Can art therapy be a form of visual protest?

Description

The body social is a term that relates to society and the impact of social content upon identity. Art therapy has a role to play in understanding how subjectivity and society are related. Everybody has the potential to live out of bounds, and is entitled to expression on their own terms.

A feminist agenda for art therapy not only highlights the significance of “the personal is political”, but also activates public declarations of agency that declare the importance of “the political is personal”. Nothing is more personal than the performance of identity and one’s self as artistry in process.

Subject

This media article was produced in association with the ESRC Festival of Social Science at Ulster University. It linked to an event titled The Body Social—Feminism, Performance, Protest. This event was a collaboraion between Professor Sarah Edge, Dr. Pamela Whitaker and artist Rosy Martin. This was a day devoted to how the body can be employed as a form of resistance in art practices.