Body Horror in Women's Art: From Saville to Garner, Abjection as Resistance
The article explores how contemporary women artists use body horror to challenge societal norms of beauty, femininity, and the female body. It traces the lineage from 1970s feminist artists like Carolee Schneemann, Ana Mendieta, and Hannah Wilke, who used their own bodies to defy objectification, to contemporary practitioners such as Jenny Saville, Tracey Emin, Louise Bourgeois, Kiki Smith, Kara Walker, Doreen Garner, Patricia Piccinini, Wangechi Mutu, and Mire Lee. These artists employ distortion, fragmentation, and abjection—drawing on Julia Kristeva's concept of the abject and Barbara Creed's 'monstrous feminine'—to expose the violence embedded in ideals of perfection and to reclaim the body as a site of resistance. Key works discussed include Saville's 'Propped' (1992), Schneemann's 'Interior Scroll' (1975), Emin's 'My Bed' (1998), Bourgeois's 'Maman' (1999), Smith's 'Untitled (Blood Pool)' (1992), Walker's 'Grub for Sharks' (2004), Garner's 'Please God, I hope when I Die, it'll be in the summertime' (2020), Piccinini's hyperrealistic hybrids, Mutu's 'The Bride Who Married a Camel's Head' (2009), and Lee's kinetic sculptures. The article argues that body horror in women's art is not a shock tactic but a method to reveal the messy, leaky, and transformative reality of the body, turning vulnerability into empowerment.
Key facts
- Body horror in women's art is traced from 1970s feminist artists to contemporary practitioners.
- Carolee Schneemann's 'Interior Scroll' (1975) involved pulling a scroll from her vagina.
- Ana Mendieta's 'Silueta Series' (1976) used earth and blood to blur woman and landscape.
- Hannah Wilke sculpted vulvas from chewing gum and stuck them to her skin.
- Julia Kristeva's 1980 book 'Powers of Horror' defines the abject as threatening order and identity.
- Jenny Saville's 'Propped' (1992) depicts a monumental nude woman with etched text.
- Tracey Emin's 'My Bed' (1998) includes blood-stained underwear and cigarette butts.
- Louise Bourgeois's 'Maman' (1999) is a giant spider symbolizing protection and danger.
- Kiki Smith's 'Untitled (Blood Pool)' (1992) shows a figure lying in a red puddle.
- Kara Walker's 'Grub for Sharks' (2004) uses silhouettes to depict racial violence.
- Doreen Garner's 'Please God, I hope when I Die, it'll be in the summertime' (2020) references medical experiments on enslaved Black women.
- Patricia Piccinini creates hyperrealistic hybrid beings that evoke empathy and unease.
- Wangechi Mutu's 'The Bride Who Married a Camel's Head' (2009) combines collage and sculpture.
- Mire Lee creates kinetic sculptures from latex and lubricants that drip and ooze.
- Barbara Creed's 'monstrous feminine' describes the female body as terrifying due to its resistance to containment.
Entities
Artists
- Jenny Saville
- Doreen Garner
- Carolee Schneemann
- Ana Mendieta
- Hannah Wilke
- Tracey Emin
- Louise Bourgeois
- Kiki Smith
- Kara Walker
- Patricia Piccinini
- Wangechi Mutu
- Mire Lee
- Barbara Kruger
Institutions
- Sotheby's
- Tate Modern
- Guggenheim Bilbao
- Guggenheim New York
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Gagosian
- Artforum
- TheCollector
Locations
- London
- United Kingdom
- Bilbao
- Spain
- New York
- United States
- Chicago
- Seoul
- South Korea