Material bodies and the complications of desire

This practice-led research project investigates visual representations of female sexual identity within Western popular culture. It draws on a broad range of sources including historical research of feminism and feminist theory, art and design, clothing and fetish, social media, film and television, advertising and the music industry. It examines and responds to persistent cultural stereotypes regarding female desire, focussing on the role of materials that accompany and embellish sexual narratives. <br><br>The project seeks to expand the ways that normative signifiers of sexuality can be interpreted. This is examined and tested in a series of artworks that consider the relationships between sexualised bodies and materials. The creative outcomes include sculpture, photography, performance and wearable objects.<br><br>Through heuristic and embodied making processes, the project reveals the ways in which materials can be appropriated to expand representations of female sexual and sexualised subjectivity. The signifying potential of these materials was enhanced and modulated through the use of humour, framing and paradox within the creative outcomes.<br><br>The research builds a deeper understanding of the ways materials are integrated into our understanding of female sexual stereotypes, and expands the ways that material signifiers have been utilised across the creative fields of visual art, fashion and craft, contributing new forms to ongoing feminist discourse in the arts.