Difference and Excess in Contemporary Art: The Visibility of Womens Practice

This thought–provoking book explores the increasing visibility of women s art in Britain, Europe and America. Written by a group of prestigious art historians and critics, it locates contemporary women s art within a matrix of overlapping historical, cultural and post–colonial frameworks.

Artists whose work is considered include Martha Rosler and Kara Walker from North America, Alice Maher from the Republic of Ireland, Lubaina Himid, Christine Borland, Sarah Lucas, Cornelia Parker, Gillian Wearing and Rachel Whiteread from Britain, and the international performance group, moti roti. The book also features specially–commissioned interviews with some of these artists. Diverse media are covered, from sculpture and painting through to photography, installations, video and performance.

Notes on Contributors.

1. Introduction: Visibility, Difference and Excess: Gill Perry.

2. ′Out of it′: Drunkenness and Ethics in Martha Rosler and Gillian Wearing: David Hopkins.

3. A Strange Alchemy: Cornelia Parker: Interviewed by Lisa Tickner.

4. Antibodies: Rachel Whiteread′s Water Tower: Sue Malvern.

5. Hybrid Histories: Alice Maher: Fionna Barber.

6. Reading Black Through White in the Work of Kara Walker: A Discussion Between Michael Corris and Robert Hobbs.

7. Corporeal Theory with in Practice: Christine Borland′s Winter Garden: Marsha Meskimmon.

8. Cultural Crossings: Performing Race and Trans–gender in the Work of moti roti: Dorothy Rowe.

9. Lubaina Himid′s Plan B: Close–up Magic and Tricky Allusions: Jane Beckett.

Index.

Gill Perry is Senior Lecturer in Art History at the Open University. She has published books and articles on eighteenth–century British art and twentieth–century European art, including Women Artists and the Parisian Avant–Garde (1995) and Gender and Art (1999).

"This is a prepossessing volume... all contributions raise questions that are indeed pressing, and address them in thought–provoking and, on the whole, insightful ways." The Art Book