an awesome project. This project is a lot about the body, my body. It’s about listening to it, dressing it, taking care of it, presenting it, piercing it. I can directly relate to the thoughts of Roxane Gay in her book Bad Feminist. In her essay Reaching for Catharsis, Gay wonders if body fixation isn’t just part of the human condition since we can never escape our physical forms. I agree that we’re pretty much forced to focus on our bodies and I think becoming aware of this led my process in this direction. Sitting in a discussion in class one day, I picked up some knitting simply to have something to occupy my hands. After an hour of mindless knitting, I realized what I was doing and decided to make my mindless knitting mindful and knit a pair of pants. These pants sparked new thoughts in my process. January 20th, 2016: I can’t decide if I should post the picture I took of myself in the knitted pants on instagram or not. I mean, you can’t see my face, but you see that I’m wearing a red push up bra and a red stringy thong and sky high glittery golden heels.Maybe part of my exam project is about not being afraid of expressing my body.My gut is telling me to do it. [...] I mean, it’s my body. I can do whatever I want with it. I ended up posting the picture and received positive response from my friends and classmates. I knew that many of the people who had “liked” the image were strong females and other feminists, which I found very relieving. I had been afraid that these wimmin would feel as if I was just posing, using my appearance to get attention and validation, yet they seemed to accept the image. What made this image any different from any other young woman showing skin on Instagram? Was it the fact that they knew me and knew I was doing it ironically? Was it because I was wearing colorful knitted pants, in contrast to the sexy heels and underwear and typical mirror selfie? After this initial image, I began researching Instagram in particular since it was the channel through which I made my image public. An article by Elizabeth Winkler entitled The Manufactured Life introduces Instagram as “our latest form of deception”. Winkler explains that the posed image controls our day-to-day lives in a sense that unless you post a picture of yourself doing something, it didn’t happen. Other people have to see what you did and acknowledge your action and its presentation by “like”-ing your image. In Notes to Self: The Visual Culture of Selfies in the Age of Social Media, Derek Conrad Murray delves into the “selfie” in particular, and how this form of imagery is dominated by young wimmin. Murray sees this self-expression from two angles. The selfie can be: a way for people with low self-esteem to desperately seek affirmation and/or: a method for wimmin to take control of how they are viewed by a male-dominated world and seize their inner feminine sexuality. I relate both these texts to my exam project. Initially I simply wanted to show friends and family the work I was doing, as a sort of proof. When I noticed the contrast between the deceptive reality that digital imagery portrays and the honest materiality of the handcrafted subject, I decided to use Instagram as a tool in my process. Instagram is young, modern and sexy. Posting my images to this social media would contextualize them with the images of other undressed young wimmin. Would my images be sexy or would the fact that I was dressed in witty handcrafts inhibit that feeling? To explore these thoughts further, I began researching the relationship between wimmin and their appearance. I read the glorious book The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf. Wolf addresses how the beauty ideal forced on wimmin is the main reason why we are still not treated equally. Wolf discusses “beauty” in relation to a broad span of topics such as violence, religion, porn and eating disorders. On the second page of the book, early in the introduction, Wolf writes in plain text, “What I support in this book is a woman’s right to choose what she wants to look like and what she wants to be.” In the last chapter of the book, Wolf reiterates. “I am not attacking anything that makes women feel good; only what makes us feel bad in the first place. We all like to be desirable and feel beautiful.” Reading this encouraged me to continue exploring my project in relation to my own female body. The next image I posted to my Instagram account under the theme #xxxjobb was a piece called Titshirt. I had taken a picture of my own hands covering my breasts. I printed the hands off on fabric transfer paper and ironed them onto a simple white t-shirt. I photographed myself in the Titshirt, again posing somewhat suggestively. While on the topic of tits, I started relating my project to Dolly Parton. January 28th 2016: Dolly’s “look”: “If you’re a star, you owe it to your fans to look like one.”Dolly has this trashy look, she admits it herself. She maxes out, both her image and everything she does. She is extreme. And, her image is one of the reasons she is so well known. But the reason she is respected is because of the person behind the made up disguise.The Beauty Myth talked about how women should be allowed to dress exactly how they like, as long as they are putting on makeup and wearing accentuating clothes because THEY want to and not because of what men want. But that is a blurry line. Because we all desire to be desired. When do you know if you are doing something for yourself or when you are doing it for someone else? We want to be liked and respected. Maybe respect is a big part of it. I grew up listening to Dolly Parton’s music and have always seen her as a role model. When I moved to Sweden I realized that not only did I share this view with fellow Swedes but that the majority of those who looked up to Parton were outspoken feminists. How could someone who seems to build her entire image on the desire to fulfill modern body ideals at any cost be idolized by strong, independent wimmin? After listening to Parton’s autobiography My Life and Other Unfinished Business and reading several articles focused on her “hyper-feminine” image, I began to understand that Dolly Parton has simply used her image to manipulate the patriarchal system to achieve her own goals. She has, both in her musical career and in her star image, used her femininity to challenge social structures within the boundaries of what is accepted (and even desired) of modern wimmin. I saw a trend in my process that I could relate to Parton’s visual expression and wanted to document it, so I dressed myself up in a big curly blonde wig and false eyelashes, stuffed my oversized bra and posed for the camera. One Sunday afternoon, my friend and I went to Drottninggatan with some sidewalk chalk and started drawing. We drew whatever came to mind and many of those who walked by encouraged us to continue. This activity inspired me to look into art in the public realm. I have always felt that art should be available to everyone and not locked inside a white cube for a select audience. I feel that simply making art outside makes it more approachable to a broader public. Continuing on the theme of using my femininity to attract attention, I photographed myself knitting, dressed in lingerie with glued on eyelashes and nails. I titled the image Just a Bit of Casual Knitting. The purpose of the image was to show the obvious clash between the picture and it’s description. It is apparent that I had put effort into looking appealing to the viewer and was not simply relaxing with a handcraft (as that would have been nearly impossible with those nails). It was also a commentary on how much effort people put into projecting a flawless image of themselves on social media. The next image in my #xxxjobb series was of my own bottom dressed in a pair of fuzzy knitted underpants. In You Can Look Butt You Can’t Touch, I contrasted the homely idea of knitting with the daring, young and sexy and also the pure irrationality of wearing knitted undergarments. In the title I incorporated the flatness of the image and the concept of Instagram itself; that the image could please only the visual sense when textiles are in general associated with tactility and real touch. Next in line was Not Your Granny’s Panties, a matching crocheted bra/panty set. In the title of this image, I played with the terms “granny panty” meaning large, nonsexual wimmin’s underwear and “granny square”, a handcraft technique unmistakably associated with the unthreatening concept of a grandmother. By using both these phrases to contrast the image of the young womon in the skimpy underwear, I created a humorous clash. As research for this project, I explored a variety of knitting books focused on raunchy DIY patterns with titles such as Domiknitrix, Naughty Needles, and Sexy Little Knits. The modeled images in Naughty Needles by Nikol Lohr and the titles of the projects (Baby Blue Ball Gag, Felt Up, Mrs. Robinson) all have a jokey feel. It is as if the humor in the pieces make them accessible to people without causing them to feel guilt. Lohr writes, “Usually ball gags are menacing, but knit out of colorful acrylic grandma yarn, they’re downright cute.” Because of the general understanding of knitting as something nostalgic and historically domestic, as soon as knitting is used to create something that doesn’t fit that description, a clash occurs. It is within this postmodern clash that I hope to make my project accessible to a wide audience. While some of the aforementioned books briefly address why they claim the act and the results of knitting are sexy, the majority of my understanding of textile handcrafts as something above and beyond that of hobbies for elderly wimmin comes from Turney’s The Culture of Knitting. Chapter four entitled Unravelling the Surface: Unhomely Knitting informs of how knitting and heteronormative sex are directly related. Knitting as an activity is penetrative; stitches are formed through the penetration of a needle, the tight looping of yarn around it and its withdrawal. The equation of knitting with the sexual act is a theme that permeates the current knitting revival:[...] one can see the irony in knitting as a form of pornography.This new emphasis on knitting as sexually deviant and sexually empowering may well be a consequence of the new feminism, and indeed the ensuing rise of a raunch culture in which women are increasingly reclaiming feminine pastimes whilst expressing their desires in a way which, historically, had been the remit of men. Although I find the comparison of knitting to penetrative sex pretty far-fetched, I feel that it still has enough weight to be mentioned. The fact that Turney has made this comparison and describes knitting as pornography examines a depth of knitting as an act that grants wimmin the opportunity to feel sexy within themselves. With this skill set, wimmin can express their own desires and the humor that so closely accompanies knitting can be used as an excuse or a justification for these expressions. For Fits Like a Glove, I knitted a pair of gloves with extra-long ribbing and connected thumbs and sewed the gloves together to create a bra. Instead of knitting two pieces that looked like gloves, I knitted two actual gloves so that hands could in fact fill them, as the title suggests. I feel that this factor adds a kind of flat tactility as the viewer is able to imagine even clearer how placing