[Documentation for Master of Fine Arts course]

The work of '83-'84 will be a continuation of previous concerns. The environment in which the work is made will provide the intense questioning needed to locate myself within the discourses of 'art'. It is my intention to communicate my perception of reality. The work-s are deliberations on the self and social behaviours. The contrast experienced between the flux and the moulds of our existence shall afford material for deliberation. The content of the works are a selection of dilemmas and preoccupations which reflect my situation - my psychological history, physiological and social circumstance. These are reflected in work currently in process. My sense of displacement and incongruity with the immediate situation of the course evoked a sense of isolation and anguish which were worked through by the use of poem. It is to be a statement of the self in relation to the frameworks of an immediate social situation, exposing the alienation and separateness of each individual. Feminist theories will be used as a reference point through which to develop my understanding of the induction of the female into society, and the gender constructions which surround 'woman'. The work 'Housebound' was to symbolize the housewife as a mad woman. The works listed below are not represented in the final presentation. In order to account for the development of current work the initial work is provided. The proposal was a starting point which loosely projected the directions I developed. The cohesive and formative concerns of my work over the two year period were identity, femininity and reality. Initially the work incorporated themes of the alienation of self from society in the sociological sense and used the roles of women to speak of women's condition. Late in 1983 I turned towards an investigation of my own experiences of adolescence, Anorexia nervosa and autobiography. The questions moved from 'Who am I?' and 'Who is woman ?' to 'How did I come into being?'