In Conversation with Davinia-Ann Robinson

About

Robinson’s installation takes inspiration from writer Audre Lorde’s essay, ‘Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic is Power’ (1984), in which Lorde discusses the power of the erotic and how women have been ‘mis-sold’ what the erotic truly is. Lorde argues that the erotic has been misinterpreted as a fake ‘plasticised sensation’ that is overtly sexual, fake and holds no true room for women's real pleasure or power. In Robinson’s installation, flesh-coloured vessels containing varnish and the compound plasticiser ooze onto elastic bands, fake hair and the floor. Over time, the liquid dripping from Robinson’s sculpture transforms the work into the PLASTICISED SENSATION.

This conversation will be moderated by ICA Assistant Curator Ifeanyi Awachie.

Artist Davinia-Ann Robinson’s practice explores the cultural politics of emotions and the ways in-which emotions effect female bodies of colour navigating through patriarchal and colonial spaces in Western culture. Robinson examines the related notions of how black women are viewed in Western culture as the ‘Other’ and ‘un-woman,’ seen through the lens of the object, the abject and the grotesque, and how they are displaced into the periphery of society. Her work draws from the lived, everyday experiences of gendered and racist systems of power, critical research into black feminist thought, race and gender studies.