Re-illuminating Defeated Female Archetypes and their Legacies for a Female Imaginary

Abstract

This studio-based research is a visual investigation and consequent reinterpretation of notable female archetypes who embodied exceptional strength of character, individuality and authority. However, they were dispossessed of their positive powers, discredited, even demonised, within the progressively male-dominated cultures of Western history. In their corrupted forms, the stories and reputations of these muchdiminished female archetypes left a detrimental legacy for the status of women. Alternatively, in their positive forms they have the potential to contribute to unconstrained possibilities for women’s consciousness and expectations of womanhood. Of the many female archetypes found throughout history and extant today, inspirational examples—mythological serpent women deities, past and present female warriors, as well as female archetypes considered as having inherently negative qualities—were chosen as subjects for the creation of investigatory artworks. Creative investigations took place within the theoretical frameworks of feminist revisionist mythology and the female imaginary. These two frameworks provided a critical context in which patriarchal interpretations could be challenged and reinterpreted based upon earlier female imaginaries. Situated between the conscious and the unconscious, this female imaginary is still best realised and communicated through the narratives of myths and the symbols of visual art. Consequently, this study examined the contemporary canon of artists working with female archetypes in both the formation and redressing of the representation of women today. A heuristic research methodology was used to achieve the artwork outcomes, the reinterpretation of archetypes realised through paintings that combine appropriation and juxtaposition, as well as representational and abstract imagery. These re-presentations were made possible through extensive painterly experimentation and culminated with the incorporation of the vesica piscis—a form of sacred geometry considered an elemental female symbol— as the constant central element of each composition. A cogent visual language had to be developed that was capable of contesting and counteracting the negative stereotypes of the chosen female archetypes. Further, the paintings had to not only render visible, but to illuminate, the positive qualities and behaviours of these archetypal women. Through this illumination, there is the potential for their dignity and authority to be restored, appreciated—both symbolically and practically—and thereby result in a more informed and powerful female identity and imaginary for the twenty-first century.