ones hands in this position (and vis-a-vis on the breasts of the wearer) would feel. I purposely made the gloves to fit my small “feminine” hands as to not make it possible for the average man to fill the gloves. In this way, I cater to the imagination of the heterosexual adult male viewer, but not the actual touch, as with the concept of the image. If you image search for “sexy knitting” on Google, a selection of pictures of wimmin wearing very little yarn will come up. A few of these images are paintings by Harry Ekman, an American pin-up artist active during the 1960’s. The wimmin in a couple of his paintings are either knitting or unraveling the sweaters they are wearing to reveal the bottom halves of their breasts. I was instantly intrigued by these paintings because they seemed so ridiculous. There was something particular about the images where the models were working with handcrafts that made them feel unrealistic in comparison to the pictures of wimmin on the beach or in the bedroom. I knitted my own cropped sweater and posted an image of myself wearing and simultaneously knitting it (an act which is technically impossible). Perhaps the vintage concept of the pin-up is equivalent to the modern “post-up” on Instagram. Now it was time to figure out how I wanted to present my project. This is what I said to myself: “I have three goals. I want to use simple contrasts (like sexiness and knitting), I want to use humor in the contrasts to communicate (a way to open up my project to the viewer) and I want it to be simple.” I decided I was going to make a short film of people’s hands scrolling through my Instagram images. This I would present indoors, to show my process as part of the exhibit. Based off of my experience of drawing on a public street with sidewalk chalk, I also decided to knit two sun chairs that I would present outdoors, in between the entrances of Konstfack and the Black Building. The fact that I had chosen to be outdoors felt symbolic. I see the strength in working from within one’s boundaries (i.e. inside the white cube or as Dolly Parton does within a male-dominated industry), yet the desire for my work to feel more relaxed and be exhibited where one might actually find sun chairs felt more relevant. I would be present during periods of the Spring Exhibit, sitting in one of the chairs and inviting others to sit in the chair beside me. The knitted body of the chairs would be a silhouette of my body. A “selfie stick” would be present to make it easy for the person to photograph themselves and possibly post the image to their own Instagram accounts under the hashtag #123sexy. In this situation, I plan on asking the person sitting in the chair beside me, “Can knitting be sexy?” Is it a coincidence that every artist that tutors have suggested I look into regarding my work are female? I have chosen to contextualize (S)examensarbete with the work of three acclaimed artists within different fields. I relate (S)examensarbete to both the sculptural and photographical work of Sarah Lucas. Much of Lucas’ work addresses feminine sexuality with a humoristic tone. She uses banal symbolism, just as melons to symbolize breasts, as well as witty and punning titles of her work. Lucas is also often present in her photographs just as I am, posing for the camera. While my imagery identifies with the selfie culture, Sarah Lucas work caters to a more established art scene. When I first started using Instagram as a place to project an alter ego, I immediately received obliging comments such as “Cecilia Sherman” and “The Swedish Cindy Sherman”. I can particularly relate to Cindy Sherman’s photography in (S)examensarbete. In an interview with John Waters in the book Cindy Sherman, Sherman discusses why single-handedly producing all of her own portraits came naturally to her. She expresses a desire she has to pretend to be someone else, someone she does not want to actively be around other people. (S)examensarbete is a way for me to explore other personalities through my own image that I wouldn’t dare actively exhibit. I see similarities between the process behind (S)examensarbete and the French artist Sophie Calle’s work. According to an interview in The Guardian from 2009, Calle did not initially consider her activities to be artwork. She was simply living her life and filling her time. In the beginning of (S)examensarbete, my intentions were purely personal as well. Even after identifying herself as an artist, Calle seems to have very loose boundaries between her role as an artist and her everyday life. I admire this approach to working within the artistic field and hope that my exam project will lead me in this direction. Beyond the realm of art and solo artists, I must also mention the world of public knitting and the term “craftivism” as a whole. In her book Craftivism: The Art of Craft and Activism, Betsy Greer describes the correlation of craft to activism as such: “The creation of things by hand leads to a better understanding of democracy, because it reminds us that we have power,” and that “the very essense of craftivism lies in creating something that gets people to ask questions; we invite others to join a conversation about the social and political intent of our creations.” (S)examensarbete is about questioning knitting as a form of sexual self-expression and therefore falls under the category of craftivism, however offputting the term may be. I have refrained from mentioning craftivism earlier because I have yet to find a handknitted garment that I honestly find to be sexy, and that’s exactly my point. Through the craftivist movement, we can understand that textile handcrafts can raise awareness to an abundance of sociopolitical issues, but are the products or garments produced aesthetically pleasing or desirable? That being said, I would like to mention the textile artist Magda Sayeg as an inspiration to my work. I stumbled apon her website while researching the “yarn-bombing” group Knitta and there is a certain degree of edginess in Sayeg’s work that I relate to (S)examensarbete. Although I am a huge fan of humor and see it as an important tool, I think Sayeg’s work is an example of how knitting can be a strong form of communication without the use of humor as a main focus. Much of Sayegs work is based on knitting in different objects, such as buses, statues, pilars, etc., and she has done several projects in cooperation with different businesses, like Gap, Toyota and 7-Up. Even if she knits by hand, the ending result does not have the same aesthetic as the DIY movement and that is what attracts me to her way of working with textiles. She seems to take knitting seriously, using it in a professional sense and in my opinion, successfully making knitting appealing. 3.1 Documentation 3.2 Discussion My project as a whole benefited tremendously from the comments and insights from my opponent, Johanna Rosenqvist. Having worked with very similar topics, she understood the purpose and goal behind (S)examensarbete and inspired me to relate my work to established knitting artists and craftivism. Through this, I was able to better understand why I had avoided comparing myself to these topics earlier. I realized that (S)examensarbete is about exploring an aesthetic (sexiness) that I hadn’t seen within the knitting field before. So... can knitting be sexy? During the Spring Exhibit, I sat in one of the knitted bikini chairs and knitted away, with Dolly Parton singing in the background. Due to cold weather, I was forced to sit inside much of the exhibit, next to my video of fingers scrolling through my instagram images. Sometimes I felt embarassed by the pictures on the screen, since I no longer had the virtual world of social media to hide behind. I was there, in the flesh, to see how people reacted. But past this feeling of shame, I also had many interesting discussions with a variety of visitors. I would ask the question, “Can knitting be sexy?”, not necessarily with the intention of an answer, and I would usually recieve a direct response, along with a suggestion or two. One visitor suggested I knit with latex, since latex is the textile directly associated with sex. Others suggested knitting with flashier yarn or bigger stitches. I recieved stories from pubescent years of sexy sweaters and crocheted bikinis and see-through knitted dresses. Several older men told me that they had chosen textile studies instead of woodworking when they were in school and one of them had even been featured in a local newspaper since it was so unusual. I discussed sex, an array of different artists and even Eurovision Song Contest with people I would probably never had an excuse to talk to if it wasn’t for my project. After 10 days of being present at the exhibit and interacting and discussing with visitors, my understanding of the overall consensus is that sure, knitting can be sexy. I’d like to think that (S)examensarbete sparked new thoughts in a few people’s heads about what a traditional handcraft technique like knitting can be. The process-based process behind this project has lead to a better understanding of myself, both personally and as an artist. I have experienced both the freedom in not having a strict goal from day one and I have also felt the insecurity that has followed suit. I have relied on step-by-step plans in the past because they provide stability and a kind of safety net if my inspiration begins to falter. In the future, I see myself continuing to work with a goal in mind, yet forcing myself out of my comfort zone to test new methods as I did in (S)examensarbete, such as interactive pieces where I as the artist am present. 4.0 Bibliography Books Foster, Hal. “Marcay, Calle, Coleman, and Kentridge.” Art since 1900: Modernism, Antimodernism, Postmodernism. London: Thames & Hudson, 2011. N. pag. Print. Gay, Roxane, and Helena Hansson. Bad Feminist. Stockholm: Bonnier, 2015. Print. Greer, Betsy. Craftivism: The Art of Craft and Activism. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp, 2014. Print Lohr, Nikol. Naughty Needles: Sexy, Saucy Knits for the Bedroom and Beyond. New York: Potter Craft, 2006. Print. Malik, Amna. Sarah Lucas: Au Naturel. London: Afterall, 2009. Print. Martignette, Charles G., and Louis K. Meisel. “Harry Ekman.” The Great American Pin-Up. Köln: Taschen, 2011. N. pag. Print. Parton, Dolly. My Life and Other Unfinished Business. London: HarperCollins, 1994. Print. Stafford, Jennifer. Domiknitrix: Whip Your Knitting into Shape. Cincinnati, OH: North Light, 2007. Print. Turney, Joanne. The Culture of Knitting. Oxford: Berg, 2009. Print. Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women. New York: Perennial, 2002. Print. Newspapers/Magazine/Journals Hoggard, Liz. “Naughty Knitting.” Crafts Mar.-Apr. 2005: 38-41. Print. Murray, Derek Conrad. “Notes to Self: The Visual Culture of Selfies in the Age of Social Media.” Consumption Markets & Culture 18:6: 490-516. Print. Wilson, Pamela. “Mountains of Contradictions: Gender, Class and Region in the Star Image of Dolly Parton.” South Atlantic Quarterly Winter 1995: 109-34. Web. Winkler, Elizabeth. “The Manufactured Life.” New Republic Mar2016, Vol. 247 Issue 3: 16-17. Print Websites Jeffries, Stuart. “Sophie Calle: Stalker, Stripper, Sleeper, Spy.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 23 Sept. 2009. Web. 25 Mar. 2016. Sayeg, Magda. “Magda Sayeg’s Portfolio.” Magdasayeg’s Portfolio. N.p., 2013. Web. 06 May 2016.
