Abstract:
Cheryl Donegan’s feminist video art of the 1990s explores sexuality, the media, and culture. While critics tend to categorize the work as anything but feminist, I will argue that her work is full of historically feminist themes. I will compare Donegan’s work to the works of women such as Yoko Ono, Marina Abramovic, and Carolee Schneemann in order to prove Donegan’s work is feminist. Donegan responded to her predecessors by using the same themes such as visual denial and shock factor. In Kiss My Royal Irish Ass, Donegan created shamrocks by squatting on pieces of paper, using her body as a tool to create art. Another work, Gag, which involved Donegan sitting tied up in a chair and eating a baguette between her legs until she gagged, expresses her critique of silencing women artists. In the final work, Head, Donegan drank and spit milk into a jug erotically. She utilizes shocking her audience with reference to sexual activity and visual denial: the idea of withholding a subject in the work from the viewer. By looking at these three artworks, I show that they indeed share the same themes as the works of her predecessors, thus proving that her work is feminist.