Name Linda Dement | Books In My Gash | |
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cyberflesh girlmonster by linda dement
Linda Dement (born 1960 in Brisbane) is an Australian artist working in the fields of photography, film and digital arts as well as writing non-fiction. She began exhibiting in 1984. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Fine Arts) from City Art Institute, Sydney in 1988. Dement is largely known for her exploration of the creative possibilities of emergent technologies such as the CD-ROM, 3-D modelling, interactive software and early computing.
Contents
- cyberflesh girlmonster by linda dement
- Catching Light Linda Dement and Kelly Doley
- Censorship
- Works
- Writing
- Awards and Prizes
- References
Dement's work has been exhibited in Australia and internationally in galleries and festivals, including at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London, Ars Electronica in Austria, the International Symposia of Electronic Art in Sydney and Montreal and the Impakt Media Arts Festival in Europe.
Along with Australian artist collective VNS Matrix, Dement's work pioneered Australian cyberfeminism in art. Cyberfeminist politics and poetics used technology to deconstruct gender stereotypes in mainstream culture, and proactively situated women in relation to the rise of electronic culture in the early 1990s. Through her work, Dement aims to "give form to the unbearable." Dement's work has been described as depersonalised autobiography, that is, an appropriation of the digital as a space of expression, or a "rupture" in the info-tech dominated sphere of computer culture. Her work explores the relationship between the physical body and the body politic, exaggerating female "other-ness" or the "monstrous-feminine."
Catching Light: Linda Dement and Kelly Doley
Censorship
Some of Dement's early works have come under censorship by the Australian Government. Typhoid Mary was taken to the NSW Parliament as being "obscene" and subsequently came under the classification of the Australian Government's Office of Film and Literature as "not suitable for those under the age of 18." In My Gash also received a formal "Restricted" classification.
Works
To make this work, Dement set up a stall as part of Artist Week at Adelaide Festival in 1994. She then digitally scanned 30 women's body parts of their choice. These scanned body parts were then digitally manipulated and reworked as "mutant" bodies to make up the work. Many of the "flesh donors" were prominent Australian cyberfeminist artists present at the Festival.