Förord: Tack till alla kvinnor i mitt liv som har stöttat mig genom denna process; till min mamma, till min andra mamma (Susan), till Kara, till Jordan och, så klart, till Dolly. Sammanfattning: (S)examensarbete är en resa genom vilket jag har ifrågasatt om stickning kan vara sexigt. Det börjar med ett behov av att vara sysselsatt och det fortsätter till att omfatta sociala medier, ett feministiskt syn på kroppen, Dolly Parton, pin-ups, “craftivism”, interaktivitet och humor som en mekanism till att dölja önskan/behovet av att vara sexig. Under vägens gång har jag tillåtit mig själv att lita på processen att föra projektet vidare och det är därför så många aspekter av temat adresseras. Så småningom är jag, konstnären, på plats i det slutgiltiga verket till att fråga publiken om att dela med sig av deras personliga åsikter om stickning och att visa min egen process och förståelse om denna traditionella teknik. Jag kombinerar sociala medier i form av Instagram för att visa en sida av projektet, en modern, omedelbart global form av filtrerad visuell kommunikation, med den performativa aspekten av att vara på plats under utställningen för att sticka och interagera med en “irl” publik. 1.1 Bakgrund Under min tid på Konstfack så har jag försökt förstå varför jag tycker just stickning är så tillfredsställande. I The Culture of Knitting av Joanne Turney så står det, ”Knitting is both fun and sexy, it is humorous and not particularly threatening.” Jag har en diplomatisk personlighet och humor är det främsta sättet jag väljer att kommunicera så det är ganska självklart att jag är svag för en teknik med en liknande beskrivning. Att säga att stickning är sexigt kan å andra sidan väcka frågor. Jag har använt mig av stickning som metod i flera år och under denna tid så har jag förstått att stickning/stickande inte ses som något åtråvärt eller ens en metod för att skapa konst. Stickning anses vara ett tidsfördriv för äldre kvinnor som inte har något bättre för sig och resultaten av denna hobby är varken attraktiva eller praktiska. I denna definition ryms det inte en gnutta sexighet i stickning. Så vad är ”sexig”? Enligt den mindre trovärdiga hemsidan Urban Dictionary, lyder en av de populära definitionerna av ”sexig” så här:“An intangible attribute. You need not be model thin nor movie star gorgeous to be sexy. Sexy is the whole package, including that “certain something” that you can’t quite put your finger on.” Jag måste säga att jag håller med denna beskrivning. Och kanske kan stickning ha denna ”intangible attribute” om den visas på ett lite okonventionellt sätt. I mitt examensprojekt så har jag presenterat textila hantverk på min kropp genom en lins av sociala medier för att se om stickning egentligen kan vara sexigt. 1.2 Syfte och frågeställningar Stickning och humor verkar gå hand i hand. I The Culture of Knitting så introducerar Turney dagens stickning som en postmodern teknik och förklarar att en av de främsta aspekterna av postmodernismen är användningen av humor. “Humour arises as a response to the presumed, expected or anticipated; it challenges and distorts what the audience believes they ‘know’. It is also disrespectful, rejecting traditional niceties and etiquette in order to make a challenging and witty statement.” Detta är en av anledningarna till varför stickning är en så stor del av mitt konstnärskap: stickning har ett inbyggt sinne för humor. Humor är ett sätt för folk att överskrida sociala gränser och kommunicera och jag strävar efter att använda detta i mitt konstnärskap. Konst som kan kommunicera med en mängd olika människor har en särskild styrka, oavsett hur enkelt konceptet kan vara. I mitt examensprojekt så har jag kontrasterat den populära förståelsen av stickning och virkning som utdaterade och avtändande, med bilder av denna teknik som ung, sexuell och därmed åtråvärd i det moderna samhället. Syftet med detta projekt är att använda en humoristisk krock till att bjuda in betraktaren in i verket och ställa frågan, ”Kan stickning vara sexigt?” Även om jag har använt mig av olika textila tekniker i skapandet av bilderna så ligger fokuset i projektet på stickning. Jag har valt att kort beskriva stickning som ett feministiskt begrepp men kommer att koncentrera mig på aspekterna av humor och sexighet. Jag är med i alla bilderna, då detta projekt har varit en utforskning av min relation till stickning och selfiekulturen. I (S)examensarbete har jag utgått från en vuxen publik av alla kön som bor i samma samhälle som jag där vi är matade dagligen med bilder och sociala media. 1.3 Metod Jag har valt att använda mitt examensarbete som en möjlighet att bryta rutinerna i mitt konstnärskap. Tidigare har jag jobbat med långsiktiga projekt med ett litet utrymme för utforskning i processen. Mitt sista projekt på Konstfack känns som den ultimata chansen att omdefiniera mitt sätt att närma mig konsten. Jag har därmed valt att ha ett löst tema som handlar om att använda mig av min skicklighet och min kropp för att visa på sexighet. Jag har tillåtit mig själv att lyssna på min magkänsla och fokusera på processen, inte resultatet. Detta koncept har skapat en spänning i mitt projekt som har påverkat sättet jag jobbar på och mitt val av format i denna uppsats. Jag har ärligt skildrat min process och har inkluderat delar av min personliga dagbok för att förstärka känslan av äkthet. 2.0 Huvudtext I december 2015 så påbörjade jag en process jag kallade Becoming Conscious. Det var en plan som jag utförde steg för steg för att bli mer medveten om de dagliga val som tillsammans utgjorde mitt liv. I månadsskiftet till januari så hade jag gjort några förändringar så som att bryta en långvarig relation, vara mer uppmärksam på hur jag klädde mig och borsta tänderna med min vänstra hand. Jag insåg att mitt medvetenhetsprojekt hade blivit mer fokuserat på min fysiska kropp och jag började referera till arbetet som The Conscious Body. 2 januari, 2016: I’m also glad I’ve started photographing my body once a day, starting January 1, 2016. I hope that I will continue with this process as well for atleast the remainder of this project and ultimately every day 2016, 366 days to make a 366 image GIF/video. That would be an awesome project. This project is a lot about the body, my body. It’s about listening to it, dressing it, taking care of it, presenting it, piercing it. Jag kan relatera direkt till Roxane Gays tankar i boken Bad Feminist. I hennes essä Reaching for Catharsis undrar Gay om kroppsfixering inte bara är en del av att vara människa eftersom vi aldrig kan undvika vår fysiska form. Jag håller med om att vi mer eller mindre är tvingade att fokusera på våra kroppar och när jag förstod detta så ledde det mitt projekt i samma riktning. Under en diskussion under en kurs började jag sticka endast för att ha något att sysselsätta mina händer med. Efter en timme av tankelöst stickande kom jag på mig själv och bestämde mig för att förvandla min planlösa stickning till ett par byxor. Dessa byxor tände en tanke i min process. 20 januari, 2016: I can’t decide if I should post the picture I took of myself in the knitted pants on instagram or not. I mean, you can’t see my face, but you see that I’m wearing a red push up bra and a red stringy thong and sky high glittery golden heels.Maybe part of my exam project is about not being afraid of expressing my body.My gut is telling me to do it. [...] I mean, it’s my body. I can do whatever I want with it. Till slut lade jag upp bilden och den fick positiv respons av mina vänner och klasskamrater. Jag visste att många av de som hade ”gillat” bilden var starka kvinnor och andra feminister och det var skönt. Jag hade varit rädd att dessa kvinnor hade trott att jag bara poserade och använde mitt utseende för att få uppmärksamhet och bekräftelse men de verkade acceptera bilden. Vad var det som gjorde denna bild annorlunda från andra unga kvinnor som visar extra mycket hud på Instagram? Var det det faktum att de kände mig och visste att jag gjorde det med en ironisk underton? Var det för att jag hade på mig färgglada stickade byxor, i kontrast till de sexiga skorna och trosorna och den typiska spegel-selfien? Efter denna initiala bild så började jag utforska Instagram eftersom jag publicerade bilden genom detta medie. I artikeln The Manufactured Life av Elizabeth Winkler introduceras vi till Instagram som vår senaste form av bedrägeri. Winkler förklarar att de poserade bilderna styr våra dagliga liv i den mening att om du inte lägger upp en bild på dig när du gör något så har det inte hänt. Andra måste se vad du gjort och erkänna din handling och dess presentation genom att ”gilla” din bild. I Notes to Self: The Visual Culture of Selfies in the Age of Social Media så fördjupar sig Derek Conrad Murray I “selfien” och hur denna