Transforming patriarchal narratives in museums through participatory action research working with drawing, performance and photography

My practice-based research asks, ‘how can visual artists design feminist oriented participatory methodologies? And how can these methodologies help women challenge and transform patriarchal stories embedded in museum collections?’ To answer these questions, I will explore the interdisciplinary potential of drawing, painting, performance and photography as creative methods for feminist motivated Participatory Action Research (PAR) and narrative reconstruction. In doing so, I deepen and extend my own long-running investigation of women’s identity, which I explore through narrative reconstruction, drawing on influences from relational aesthetics, narrative constructivism, and intersectional feminism.

Through this research, I aim to develop an interdisciplinary methodology for collaborative storytelling. This will allow me to help feminist communities interrogate deep-seated patriarchal legacies embedded in prominent narratives about women and their place in the world, which have a negative impact on women’s identities and life outcomes. Ultimately, this combination of methodological innovation and muti-authored making aims to position inherited narratives about women’s identity not as an immovable hegemony, but as a malleable fiction ripe for reconstruction.

Camille Serisier’s research is supervised by Professor Jean Wainwright (Director of The Fine Art and Photography Research Centre, UCA); Professor Anna Fox (Professor of Photography, UCA Farnham).

This research has been made possible with the assistance of the University for the Creative Arts Vice Chancellor PhD Studentship in Photography.