19 March 2012
Symposium and exhibition look at feminism's future
The future of feminism will be explored in a symposium and exhibition hosted by the University of Dundee later this month.
An array of international speakers will deliver keynote addresses at the symposium, 'Seeing Things Differently: Art, Philosophy, and the Futures of Feminism', which will be held at Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) on Friday 30th and Saturday 31st March.
To coincide with this event, an exhibition of three female artists who exemplify very different approaches to contemporary visual arts practice will be held at Centrespace, Visual Research Centre from 24th - 31st March.
The Visual Research Centre is part of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (DJCAD), and is located on the lower floors of DCA.
The symposium and exhibition are hosted by DJCAD and the University's School of Humanities, with a particular focus on the philosophical underpinnings of feminism and its relation to the visual arts.
"The visual arts have a well-established history of engagement with feminism and gender issues," said Dr Rachel Jones, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy within the School of Humanities.
"Artists have confronted such issues directly in their work, while feminist theorists and philosophers have examined the gendering of vision. But the 'feminist' label can sometimes seem more of a trap than a call for liberating practices.
"This event takes as a starting point the idea that neither all artworks nor all theories informed by a gendered or feminist perspective will necessarily be focussed on what we might think of as 'questions of gender' or 'women's issues'.
"Where feminism succeeds is in making it harder to see women as simply determined by their sex or to reduce their work to a question of their gender. Many philosophers and practicing artists who see their work as centrally informed by feminist or gendered concerns are re-imagining bodies, identities, matter, space, time, ethics, power and freedom in radically new ways.
"The speakers will be examining how contemporary artists and theorists think about their relation to gender and feminism. Together we will be reflecting on the extent to which feminism continues to be relevant to those engaged in philosophical and artistic practice today or feminist issues."
The morning of the first day of the symposium will see an 'Emerging Practitioners Seminar', featuring performances and presentations by alumni of the Art, Philosophy, Contemporary Practices programme at DJCAD, as well as from a guest artist.
The symposium begins on Friday afternoon and features keynote speakers Dr Christine Battersby (University of Warwick) and Professor Kerstin Mey (University for the Creative Arts), as well as Professor Tina Chanter (DePaul University, Chicago), whose lecture The Sensibility of Art is open to the public from 5.45-7.15pm in the Dalhousie Building.
The artists featured in the exhibition 'Seeing Things Differently' are Beth Fisher, Ingrid Pollard, and Gina Wall.
Mary Modeen, Senior Lecturer in Art at DJCAD and curator of the exhibition, said, "these three contemporary artists look both outwards and inwards in their work, with their complex lives and varied interests diverging and intersecting.
"Fisher's drawings feature her closest family, and envision the dramas of domestic life in monumental terms, while Pollard's photographs, prints and research examine the intersection of race and gender, in ways that trace both visible and erased or invisible pasts within communities.
"Through her photographs and text installations, Wall examines the minute detail of landscapes that suggest a process of meditative looking infused with philosophical reflection."
This exhibition will be open to the public from 12-4.30pm each day in Centrespace VRC.
All three artists will be discussing their work from 10.45am-12.20pm on Saturday, 31st March. They will each present a brief talk about their work, offering an insight into what it means to be a practising professional female artist today, and how gender influences their lives and art.
These events are funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Scots Philosophical Association, and the Arts & Humanities Research Institute at the University of Dundee.
This is the second of three symposia being organised as part of a Network in the Arts and Humanities hosted by Dundee's Philosophy programme. The Network's aim is to engender dialogue between feminist philosophers and other key areas of contemporary philosophical debate.
The first symposium, held in Edinburgh, focussed on feminist philosophy and philosophy of cognitive science, and the third will focus on feminist philosophy and philosophy of education.
More information is available from the Network website, http://engenderingdialogue.wordpress.com, or by emailing Project Assistant Carrie Giunta at
engenderingdialogue@dundee.ac.uk.
For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
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University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
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