typ av bild domineras av unga kvinnor. Murray ser detta självuttryck från två vinklar. Selfien kan vara: ett sätt för folk med lågt självförtroende att desperat söka bekräftelse och/eller: en metod för kvinnor att ta kontroll över hur de blir sedda i en mansdominerad värld och hitta sin inre feminina sexualitet. Jag relaterar båda dessa texter till mitt examensarbete. Initialt så ville jag bara visa vänner och familj det jag jobbade med som ett slags bevis. När jag såg kontrasten mellan den vilseledande verkligheten som digitala bilder porträtterar och det äkta handgjorda subjektet så bestämde jag mig för att använda mig av Instagram som ett redskap i min process. Instagram är ungt, modernt och sexigt. Att lägga upp mina bilder i detta sociala medie skulle kontextualisera dem med bilder på andra avklädda unga kvinnor. Skulle mina bilder också vara sexiga eller skulle det faktum att jag var iklädd hantverk hämma denna känsla? För att utforska dessa tankar vidare så började jag undersöka relationen mellan kvinnor och deras utseende. Jag läste den fantastiska boken The Beauty Myth av Naomi Wolf. Wolf förklarar hur skönhetsidealet som tvingas på kvinnor är den främsta anledningen till varför vi fortfarande inte är behandlade som lika. Wolf diskuterar ”skönhet” i relation till en mängd ämnen som våld, religion, porr och ätstörningar. På andra sidan i boken, tidigt i inledningen, så skriver Wolf i tydlig text, ”What I support in this book is a woman’s right to choose what she wants to look like and what she wants to be.” I det sista kapitlet så upprepar Wolf sin mening. “I am not attacking anything that makes women feel good; only what makes us feel bad in the first place. We all like to be desirable and feel beautiful.” Efter att ha läst detta så ville jag fortsätta utforska mitt projekt i relation till min kvinnliga kropp. Nästa bild jag la upp på mitt Instagramkonto under temat #xxxjobb var ett verk som heter Titshirt. Jag hade tagit en bild på mina egna händer som täckte mina bröst. Jag skrev ut händerna på tygtransferpapper och strök på dem på en enkel vit t-tröja. Jag fotograferade mig själv i Titshirt, återigen poserande något utmanande. I fortsättningen av bröst-temat så började jag relatera mitt projekt till Dolly Parton. 28 januari, 2016: Dolly’s “look”: “If you’re a star, you owe it to your fans to look like one.”Dolly has this trashy look, she admits it herself. She maxes out, both her image and everything she does. She is extreme. And, her image is one of the reasons she is so well known. But the reason she is respected is because of the person behind the made up disguise.The Beauty Myth talked about how women should be allowed to dress exactly how they like, as long as they are putting on makeup and wearing accentuating clothes because THEY want to and not because of what men want. But that is a blurry line. Because we all desire to be desired. When do you know if you are doing something for yourself or when you are doing it for someone else? We want to be liked and respected. Maybe respect is a big part of it. Jag växte upp med Dolly Partons musik och har alltid haft henne som en förebild. När jag flyttade till Sverige så förstod jag att svenska feminister också gillade Parton. Hur kunde någon som verkar bygga hela sin ”look” på en önskan att uppfylla alla moderna kroppsideal vara förebild för starka, självständiga kvinnor? Efter jag lyssnade på Partons självbiografi My Life and Other Unfinished Business och läste artiklar med fokus på hennes ”hyperfeminina” image så började jag förstå att Dolly Parton helt enkelt har använt sitt utseende för att manipulera patriarkatet för att uppnå hennes egna mål. Hon har, både i hennes musikaliska karriär och i hennes ”look”, använt sin femininitet till att utmana sociala strukturer inom ramarna för det som är accepterat (och även åtråvärt) for och av moderna kvinnor. Jag såg en trend i min process som jag kunde relatera till Partons visuella uttryck och ville dokumentera det, så jag klädde upp mig i en stor lockig blond peruk och falska ögonfransar, fyllde min stora bh med strumpor och poserade för kameran. En söndagseftermiddag var jag och en vän på Drottninggatan och vi började måla med gatukritor. Vi ritade vad som helst som vi kom att tänka på och många som gick förbi uppmuntrade oss till att fortsätta. Denna aktivitet inspirerade mig till att undersöka konst för allmänheten. Jag har alltid känt att konst borde vara tillgängligt för alla och inte inlåst i en vit kub för en utvald publik. Att helt enkelt placera konst utomhus gör det mer tillgängligt för en bredare publik. Jag fortsatte med temat i att använda min femininitet för att bli uppmärksammad och fotograferade mig själv stickande, iklädd sexiga underkläder med påklistrade naglar och ögonfransar. Jag döpte bilden till Just a Bit of Casual Knitting. Syftet med bilden var att visa på den tydliga krocken mellan motivet och dess titel. Det är tydligt att jag försökte vara snygg på bilden och att jag inte bara hade en avslappnad stund med lite handarbete (eftersom det inte hade varit möjligt med de naglarna). Bilden var en kommentar på hur mycket möda folk lägger ner på att visa upp en felfri bild av sig själva på sociala medier. Nästa bild i serien #xxxjobb var en bild av min rumpa iklädd lurviga stickade trosor. I You Can Look Butt You Can’t Touch så kontrasterar jag den husliga ideén om stickning med det vågade, unga och sexiga och samtidigt det ologiska i att vara klädd i stickade underkläder. I titeln kombinerade jag bildens platthet med Instagrams koncept; att bilden bara kan tillfredsställa det visuella när textilier är generellt associerade med taktilitet och äkta känsla. Sedan kom Not Your Granny’s Panties, ett matchande underklädesset. I titeln leker jag med termerna “granny panty” som är stora, icke-sexuella trosor och ”granny square”, eller mormorsruta, en handarbetsteknik som oundvikligen associeras till den ofarliga idén om en mormor. Båda dessa fraser står i kontrast till den unga kvinnan i utmanande underkläder. För att utforska ämnet vidare så har jag läst en del stickningsböcker med sexiga “gör-det-själv”-mönster med titlar som Domiknitrix, Naughty Needles och Sexy Little Knits. Bilderna på plaggen man själv kan sticka i boken Naughty Needles av Nikol Lohr och titlarna på dessa plagg (t.ex. Baby Blue Ball Gag, Felt Up, Mrs. Robinson) har alla en humoristisk underton. Det är som att humorn i mönstren gör dem tillgängliga för människor utan att de behöver känna skam. Lohr skriver, ”Usually ball gags are menacing, but knit out of colorful acrylic grandma yarn, they’re downright cute.” För att stickning tolkas som ett nostalgiskt och historiskt sett husligt pyssel så uppstår en inre konflikt när man använder stickning att skapa något som inte uppfyller den beskrivningen. Det är i denna postmoderna kontrast som jag hoppas på att kunna nå ut till en bred publik. Vissa av författarna till böckerna jag nämner ovan beskriver varför de tycker stickning är sexigt men merparten av min förståelse för textila handarbeten som något utöver sysselsättning för äldre kvinnor kommer ifrån Turneys The Culture of Knitting. Kapitel fyra, Unravelling the Surface: Unhomely Knitting, berättar om hur stickning kan relateras direkt till heteronormativ sex. Knitting as an activity is penetrative; stitches are formed through the penetration of a needle, the tight looping of yarn around it and its withdrawal. The equation of knitting with the sexual act is a theme that permeates the current knitting revival:[...] one can see the irony in knitting as a form of pornography.This new emphasis on knitting as sexually deviant and sexually empowering may well be a consequence of the new feminism, and indeed the ensuing rise of a raunch culture in which women are increasingly reclaiming feminine pastimes whilst expressing their desires in a way which, historically, had been the remit of men. Även om jag har svårt att hålla med om att stickning är som penetrerande sex tycker jag ändå att jämförelsen är värd att nämna. Turney beskriver stickning som pornografi och går in på djupet där hon förklarar att stickning ger kvinnor chansen att känna sig sexiga inom sig själva. Med stickning som hantverk så kan kvinnor uttrycka sina egna lustar och humorn som står stickningen så nära kan användas som en ursäkt eller ett försvar för dessa uttryck. I Fits Like a Glove så stickade jag ett par handskar med extra långa muddar och ihopstickade tummar, sedan sydde jag ihop handskarna till en bh. Istället för två stickade delar som ser ut som vantar så stickade jag två faktiska handskar så att händer skulle kunna fylla dem, precis som titeln antyder. Denna faktor adderar ett slags taktilitet så betraktaren kan föreställa sig ännu tydligare hur det skulle kännas att ha