Andrea Cooper's reply to our project: Feminism in art of artists born on or after 1970

Andrea Cooper, 2013-05-15

Marguerite Duras spoke in a 1975 interview of Jules Michelet’s 1862 text La Sorciere in which Michelet set forward the thesis that, in the Middle Ages, women who were left alone were seen to be in league with the devil. Michelet went on to suggest that this motif is the origin of the western witch; Duras suggests that this has never really changed.

Women are as alone as before, are still les sorcieres. And they are everywhere. The madness has found other expressions, but it is still there, and it is still the same madness. Within my practice, the historical embodies itself in the contemporary. This Durasian notion of madness as being eternal is the root of my video practice. As an artist my research has always been two-fold, I create art that is visual, but words are my starting point. Writing is married to the visual within my video practice; they respond and exist within relationship to each other. Through research I twist and manipulate storytelling.

The trajectory of my artistic practice maps the concept of desire. Desire is the notion of missing, of absence and loss. Desire is always active, yet, conversely, desperately unobtainable. Desire is both hopeful and tragic. Desire spins us forward unleashing new energy into the world. Desire is the mysterious force, this searching into the unknown that propels my invented characters into existence.

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