ARTISTIC RESEARCH

'The Gendered Planet: The Political Aesthetics of Women’s Bodies in Neoliberal Western Visual Culture' [Educational Turn. 2019.]

'The Gendered Planet: The Political Aesthetics of Women’s Bodies in Neoliberal Western Visual Culture' is an artistic research project, which analyses and deconstructs the commodification of women’s bodies in Western neoliberal visual culture in which oppressive identities of women have been historically engineered.

This research project unveils the strategies, social and environmental consequences that have accompanied the evolution of capitalism since the 16th century to the present day and its patriarchal behavioral patterns around domesticity, cheap labor, gendered commodities, land ownership, and neocolonialism: all of which promoted consumerist habits.

It is an ongoing site-specific project that can be enacted in different contexts to encourage diverse conversations on the intersections between capitalism, patriarchy, and possible effects on Anthropocene ecologies.

The project includes a toolkit Not my King which consists of playing cards as games (that can be installed in a museum and gallery contexts or played at workshops as an educational tool), inviting and guiding the audience to play while observing overlooked poisonous connections introduced in the research project.

It uses art as a dialogical tool in the spirit of authors such as Nochlin, and Federici and relates to what Jacques Rancière defines as a `political stage´. It aims to dissect the masculinization of visual arts histories, advertising, and video games, which have contributed to the shaping of social privileges in the hand of corporations that continue to colonize the female body in order to accumulate power and wealth.

Exhibitions:

(2019). The Gendered Planet: Not My King [Printed cards, performance, installation].  MFA Graduate DegreeShow. TKM Gråmølna, Trondheim, Norway, May 4 - May 26.

(2019). The Gendered Planet: Not My King [Printed cards]. Art Alumni Show. Curated by Martha Wilson, Commons Gallery. New York University, NYC, USA, October 25 - November 9.

Published article:

Balzi, L. (2023). Playful Mediations About the Body of Women and Western Neoliberal Visual Culture. Barcelona Investigación Arte Creación, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.17583/brac.7674

For inquiries regarding the purchase of the playing cards contact the artist.