Women’s Caucus for Art
The Maternal Body Exposed: Fecundity, Birth Control, and Countering
Infertility in Contemporary Art

Rachel Epp Buller, Bethel College, rebullerbethelks.edu

Nude women abound in art—but rarely their swollen forms or leaking
breasts. Adolescent bodies and models of virginal motherhood dominate
the historical visual discourse, offering narrow visions of maternity.
This session examines the ways in which the maternal body operates in
contemporary art and visual culture. What does it mean to make visible
the postpartum body? What are the artistic implications of today’s
options to control pregnancy and infertility that redefine maternity
in terms of adoption, surrogacy, egg harvesting, or assisted
reproduction? Art history’s idealization of the fertile, feminine body
stands in stark contrast to the contemporary “problems” caused by the
maternal body—for women in the workplace, or even in public.

This open forms panel seeks participants for short presentations,
roundtable discussion, and dialogue with the audience on the art of the
contemporary maternal, as well as the challenges, strategies, and
possibilities offered by the maternal body.

Proposals due by May 6, 2013: email letter of interest, 1-2 page
proposal, CV, and other application information to address above.

Details and full call for participation:
http://www.collegeart.org/pdf/2014CallforParticipation.pdf