Feminist Interpretations of Witches and the Witch Craze in Contemporary Art by Women

Authors

  • Katy Deepwell Middlesex University, London

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.37942

Keywords:

Representation of the witch, Witch Craze, contemporary Paganism

Abstract

This article considers feminist interpretations of the witch in contemporary art in relation to the witch craze: examples are by Georgia Horgan, Ann-Sofi Sidén, Mathilde ter Heijne, Monica Sjöö, Tania Antoshina, Helen Chadwick, Jesse Jones, and Carolee Schneemann. The argument explores the ways that the figure of the witch is analyzed in three different feminist critiques of patriarchy, and subsequently pursues how these ideas have been taken up in contemporary art by these women artists. The differences between three authors: Matilda Joslyn Gage (1893); Mary Daly (1984); and Silvia Federici (2004) are highlighted and contrasted to other historians’ analyses from the last thirty years of the fate of women accused as witches during the European Witch Hunt between the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries. This was a paper given at Misogyny: Witches and Wicked Bodies, Institute of Contemporary Arts, (ICA) London in March 2015.

Author Biography

  • Katy Deepwell, Middlesex University, London

    Katy Deepwell is professor of contemporary art, theory, and criticism at Middlesex University, London. She founded and edited n.paradoxa: international feminist art journal, 1998–2017. She is managing director of KT press.

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Published

2020-08-03

How to Cite

Deepwell, K. (2020). Feminist Interpretations of Witches and the Witch Craze in Contemporary Art by Women. Pomegranate, 21(2), 146-171. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.37942