Of Swamps and Silhouettes: Ecosystems of Reclaimed Women’s Narratives and Painted Bodies

Abstract

This painting and installation project critically engages with feminist discourse surrounding the representation and reclamation of women’s existences through the lens of women's literature. Anchored in cultural theorist Astrida Neimanis’ theorisation of Bodies of Water, the project employs water and swamps as metaphors for the liminality and permeability of identity and embodiment. By examining posthumanist and feminist thought, the project seeks to destabilise reductive, patriarchal constructs and explore the complexities of gender identity as fluid. As a key motif in the work, the swamp operates as a site of narrative potential. Within these spaces, the painted figures have become autonomous agents in the making process. Narratological processes of unreliable narration and non-linearity underpin the project’s multi-faceted narrative, positioning the subject, viewer and painter as contributors. By investigating the material qualities of paint, the project uncovers abundant possibilities for women’s existences while destabilising the boundaries between the real and painted environments. This methodological approach resists anatomical essentialism and rigid human/non-human binaries, embracing a “New-Female” identity defined by potentiality, transformation, and transcorporeality.