Radical Decadence: Excess in contemporary feminist textiles and craft

Description

This pioneering book explores the notion of ‘radical decadence’ as concept, aesthetic and lived experience, and as an analytical framework for the study of contemporary feminist textile art. Gendered discourses of decadence that perpetuate anxieties about women’s power, consumption and pleasure are deconstructed through images of drug use, female sexuality and ‘excessive’ living, in artworks by several contemporary textile artists including Orly Cogan, Tracey Emin, Allyson Mitchell, and Rozanne Hawksley. Perceptions of decadence are invariably bound to the negative connotations of decay and degradation, particularly with regard to the transgression of social norms related to femininity and the female body. Excessive consumption by women has historically been represented as grotesque. Until now, women’s pleasure in relation to drug and alcohol use has largely gone unexamined in feminist art history and craft studies; here, representations of female consumption, from cupcakes to alcohol and cocaine, are opened up for critical discussion. Drawing on feminist and queer theories, portrayals of ‘bad girls’ in artworks that explore female sexuality are considered as performative art designed to subvert and exceed expected feminine roles. In this provocative book, decadence is understood not as a destructive force but as a liberating aesthetic. Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of Illustrations Plates Figures Acknowledgments Introduction: Decadence, Feminism, and “Excess” Craft and feminist art histories Decadence and women Cherchez la femme Decadence, culture, and feminism Conclusion Notes Chapter 1 Consuming Craft, Cupcakes, and Cocaine: Orly Cogan, Shane Waltener, and Shelley Miller Drugs and decadence The promise of community: Craft, cake, and cocaine Women, craft, and consumption The consuming woman as grotesque Conclusion Notes Chapter 2 Pleasure Craft: Nava Lubelski, Mickalene Thomas, and Shary Boyle Pleasure and craft Pleasure/failure/risk Reinventing domestic textiles Stains and shame Look, but don’t touch: Feminist spectatorship, pleasure, and feminist textiles The “lure of the surface”: Shary Boyle and Mickalene Thomas The black female body in context Conclusion: Boyle’s monstrous, self-pleasuring woman Notes Chapter 3 Bad Women? Tracey Emin, Ghada Amer, and Allyson Mitchell Bad Girls and Femmes Fatales Tracey Emin: The art of “self-destruction” Ghada Amer: Striking a pose65 Allyson Mitchell: Decadent lesbian monsters Notes Chapter 4 “The Decaying Fabrics of Life and Death”: Rozanne Hawksley’s Textile Art Notes Bibliography Index