Between body and environment: edge interminglings and installation art practice

<p dir="ltr">This PhD draws together artistic research and eco-feminism to investigate edges. Engaging with phenomenological approaches and installation art practice, this research builds on explorations of the ways that edges both define things and are simultaneously the places where things meet and connect. The connecting and defining qualities of edges have been considered as a mode through which to gain deeper understandings of the relationship between humans and the environments that we are situated in. It is at the edges that connection can be felt and seen. At the same time, the edge is a defining boundary, and through our edges, we as humans can feel ourselves to be distinct from others. Both edges defining and connecting qualities have been investigated through an eco-feminist lens. In an eco-feminist consideration of the defining qualities of the edge, this research explores artistic engagement with edges as a tool through which to disrupt the patriarchal conflation of women and the environment as context giving Others. Simultaneously, the meeting and connecting qualities of edges are considered through an eco-feminist lens for the way that they can disrupt a patriarchal dichotomy between humans and the environment. </p><p dir="ltr">Situated in the discipline of contemporary installation art practice, this research has been contextualised through engagement with eco-feminist theory and philosophical writings on the topic of the edge, as well as through the analysis of artworks by other installation artists. This PhD research has been conducted through fieldwork, studio practice, the exhibiting of artworks, and critical reflection and analysis. Artistic practice has been engaged with as a mode of inquiry through which to open and build on exploration of the edges of bodies and of environments.</p>