sina händer i den positionen (och då på bärarens bröst). Jag stickade medvetet vantarna att passa mina små ”feminina” händer så att det tekniskt sätt är omöjligt för en genomsnittlig vuxen man att få in sina händer. På detta sätt tillgodoser jag den heterosexuella mannens fantasi men inte den faktiska känslan, precis som konceptet med motivet. Om man bildsöker på ”sexy knitting” på Google så kommer det fram ett urval av bilder på kvinnor som är klädda i väldigt lite garn. Vissa av dessa bilder är målningar av Harry Ekman, en amerikansk pin-up konstnär som var aktiv på 1960-talet. Kvinnorna i några av hans målningar har på sig en stickad tröja som de håller på riva upp eller sticka vidare på så att man ser den undre delen av deras bröst. Dessa bilder väckte ett omedelbart intresse hos mig eftersom de kändes så komiska. Det fanns något i bilderna där kvinnor handarbetade som fick dem att kännas orealistiska i jämförelse med liknande bilder av kvinnor på stranden eller i sovrummet. Jag stickade min egen korta kofta och la upp en bild på mig själv iklädd och stickande på den (något som tekniskt set är omöjligt). Kanske det gamla konceptet av pin-up är dagens motsvarande ”post-up” på Instagram. Nu är det dags att se hur jag ska presentera mitt projekt. Så här resonerar jag med mig själv: “Jag har tre mål. Jag vill använda enkla kontraster (så som sexighet och stickning), jag vill använda humor i kontrasterna till att kommunicera (ett sätt att öppna upp projektet för betraktaren) och jag vill att det ska vara enkelt.” Jag har bestämmt att jag ska göra en kort film av folks händer som bläddrar igenom mina Instagrambilder. Detta ska jag visa inomhus för att visa på processen bakom projektet som en del av utställningen. Baserat på erfarenheten jag har av att rita på Drottninggatan så ska jag sticka två solstolar som jag ska presentera utomhus, mellan ingångarna till Konstfack och Svarta Huset. Det faktum att jag vill vara utomhus känns symboliskt. Jag ser styrkan i att jobba från utifrån ens begränsningar (t.ex. inne i den vita kuben eller som Dolly Parton gör inom en mansdominerad industri), men viljan att visa mitt arbete i en mer avslappnad miljö där det är mer naturligt att se solstolar känns mer relevant. Jag ska vara på plats under bestämda tider av Vårutställningen, sittandes i ena stolen där jag bjuder in besökare att sätta sig med mig. Den stickade delen av stolen kommer att vara en silhuett av min kropp. En ”selfie stick” ska finnas på plats för att göra det enkelt för folk att fotografera sig själva och möjligtvis lägga upp bilden på deras egna Instagram konton under hashtaggen #123sexy. I denna situation så ska jag fråga personen bredvid, “Kan stickning vara sexigt?” Är det en slump att mina handledare har rekommenderat att jag kollar upp endast kvinnliga konstnärer i relation till mitt verk? Jag har valt att kontextualisera (S)examensarbete med tre olika konstnärskap. Jag relaterar (S)examensarbete till både det skulpturala och fotografiska verk av Sarah Lucas. Mycket av Lucas verk tar upp ämnen som feminin sexualitet med en humoristisk ton. Hon använder banal symbolik, så som meloner att symbolisera bröst, och vitsiga ordlekar i hennes titlar. Lucas är också ofta med i sinna fotografier, precis som jag, poserande framför kameran. Mitt arbete kan identifieras med selfie-kulturen då Sarah Lucas är mer en del av konstscenen. När jag började använda Instagram som en plats att visa ett alter ego så fick jag omedelbart kommentarer som ”Cecilia Sherman” och ”The Swedish Cindy Sherman”. Jag kan särskilt relatera till Cindy Shermans fotografier i (S)examensarbete. I en intervju med John Waters i boken Cindy Sherman så diskuterar Sherman varför hon producerar alla hennes porträtt helt själv. Hon beskriver en lust i att låtsas vara någon annan men hon vill vara sig själv när hon är med andra. (S)examensarbete är ett sätt för mig att utforska andra personligheter genom min egen image som jag inte har vågat visa för andra. Jag ser liknelser mellan min process i (S)examensarbete och Sophie Calles konstnärskap. Enligt en intervju i The Guardian från 2009 så ansåg inte Calle att det hon höll på med var konst i början. Hon levde helt enkelt sitt liv och fyllde sin tid. I början av (S)examensarbete var mina avsikter med projektet också rent personliga. Även efter att hon identifierade sig själv som konstnär så verkar Calle ha väldigt lösa gränser mellan sin roll som konstnär och sitt vardagliga liv. Jag beundrar detta sätt att jobba med konst och hoppas att mitt examensarbete kommer att leda mig i samma riktning. Bortom konst och solokonstnärer, måste jag också nämna världen av offentlig stickning och termen “craftivism” som helhet. I sin bok Craftivism: The Art of Craft and Activism, beskriver Betsy Greer korrelationen mellan konsthantverk och aktivism som sådan: “The creation of things by hand leads to a better understanding of democracy, because it reminds us that we have power,” och att “the very essense of craftivism lies in creating something that gets people to ask questions; we invite others to join a conversation about the social and political intent of our creations.” (S)examensarbete handlar om att ifrågasätta stickning som ett sätt att uttrycka sig själv sexuellt och därför faller det under kategorin craftivism, även om jag kan ogilla termen. Jag har avstått från att nämna craftivism tidigare eftersom jag har ännu inte hittat ett handstickat plagg som jag ärligt skulle kalla sexig och det är exakt det jag menar. Genom craftisvism rörelsen förstår vi att textilahantverk kan öka medvetenheten till en oändlig mängd av sociopolitiska frågor, men är de produkter eller kläder som kallas för craftivism estetiskt tilltalande eller önskvärda? Med detta sagt, skulle jag vilja nämna textilkonstnären Magda Sayeg som inspiration till mitt arbete. Jag hittade hennes hemsida när jag kollade upp “yarn bombing” gruppen Knitta och det finns en viss grad av skarphet i Sayegs arbete som jag relaterar till (S)examensarbete. Även om jag älskar humor och ser det som ett viktigt verktyg, tror jag att Sayegs arbete är ett exempel på hur stickning kan vara en stark form av kommunikation utan att använda humor som ett huvudfokus . Mycket av Sayegs arbete går ut på att sticka in olika saker, till exempel bussar, statyer, pelare, osv., och hon har gjort flera projekt i samarbete med olika företag, så som Gap, Toyota och 7-up. Även om hon stickar för hand så har slutresultanten inte samma estetik som DIY rörelsen och det är det som lockar mig till just hennes sätt att förhålla sig till textil. Hon verkar ta stickning på allvar, att använda tekniken professionellt och enligt min mening, lyckas göra stickning tilltalande . 3.1 Dokumentation 3.2 Diskussion Mitt projekt som helhet gynnades enormt från kommentarerna och insikterna från min opponent, Johanna Rosenqvist . Eftersom Rosenqvist har arbetat med mycket liknande ämnen så förstod hon syftet och målet bakom (S)examensarbete och inspirerade mig till att relatera mitt arbete till etablerade stickkonstnärer och “craftivism”. Genom detta kunde jag bättre förstå varför jag hade undvikit att jämföra mig till dessa områden tidigare. Jag insåg att (S)examensarbete handlar om att utforska en estetik (sexighet) som jag aldrig tidigare sett i stickningsfältet. Så ... kan stickning vara sexigt? Under vårutställningen satt jag i en av de stickade bikini-stolarna och stickade, med Dolly Parton sjungandes i bakgrunden. På grund av det kalla vädret var jag tvungen att sitta inne en stor del av utställningen, bredvid min video av fingrar som bläddrar genom mina Instagram bilder. Ibland kände jag mig generad av bilderna på skärmen, eftersom jag inte längre hade den virtuella världen av sociala medier att gömma mig bakom. Jag, i kött och blod, var på plats för att se hur folk reagerade. Även om jag kände lite skam hade jag också många intressanta diskussioner med olika besökare. Jag frågade, “Kan stickning vara sexigt?”, inte nödvändigtvis med avsikten att få ett svar, men jag fick oftas ett direkt svar tillsammans med ett förslag eller två. En besökare föreslog att jag borde sticka med latex, eftersom latex är ett material som kopplas direkt till sex. Andra föreslog stickning med flashiga garner eller större maskor. Folk berättade om tonårens sexiga tröjor och virkade bikinis och genomskinnliga stickade klänningar. Jag fick höra av flera äldre män att de hade valt syslöjd istället för träslöjd när de gick i skolan och en hade även blivit omnämnd i en lokaltiding eftersom det var så ovanligt. Jag kom även in på diskussioner om sex, en rad olika konstnärer och även Eurovision Song Contest, med personer jag förmodligen aldrig hade haft orsak att snacka med annars. Efter 10 dagar av att vara närvarande vid utställningen då jag interagerade och diskuterade med besökare, så förstod jag att de flesta tyckte att visst kan stickning vara sexigt. Jag vill tro att (S)examensarbete satt igång nya tankar om vad en traditionell hantverksteknik som stickning kan vara. Den process-baserade processen bakom detta projekt har lett till en starkare förståelse av mig själv, både personligen och som konstnär. Jag har upplevt både frihet i att inte ha ett strikt mål från dag ett och jag har också känt osäkerhet i följd av detta. Jag har förlitat mig på steg-för-steg planer i tidigare projekt eftersom de ger stabilitet och ett slags skyddsnät om min inspiration börjar vackla. I framtiden lär jag fortsätta att arbeta med ett mål i sikte, och tvinga mig ut ur min komfortzon för att testa nya metoder som jag gjorde i (S)examensarbete, såsom de interaktiva delar där jag som konstnär är närvarande. 