Picturing female resistance within the patriarchy — A visual exploration based on ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’

“Picturing female resistance within the patriarchy” is a visual exploration project which aims to showcase how female empowerment and resistance can prevail over patriarchal societal structures; as well as highlight the power of feminist literature. This exploration is conducted through a creative re-envisioning of the feminist short story ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, which was written in 1892 by author Charlotte Gilman. The project encompasses a physical installation featuring collages and illustrations, as well as an accompanying booklet.

The short story ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is a piece of feminist literature, written from the perspective of a woman diagnosed with “hysteria” by her psychiatrist husband. On the forefront, the book seems to primarily deal with the deterioration of the narrator’s mental health after being prescribed social isolation as a cure for her alleged illness. However, the narrator’s insanity functions as a mere metaphor protesting the infantilisation, mental and medical oppression she experiences within her marriage. Her husband symbolises and embodies the patriarchal system the narrator finds herself trapped within, until she eventually takes action and manages to liberate herself by breaking out from the bounds, the wallpaper, she had been previously confined to.

The intention for my visual work is not to be a literal depiction of the original story, but instead a re-envisioned version utilising storytelling through its own symbolisms and metaphors. Some elements can only be seen from certain angles or in specific lighting, inviting the viewer to step closer and re-evaluate the reality behind domestic life within the patriarchy. What initially appears to be a simple gallery wall reveals the journey of a woman living within the constraints of patriarchal society; progressing through different stages of resentment, anger and fear – and eventually finding empowerment and evolving into a more emancipated version of herself.

As the woman’s journey progresses, the bird sheds a layer of its feathers and grows into a harpy – a mythological creature resembling a bird of prey, with sharp claws and her face.

“Picturing female resistance within the patriarchy” is a project consisting of two different components: an installation featuring multidimensional collages, as well as a booklet containing a piece of creative writing. I developed the creative writing piece to function as a summary for ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, so my project can be understood within its intended context even if one has not read the original short story yet.

The reason why I chose to work with the topic of feminist literature’s connection to resistance is because I was interested in exploring how women can derive meaningful messages from the written word to encourage their own, individual ways of practising resistance. I discovered that there is an aspect of connectivity between shared (albeit individual) experiences of living as women within western patriarchal systems.

My project carries over these connections from feminist literature and anchors them in real-life scenarios and communities.

In order to gain more insights regarding my visual language, I hosted a workshop to test my visuals and the effectiveness of my creative writing piece on my target group. All participants were asked to read my creative writing. After that, they would randomly be assigned a quote from ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’. Utilising their own interpretations of the creative writing and their received quote, participants were then asked to create a corresponding collage with materials provided by me. At the end of the workshop, I distributed questionnaires allowing participants to share their thoughts regarding the effectiveness of the provided materials and creative writing. The feedback from the workshop was helpful to assess whether all graphic elements and parts of the creative writing were consistent with my general visual language.

“Picturing female resistance within the patriarchy” is a project born from my deep-rooted passion of wanting to inspire other women to engage more with feminist literature; as well as support the incentive to protect feminist literature through increased levels of community care. Additionally, it was very important to me that my project strongly criticises patriarchal society at large and addresses domestic inequality on both a systemic and emotional level. However, the biggest hope I hold for my project is the following: To be able to encourage other women to practice resistance within their own lives and grow more empowered – one shred of wallpaper at a time.