The Feminist Uncanny

In my creative practice I have previously examined the representational ways that depicting crimes of violence against women embed and consequently perpetuate that violence. I have analyzed both the official archives of crime and the works of both past artists such as Walter Sickert and contemporary artists Teresa Margie’s and Marlene Dumas.
But what if a woman commits a crime against a partner or previous partner?How are they portrayed? I frame my investigation with a study of the British Noir film Yield to the Night(1956). In this film director Lee Thompson employs Femme Fatale actress Diana Dors as she journeys from the murder of her lover through her trial,imprisonment and tragic fate. The film unfolds like an eerie and tragic dream. What I propose is that in the film there is a fetishizing of such a crime and an overt sexualization of the perpetrator. perpetrator despite the film’s concerns about capital punishment.
To engage in this work I will use watercolor and charcoal in small and larger works . Some will be made before the opening but others made during the time I am in the space as developing research . I aim to return the voice of the so called Femme Fatalecaught up in the social and cultural expectations of women and the legal morass they face if they transgress.
The.Backroom will become both studio and growing exhibition space as works are placed within the space on paper on the walls and in charcoal drawings directly on the walls. The project is thus a durations performance of drawing that includes engagement with viewers and the possibilities of their contributing a drawing to the project.
I expect to be surprised by the outcomes of the project since the project is in its nature so fluid and I am excited by these possibilities.
Already I question the narrow approach and whether to include non fictional female suspects such as Lindy chamberlain a mother accused of crime and thereby transgressing all virtues .