4.0 Källor Böcker Foster, Hal. “Marcay, Calle, Coleman, and Kentridge.” Art since 1900: Modernism, Antimodernism, Postmodernism. London: Thames & Hudson, 2011. N. pag. Print. Gay, Roxane, and Helena Hansson. Bad Feminist. Stockholm: Bonnier, 2015. Print. Lohr, Nikol. Naughty Needles: Sexy, Saucy Knits for the Bedroom and Beyond. New York: Potter Craft, 2006. Print. Malik, Amna. Sarah Lucas: Au Naturel. London: Afterall, 2009. Print. Martignette, Charles G., and Louis K. Meisel. “Harry Ekman.” The Great American Pin-Up. Köln: Taschen, 2011. N. pag. Print. Parton, Dolly. My Life and Other Unfinished Business. London: HarperCollins, 1994. Print. Stafford, Jennifer. Domiknitrix: Whip Your Knitting into Shape. Cincinnati, OH: North Light, 2007. Print. Turney, Joanne. The Culture of Knitting. Oxford: Berg, 2009. Print. Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women. New York: Perennial, 2002. Print. Tidningar Hoggard, Liz. “Naughty Knitting.” Crafts Mar.-Apr. 2005: 38-41. Print. Murray, Derek Conrad. “Notes to Self: The Visual Culture of Selfies in the Age of Social Media.” Consumption Markets & Culture 18:6: 490-516. Print. Wilson, Pamela. “Mountains of Contradictions: Gender, Class and Region in the Star Image of Dolly Parton.” South Atlantic Quarterly Winter 1995: 109-34. Web. Winkler, Elizabeth. “The Manufactured Life.” New Republic Mar2016, Vol. 247 Issue 3: 16-17. Print Hemsidor Jeffries, Stuart. “Sophie Calle: Stalker, Stripper, Sleeper, Spy.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 23 Sept. 2009. Web. 25 Mar. 2016. “Sexy.” Urban Dictionary. Fuckup, Screwed, Fucked, Gawd, Shit, 17 Oct. 2006. Web. 23 Mar. 2016.

Purpose – This thesis investigates why archaeological museums tend to have a separate section for erotic and/or sexual objects. The aim is to understand why these rooms are needed and if they are considered outdated in the year 2020. Three case studies will be discussed in this thesis: Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, Altes Museum, and Museo Arqueológico Rafael Larco Herrera. Analysis – The qualitative data collected through interviews will be analyzed and presented in case studies. I apply two theories: power theory according to Michel Foucault and Clive Grey and queer theory. Method – To answer my questions, I interview museum workers responsible for the erotic display from the three case studies. All museums have a separate exhibition regarding erotic objects, so-called "secret museums". Methods that have been in use is qualitative method together with phenomenology. Findings – The findings show that the phenomenon “secret museum” was born in the mid-1700s when Pompeii and Herculaneum were excavated and several objects with erotic motives were found. Today several archaeological museums exhibit these objects in separate rooms, sometimes with restrictions. When these exhibitions were first formed only educated men were allowed to enter. It was considered that the objects would be misunderstood by the lower class and even hurt the relationship between men and women if women were to be exposed to pornography. The results from the three case studies show that people are still sensitive to objects regarding erotica or sexualities and that the separate area is for the visitors to choose if they want to enter or not. The result also shows that there is a respect for the history around this phenomenon and the rooms are in themselves museology history that needs to be preserved.  Paper type – Two years master's thesis in Museum and Cultural Heritage studies.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2002.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The research question of this thesis was: What is the nature of the social boundaries that define women as a group, how has this been depicted throughout the ages and, more specifically, in the work of South African artists, Vladimir Tretchikoff and Irma Stern, and what comment does my own work seem to make on these boundaries? The study used an analytical approach to pursue these questions, while the works of art were analysed according to the levels of interpretation suggested by Panofsky and Dietrich, The aim of this research was also to analyse my own body of work more theoretically within the context of postmodern feminist thought to determine how it resonates with earlier assumptions regarding women. For this purpose a comparison was made between, on the one hand, what Tretchikoff and Stern's respective depictions of women reveal about traditional conventions that hold women captive and, on the other, how my own work seems to question the boundaries that society imposes on women. Both Tretchikoff and Stern were successful enough to raise public consciousness on issues that concerned female subjugation. Seemingly for very different reasons, however, they remained apathetic to the quest for women's liberation. The study shows that Tretchikoff's work reflects a blatant disregard of the identities and social realities of his models, and romanticises their constraints instead. Stern, on the other hand, could not have been unaware of the societal limitations imposed on women. Yet she chose to remain aloof. While she seemed to be able to move masculine requirements and the demands of society to the background to depict women as natural and almost free of stereotype in some of her works, she cannot be seen to have made a major contribution to the liberation of women. In contrast, I have found many similarities throughout the study between feminist thought of the Second Wave and the thought processes mirrored in my art. In addition to the expected outcome, the study has shown that it is possible to trace developments in feminist thought in art.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die navorsingsvraag behels die volgende: Wat is die aard van die maatskaplike grense wat vroue in 'n ondergeskikte posisie in die gemeenskap gehou het, en hoe is dit naspeurbaar in kuns, en meer spesifiek in die werk van twee Suid-Afrikaanse kunstenaars, Vladimir Tretchikoff en Irma Stem. Laastens, hoe lewer my eie werk kommentaar op hierdie vorm van onderdrukking. Die studie volg 'n analitiese benadering in die ontleding van die geselekteerde kunswerke, soos voorgestel deur Panofsky en Dietriech. Die doel van die studie was om binne die konteks van 'n postmodernistiese feministiese raamwerk 'n meer teoretiese ontleding van my eie werk te maak om vas te stel hoe dit ooreenkom met vroeer aannames oor die vrou. Vir hierdie doel is daar 'n vergelyking getref tussen, aan die een kant, die kommentaar wat Tretchikoff en Stem se werk oor die onderdrukking van vroue maak en, aan die ander kant, hoe my eie werk hierdie konvensies blootle. Beide Tretchikoff en Stern was in die posisie om die publiek bewus te maak van die ondergeskiktheid van vroue binne hulle gemeenskap. Ten spyte hiervan, toon die studie dat beide apaties gestaan het teenoor die lot van vroue, hoewel om verskillende redes. Terwyl Tretchikoff se werk die toonbeeld van 'n blatante miskenning van die verskillende indentiteite en maatskaplike realiteite van sy modelle is, en eerder kies om hulle toestande te romantiseer, kon Stern, as 'n vrou, nie onbewus gewees het van die lot van die vroue van haar tyd nie. Ten spyte hiervan, het sy apaties teenoor die ondergeskiktheid van vroue gestaan. Terwyl dit wil voorkom as of sy die patriargale eise van die gemeenskap op die agtergrond kon skuif om haar vroue as natuurlik en bykans vry van stereotipes uit te beeld, kan sy nie gesien word as iemand wat daadwerklik tot vroue se strewe na gelykheid bygedra het nie. In teenstelling hiermee, het die studie deurgaans 'n ooreenkoms aangetoon tussen die feministiese denke van die "Tweede Golf' en die denkprosesse wat in my eie kuns weerspieel word. 'n Bykomende bevinding van die studie is dat die ontwikkeling van feministiese denke in die kuns nagespeur kan word.

