Weighing the work of love: on Kate Davis's re-visioned iconoclasm

Paterson, D. (2018) Weighing the work of love: on Kate Davis's re-visioned iconoclasm. ARTis On, 1(5), pp. 143-158.

Abstract

This essay offers a close reading of recent work by Glasgow-based artist Kate Davis to argue that her practice engages iconoclasm in ways importantly modified by her feminist commitments. Often Davis’s source material has significant historical, political or art historical import, as in her works dealing with the Suffragist attack on Velásquez’s Rokeby Venus in 1914. What is at stake in her ‘re-visioning’ of such moments, which often involves labour-intensive drawing as a key method, is a formal commitment to a kind of delicate or caring vandalism, often pursued through labour-intensive drawing (iconoclasm as a means of making images) and a specifically feminist contention with existing hierarchies of value and systems of representation (iconoclasm as contestation). To reckon with these stakes, Jean-Luc Nancy’s account of ‘the pleasure in drawing’ and the feminist concept of the ‘work of love’ are brought into relation with Davis’s work.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: ARTis ON Magazine continues the Cadernos de História da Arte, published electronically in 2013 and 2014.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Paterson, Dr Dominic
• Authors: Paterson, D.
• Subjects: N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR; N Fine Arts > NC Drawing Design Illustration
• College/School: College of Arts > School of Culture and Creative Arts > History of Art
• Journal Name: ARTis On
• Publisher: Instituto de História da Arte, Faculdade de Letras de Lisboa
• ISSN: 2183-7082
• ISSN (Online): 2183-7082
• Published Online: 31 December 2017
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2018 The Author
• First Published: First published in ARTis On 1(5):143-158
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License