An index of longing

Abstract

Feminist epistemology positions knowledge in relationship to, or as contingent on, its knower. From this framework, drawing can be situated as a relational and embodied form of knowing the phenomenal world. Drawing opens a space in which we can explore the margin between perception and representation as an epistemological problem. It asks: ‘How can we locate the relationship between knowers and what is known across time through the canon of drawing?’. Drawing is the enactment of this problem. It bridges the gap between the phenomenal and the constructed world of knowledge and, in doing so, visualizes the relationship between our senses and our sense of self. My research reflects on the visual history of ‘The Corinthian Maid’, a Roman origin story for the first act of drawing, and on its use in my own creative practice as a framework to explore the evolution of western ideas on gender, embodiment, knowledge and creativity. The Corinthian Maid functions as an access point through which to consider new understandings of the relationship between knowledge and the body, with drawing as our guide.