Orientador: Verônica Fabrini Machado de Almeida
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Artes
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Resumo: Uma atriz investiga as performatividades que envolvem os gêneros masculino e feminino. Como rata de laboratório e sujeito científico, experimenta em si e em corpos a seu redor a mitologia da mulher erótica, procurando ultrapassar dualidades em uma exploração andrógena. O mito grego de Helena foi escolhido como campo de provas, material poético estudado principalmente a partir da tragédia As Troianas, de Eurípedes; das pesquisas históricas de Bettany Hughes; das análises do Prof. Junito de Souza Brandão e do romance da francesa Sophie Chaveau. As questões de Helena serão problematizadas pelo viés dos estudos de gênero de Judith Butler e Beatriz Preciado; e da perspectiva do Imaginário, principalmente em Gaston Bachelard e CG Jung. Abordada a partir de suas subversões da feminilidade, como figura dissonante que permanece na arte ocidental desde Homero, a pesquisa busca a exploração andrógena porque os corpos procuram assumir o feminino e o masculino, se propondo a permanecer nas fronteiras, longe das universalizações, ali onde tudo parece confuso e caótico. Assume-se também uma exploração vadia porque a forma de organização das ideias permite o ir e vir entre teoria e prática sem pudores. Este trabalho é teórico-prático, interdisciplinar e autobiográfico
Abstract: An actress investigates performativities involving males and females roles. As a laboratory rat and scientific subject, experiences itself and the bodies around her with the mythology of the erotic woman, looking to overcome dualities in an androgeny exploration. The Greek myth of Helen is the field trials, an engaging poetic material studied mostly from the tragedy "The Trojan Women", by Euripides; the historical research of Bettany Hughes; the analysis of Prof. Junito de Souza Brandão and the novel of the French Sophie Chaveau. Helen's issues will be problematized from gender studies of Judith Butler and Beatriz Preciado; and the perspective of the Imaginary, especially in Gaston Bachelard and CG Jung. Approached from its subversions of femininity, as dissonant figure that remains in Western art from Homer, the research seeks to an androgeny exploration because the bodies seeking to assume the feminine and the masculine, proposing to remain at the border, away from universalizations, where there everything seems confused and chaotic. It is also assumed a slutty exploration because the organization of ideas allows the coming and going between theory and practice shamelessly. This work is theoretical and practical, interdisciplinary and autobiographical
Mestrado
Teatro, Dança e Performance
Mestra em Artes da Cena

In the decades following 1945, Americans moved increasingly out of cities into suburbs. The migration illustrated the emergence of a new, broader middle class as a result of growing postwar affluence. In the previous half-century, families living in a suburb could claim middle-class status. The emerging class built its identity on the forms and values adopted from this earlier, more affluent Victorian middle class. These adopted values were played out in a home designed around Progressive era ideals of the family. Through this Progressive filter, the new concept of the home was scaled down, without servants, and ceased existing wholly as the wife's sphere of influence--as in the Victorian version. The Progressive impulse also reduced the size of the house to make it more efficient, and through government subsidies shaped the home into a smaller, economically sized package. The financial framework that determined the shape of the postwar home also influenced the technology placed within its walls. This financially influenced technology particularly affected the shape and content of the kitchen. The new, efficient kitchen did not release women from their duty to provide daily family meals, but it did create a culturally safe space for men to cook as a hobby. In the postwar, suburban kitchen women and men contended with economic pressures and changing social realities which complicated the Victorian values and Progressive ideals. Middle-class women needed to leave the home for work, and--now separated from traditional urban social outlets--middle-class men sought refuge in the suburban home. By examining Sunset magazine's "Chefs of the West" column, traditional women's cookbooks and service magazines, men's magazines, building industry trade journals, and census reports, the kitchen demonstrates that women and men reshaped the home in response to changing middle-class values. While financing regulations at first shaped how the emerging middle class lived within the postwar, suburban home, residents reinterpreted the space as a reaction to the economic changes around them. This cycle continued with each new interpretation of the postwar single-family home.

The subject of master work is homosexuality. Main goals: clearly represent such topics as homosexual communities, discrimination, love, sex, individual alienation; to show more exposed and more honest version of individuality, personal features, that could be built only on individual preferences and life experience; examine the origins of the phenomenon of "homophobia" by analyzing the concept of "sexuality" and "homosexuality" in the Soviet era; the causes of lack of knowledge or awareness on homosexual topic in the post-soviet time; analyze how "authoritative importunity" of public conscience cultivates homophobic reactions; present a final project in the format of photo-book that could be a “deconstructor“ of the logic of public thinking towards the perception of LGBT-communitis in Belarus and Lithuania. Visual representation: a series of photographs of homosexual people , mostly portraits, that clearly represents each person’s identity and unique features of character with strong attempt of understanding a contradictory of individual essence and personal establishment. The project is represented as a photo-book under the name “Sweet dreams“. The master work is focused on: the sphere of homophobic problematic with the help of photo-visual explanation of personal meaningfulness and importance in social being and everyday life development without any references to stigmatic dogmas of sexual orientation that still save unreasonable character... [to full text]
Darbo tikslas - pristatyti tokias temas kaip homoseksuali visuomenė, diskriminacija,meilę,individualus atsiskyrimas.
Итак, исходя из сказанного выше, необходимо обозначить, что объект магистерской работы – гомосексуальность. Целью работы является привлечение внимание общественности к проблеме “закрытости” гомосексуалов на постсоветском пространстве, а также связанных с этим ряде других факторов, оказывающих негативное влияние на формирование гомосексуальной идентичности. Задачи, которые необходимо рассмотреть в данной работе, заключаются в следующем: исследовать истоки формирования такого явления как “гомофобия”, анализируя понятие “сексуальности” и “гомосексуальности” в эпоху советскости; также причины нехватки знания или осведомленности общества по вопросам гомосексуального характера в постсоветское время; проанализировать, каким образом “властная навязчивость” общественного сознания культивирует гомофобную реакцию; представить итоговый проект в формате фото-книги, который бы являлся “деконструктором” логики общественного мышления по отношению к ЛГБТ-сообществам Литвы и Беларуси. Визуальными средствами репрезентации является постановочная фотография, фото-книга. Проект ориентирован на широкую аудиторию таких стран, как Литва и Беларусь. Магистерская работа может быть полезна людям, работающим в сфере фотографии, дизайна, работникам по гендерной теории, студентам художественных специальностей.

