Proposal Abstract

‘Corporeal Traces—Inky Spaces’ investigates Western representations of reproductive organs, specifically the uterus, through print and installation works. The artwork is informed by PhD research, and particularly explorations of early modern English midwifery guides. I acknowledge complex, intersecting and temporally layered modes of understanding and representing the uterus. Theorists Sara Ahmed and Judith Butler suggest that temporal residues can stickily persist and accumulate through time and modes of reiteration. I build on this notion of sticky temporal residues to bring uterine discourses from different temporalities and materiality into interaction. This exhibition explores the corporeal and embodied registers of printmaking practice, specifically, repetitive printing, relief methods and extending the print through video works. The works offer a consideration, complication and diversification of Western socio-cultural depictions of reproductive organs. I seek to highlight interconnected relationships between identity, embodiment and reproductive organs.