04/02/2022 – Uncanny Women

One of the main things I want to document here in this blog this week is the study group that my personal tutor (Maja) helped me to set up: it ran as an open invite, that anyone interested could come along. The intention was to discuss the work I am currently doing, to get feedback, and to see how other people feel toward the topics of the uncanny and women’s health.

I started the session by introducing myself and showing some examples of my work, outlining where my interests lie and hoping it would resonate with the people that came along – we had about 6 or 7 which I think was a great number for a focus session. I didn’t spend too long discussing my work as I have done this before through artists talks but haven’t run any study sessions before, and I really wanted the focus to be on discussion and thoughts/opinions on the topic.

We spoke about how medical knowledge often feels very inaccessible, that the academic writing that comes from fact rather than opinion is littered with jargon and the writing style acts as a form of gatekeeping and that unless they specifically had a health concern, they could make an appointment for, they were quite unaware of different, common, health conditions.

This moved the conversation to a place where we could discuss the benefits of artists in the sphere, how we can make art to discuss these themes but also how we can present the actuality of the facts and knowledge that relate to the discussed condition – One point I quite liked was the potential to have fact sheets as part of the exhibited work that are written in easy-to-read format.

I was also interested to hear people’s opinion on art made about women’s bodies, bringing in uncanny aspects, the psychological of the medical – did they feel this has been done to death or does it still hold relevancy to them, do they find themselves engaging with it? Most agreed that yes it was still worthwhile- an ideal answer for me given it’s what I am currently working on, but I wouldn’t have been offended if they said no that it was at a point where we needed to fight it out with the medical and political spheres. We ended the session discussing the potential to meet again, for other people to perhaps bring the work they are making, or are interested in, other similar/related issues to a coffee discussion, so this is something I hope to organise again soon.

I suppose what I have taken from this, is that there is still a strange attitude within western culture towards discussing bodies, that people will not seek out information about their body and its functioning unless there is an issue that a doctor can quickly diagnose. The body just needs to be a pretty, working vehicle for it to be fine (please note this is not a very nuanced argument I have just made, there are many more issues to be discussed within the presentation of the body, not least to mention disability & visibility, I hope to have a much better understanding of this and the words to articulate that at some point in the near future).

Another point discussed in this session, that I would like to pick up here, was the concept of ‘White Girl Art’, the idea that we have all seen the period art: the glittery pads, the tampons on the washing lines. It’s a right of passage and an art school bingo card square at this point. I wanted to know how people felt discussing issues that were what I like to call ‘period adjacent’ or is it another eye roll of there she goes again, the white cis-het girl making work to show her life as really difficult. Especially in Scotland where YES there are still massive barriers to face and as literally just outlined that the healthcare system is not particularly welcoming knowledge-wise, but we are in a place where we are eradicating period poverty with access to free sanitary products, forcibly making these discussions happen in parliament, normalising a very very normal part of life?

My observations were that the group agreed, that yes on the surface level, the normalise periods argument was pretty done, but this was a part we had not normalised yet; all the issues that come alongside having a uterus, the way in which any associated struggles are normalised to the point they should be hidden, or ‘gotten over’.

For anyone interested further in the idea of white girl art there is a wonderful article written about the rise of ‘selfie’ art by Aria Dean which I will link here: https://thenewinquiry.com/closing-the-loop/

I feel positive about the outcome of this session, that people are willing and ready to have conversations that challenge what we are doing and our own positions/opinions on these matters. It challenged some of the ways in which I have thought about the work too, where I had uncertainties over the value of what I was doing, that pointed me to believe that other people are feeling the same struggles and grievances will still being willing to accept that from a certain level there will always be an element of privilege in having access even to these conversations.