This thesis analyses selected paintings and aspects of life of the Italian Renaissance in terms of the aesthetic properties of sadistic and masochistic symptomatologies and creative production, as these have been explored by philosophers such as Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, Marcel Henaff, and Gilles Deleuze. One question which arises from this analysis, and is considered in this thesis, is of the relation between sexual perversion and history, and in particular between experiences of violence, (dis)pleasure and desire, and historically specific forms of discourse and power, such as legislation on rape; myths and practices concerning marriage alliance; the depiction of such myths and practices in art; religion; and family structures. A second question which this thesis explores is the manners in which sadistic and masochistic artistic production function politically, to bolster pre-existing gender ideologies or to subvert them. Finally, this thesis considers the relation between sadism and masochism and visuality, both by bringing literary models of perversion to an interpretation of paintings, and by exploring the amenability of different genres of visual art to sadism and masochism respectively.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this study I analyse the first year of publication of Loslyf, the first and, at the time of its launch in June 1995, only Afrikaans pornographic magazine. The analysis comprises a historical account of its inception as relayed mainly by Ryk Hattingh, the first editor of Loslyf and primary creative force behind the publication. Such an investigation offers valuable insights into an aspect of South African media history as yet undocumented. As a powerful contributor to an Afrikaans imaginary, emerging at a time of political renewal, Loslyf provides a glimpse into the desires, tensions and tastes of and for an imagined community potentially still shaped by a censorial past. The magazine is worth studying, in part, as an example of an attempt at reinvesting the prescriptive and seemingly generic genre of pornography with cultural specificity and political content, with a view to making it more interesting and relevant. The study argues that whilst Loslyf succeeded in fracturing the “simulacrum” (Baudrillard 1990: 35) of pornographic representation, it also demonstrated that this kind of „alternativity‟ is difficult to sustain. An analysis of the written and visual content of the first 12 issues of the magazine, under Hattingh‟s editorship, investigates the basis of Loslyf‟s status as „alternative‟ publication. I conclude that the first year of Loslyf contributed towards the broader project of democratic expression in an expanding South African visual economy, as a simultaneously well considered and underrated (at the time of its publication at least) cultural product.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie studie analiseer ek die eerste jaar van publikasie van Loslyf as 'n baanbrekende en, in die tyd van sy ontstaan in Junie 1995, die enigste Afrikaanse pornografiese tydskrif. Hierdie analise behels ʼn historiese oorsig van die ontstaan van Loslyf soos hoofsaaklik verhaal deur Ryk Hattingh, die eerste redakteur van Loslyf en primêre kreatiewe mag agter die publikasie. So ʼn ondersoek bied waardevolle insig tot ʼn ongedokumenteerde aspek van Suid-Afrikaanse mediageskiedenis. As ʼn kultuurproduk wat ʼn kragtige bydrae gelewer het tot die Afrikaanse samelewing in ʼn tyd van politieke hernuwing, bied Loslyf ʼn weerkaatsing van die begeertes, spanninge en smake vir en van hierdie gemeenskap – begeertes en smake wat grootendeels gevorm is deur ʼn geskiedenis van sensuur. Dit is waardevol om die tydskrif te bestudeer as voorbeeld van 'n poging om die voorskriftelike en skynbaar generiese pornografiese genre met kulturele bepaaldheid en politiese inhoud te herbelê, ten einde hierdie genre meer interessant en relevant te maak. Hierdie studie beweer dat, terwyl Loslyf daarin slaag om die “simulakrum” (Baudrillard 1990: 35) van pornografiese voorstelling te breek, die publikasie ook demonstreer dat hierdie tipe „alternatiwiteit‟ moeilik volhoubaar is. ʼn Analise van die geskrewe en visuele inhoud van die eerste 12 uitgawes van die tydskrif, onder redakteurskap van Hattingh, ondersoek die basis van Loslyf se status as „alternatiewe‟ publikasie. Ek beslis dat Loslyf se eerste jaar bygedra het tot die breër inisiatief van demokratiese uitdrukking in ʼn ontwikkelende Suid- Afrikaanse visuele ekonomie, as gelyktydig goed deurdagte én ondergeskatte (veral ten tyde van sy ontstaan) publikasie.

This research and thesis is a response to a particular usage of the Wild Man concept, an archetype with a long history in western and many other societies. In recent times, writers of the mythopoetic/therapeutic wing of the Men's Movement have advanced gender politicised notions of the Wild Man, assigning a role for him as a key to many of the problems men face. This new role intrigued me but their depiction of the Wild Man irritated because I too had a strong belief in him but felt he was being misrepresented. The objective of this thesis is to arrive at my own considered view of the Wild Man through assessment of the relevant data. The primary focus is on recent Men's Movement writing, both those championing the wild Man such as Bly, Keen and Biddulph, and their critics, who deny his existence. Feminist views are also an important area of investigation. The scope of investigation must include historical perspective of the Wild Man and evidence from the physical sciences, anthropology, zoology, psychology, philosophy, literature and sociology. I also examine the connections with my own field, visual arts linked with the Wild Man. During the conduct of the research, the author experimented with some of the methods for 'contacting the Wild Man' such as meditation and bushwalking. The written research was part of a cycle of investigation including the production of drawings and sculptures/installation, with each area nourishing and stimulating others. My assessment discusses and makes suggestions for: the Wild Man as a way for men to refashion themselves; men's 'contact' with the Wild Man; what the Wild Man has to offer; an exploration of the nature of the Wild Man; and his relevance to art. Further work is required in bringing men of differing views together to discuss and research means for positive change in men.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att belysa barnmorskors och sjuksköterskors erfarenheter av och förhållningssätt till att förmedla sexologisk information till kvinnor som drabbats av gynekologisk cancer. Vårdpersonal överlag upplever en stor utmaning i att förmedla sexuell information till människor som drabbats av cancer och tidigare forskningsresultat visar att många patienter aldrig får någon sexologisk information överhuvudtaget (Sheppard & Ely, 2008, Hughes, 2009 och Rasmusson et al, 2012). En kvalitativ metod med explorativ ansats valdes i form av semistrukturerade intervjuer för att den skapar en fördjupad förståelse för vad barnmorskor och sjuksköterskor själva tycker och har för erfarenhet av att prata om sexualitet med denna patientgrupp. Fem barnmorskor och fyra sjuksköterskor alla med minst ett års erfarenhet av att vårda kvinnor som drabbats av gynekologisk cancer deltog i studien. Under analysprocessen återkom ständigt betydelsen av kompetens och den gick att identifiera på tre nivåer; den individuella nivån, den organisatoriska nivån samt på den normativa nivån. När valda teoretiska perspektiv lades på de deskriptiva teman framträdde; individuell kompetens som förutsättning, organisatoriskt utrymme – individuellt eller kollektivt ansvar, patienters kön och ålder – betydelse för hur och av vem frågan tas upp och föreställningar om sjukdomsdiagnos och sexualitet. I studien framkom att intervjupersonerna uppfattar att sexualitet ska inkluderas i den holistiska omvårdnaden men möjligheten till sexologisk information för de cancerdrabbade kvinnorna påverkas av vårdpersonalens eget förhållningssätt till ämnet. En konsekvens av begränsat organisatoriska utrymmet är att den individuella kompetensen får liten betydelse. Hög ålder i kombination med sjukdom osynliggör sexualiteten. Vårdpersonal upplever svårigheter att prata om sexualitet i relation till sjukdom. Genom att synliggöra svårigheter på olika nivåer ges möjlighet till förändringar i att förmedla sexologisk information inom vården.
The aim of this paper is to highlight midwives and nurses' experiences and attitudes to discussing sexological information to women affected by gynecological cancer. In general, healthcare professionals find it a great challenge to convey sexual information to people affected by cancer. Previous research shows that many patients never receive any information of a sexual nature at all (Sheppard & Ely, 2008; Hughes, 2009 and Rasmusson et al, 2012). A qualitative method with an exploratory approach was chosen in the form of semi-structured interviews to gain a deeper understanding of what midwives and nurses themselves think and what they experience when talking about sexuality with their patients. Five midwives and four nurses, all with at least one year of experience caring for women affected by gynecological cancer participated in the study. During the analysis process the importance of competences arose frequently and three levels were identified; the individual level, the organisational level and the normative level. When the chosen theoretical perspective was applied to the descriptive themes emerged; individuals competences and knowledge, organisational environment - whether there is an individual or collective responsibility, the patient’s sex and age, how and by whom the question of sexuality is raised and beliefs about illness and sexuality. The study revealed that healthcare professionals see a need for sexuality to be included as part of the holistic nursing care process, but the possibility of sexological information for the affected women is affected by the nursing staff's own attitude to the subject. One consequence of limited organisational environments is that the individual competency may be of little importance. Both old age and illness can contribute to making sexuality invisible. Health professionals find it problematic to consider sexuality in relation to illness. By exposing these difficulties at various levels give us the opportunity to changes in the process of conveying sexological information as part of a comprehensive health care process.

Este trabajo de investigación reconstruye y comenta la trayectoria artística de Silvia Gubern, Àngels Ribé y Eulàlia (Grau Donada), principalmente en la etapa de las llamadas “prácticas conceptuales”, a partir de fuentes primeras y documentales e introduciendo la voz y el relato de las artistas. Estas tres monografías incorporan también la recepción crítica y la valoración de la prensa especializada. La autora propone lecturas y reflexiones de estas prácticas artísticas y de la concepción de la creatividad de las artistas, vinculándolas a partir de las orientaciones que asume como guías teóricas del pensamiento de la diferencia sexual sobre la libertad de las mujeres en los 60 y 70. Mas allá de los marcos interpretativos “neutrales” que se ha utilizado para clasificar a estas artistas como conceptuales en la historia “modernista” del arte catalán y español, este trabajo de investigación pone las bases para leerlas a partir de genealogías de la creación y la creatividad orientadas por la sexuación del conocimiento en femenino.
This research builds and discusses the artistic career of Silvia Gubern, Àngels Ribé and Eulàlia (Grau), mainly in the stage called "conceptual practices" from documentary sources and introducing the voice of the artists and biographic facts. These three monographs also incorporate critical reception and evaluation of the press and the art critics. The author points out the importance of reading those careers taking into account the perspective of the Italian and Spanish feminism of sexual difference. Beyond the "neutral" interpretive framework that has been used to classify them as conceptual artists in the modernist history of catalan avantgarde art, this thesis lays the foundation for reading women genealogies of creativity oriented by the female sexuation of knowledge and to explore women's freedom in history. Thus, conceptualism would not be a single framework to assess their contribution to the history of art. It is defined as a living moment in a much longer and complex creative itinerary, a stage in which many issues intersect, focusing on some core aspects such as sexual politics in the history of women in the 60s and 70s in Catalonia (Spain).