Marina Warner Examines Helen Chadwick's The Oval Court in New Afterall Publication

Afterall has published a new illustrated volume by Marina Warner examining Helen Chadwick's 1986 installation The Oval Court, part of the diptych On Mutability. The work was first shown at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and interwove motifs of the female body, pleasure, and natural phenomena in a provocative and flamboyant style. Despite its recognition as a feminist monument, The Oval Court has rarely been exhibited or discussed since the original show, where its companion piece Carcass was destroyed. Warner, who wrote the original catalogue essay, reconsiders Chadwick's influence in shifting conventional aesthetics and transvaluing despised forms. She traces Chadwick's historical references from Renaissance emblems and vanitas paintings to rococo, and highlights the artist's prescient explorations of female desire, hermaphroditism, non-binary forms, self-portraiture, and unconventional materials. The paperback is 112 pages with 34 color illustrations, published in 2022.