Traces of Feminist Art: Temporal Complexity in the Work of Eleanor Antin and Elizabeth Manchester

Abstract

In this chapter I explore the inter-generational relationship between two photographic works: Eleanor Antin’s Carving: A Traditional Sculpture (1972) and Elizabeth Manchester’s All My Dresses with All My Shoes (2002). These two artworks are distinct in terms of the political and cultural climate of their production, but share some formal characteristics. Here I put them in dialogue with each other to generate a series of observations about the gendering of time. These include an analysis of femininity as an embodied relationship to time, multi-layered temporalities within each artwork and femininity as loss. My intention is to read the relationship between these particular artworks through difference but not opposition. I consider differences in photographic style, political resonance and attitude towards consumer culture, while arguing for a shared understanding of the parameters of acceptable femininity articulated through a playful approach to the language of minimalism in each artwork. These connections are important because they suggest an alternative to generational divide and the associated political separations of women artists working at different historical moments.