Experimental Feminine Forms

artwork by Petra Brnardic

Even a break from recent tradition, today’s contemporary experimental artists are redefining femininity in the digital era. From embracing ‘survival feminism’ to enchanted, mystical, and mythological portrayals, artists such as Mädchen Vivi, Petra Brnardic, HsinYing Lin, and Leni Smoragdova lend their artistic interpretation to explaining the purpose of womanhood in contemporary times.

artwork by Petra Brnardic

Avant-garde experimental women artists are mainly using performance, photography, and video to express theatrical reenactments of deconstructions on female roles. For example, in the works of Petra Brnardic, she portrays women as anti-heroines engaged in paganistic rituals with goddess-like qualities as if they came from a magical realm. Mädchen Vivi, on the other hand, is more confrontational as she uses iconography of femininity, such as lingerie and lipstick, and applies phallic symbolism to them or attaches / pairs them with ironic objects such as electronics, pillows, and nihilistic suicidal razors. HsinYing Lin uses performance to exemplify the irony in a man’s voice and speech, noting with texts how he leaves out Asians and women in his dialogue. Leni Smoragdova uses female form to accentuate the macabre, similar to Petra Brnardic, particularly through portrayals of women entrapped in what appears to be retro-midieval torture devices and covered in haunting theatrical masks.

artwork by Mädchen Vivi

From horror to witty irony, these artists are pushing the boundaries on what defines womanhood. An artist like Mädchen Vivi rejects mainstream feminism and uses ‘survival feminism’ to not only fight patriarchal institutional structures, but also to afford safe harbour to women on the margins, such as sex workers and queer individuals. Petra Brnardic uses erotica to glorify blood and entrapment, such as wrapping performative women in plastic to accentuate horror and redefining the role of performative women as mythological alpha characters, rather than one based solely on entertainment.

artwork by Mädchen Vivi

Rather than base themselves in moral lecturing, these artists use the female form to be play a dominant role in conceptual communication. By deconstructing and reconstructing the role of the female form in art, these women have created their own world of women-empowerment based on a rejection of institutionalization, a rebellious attitude, and an embrace of chaos. In this post-apocalyptic world they have collectively constructed, women are defining themselves outside the influence of the patriarchy. Thanks to experimental art and alternative artforms, we can reassess the role of art in conveying new models on feminine expression, based on a thorough rejection of the past and much of human history. 

performance by Leni Smoragdova

Art has an important sociological role, especially in experimentation, to elevate the marginalized and the voiceless. Through experimental visual art and fragile boundaries in today’s world, women artists are primed to break barriers which have historically confined females to the footnotes of history and recordkeeping.

performance by HsinYing Lin

artwork by Petra Brnardic

artwork by Mädchen Vivi

artwork by Petra Brnardic

artwork by Petra Brnardic