Frauen in der Psychiatrie um 1900–1940
My theoretical work is concerned with artistic women in psychiatry from 1900 to 1940. The thesis provides insights into the social and medical conditions then, while also looking at the lives of women in psychiatry at that time. Unequal power relations between men / psychiatrists and women / patients that include gender-specific treatments, diagnoses, and their consequences are illuminated. The biographies of the artists Christine Lavant, Else Blankenhorn and Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler are viewed as actual classifications of the forementioned description. The women’s artistic practices represented an effective means toward self-empowerment and a safeguarding of their selfdetermination. The thesis concludes with a brief digression into the present day, demonstrating that numerous social grievances still exist.
Refugium
Both the voluntary and the involuntary place of retreat are the starting points for a deeper engagement with an environment that is characterised by increasingly dysfunctional and hostile conditions. This contributes to the fact that unfamiliar spaces are opened up anew, while other spaces are no longer freely accessible. The practical Diplom work encompasses abstract multi-layered landscape paintings (acrylic) on canvas, a wall collage made using copied paper in black and white as well as digital print and spatially arranged text fragments in an installation context. Another component of the setting is a unique book in which various media are arranged and collaged with supplementary narratives and fragments. The text remnants that run through the book and the installation can be considered supplements or accompaniments and, together with the visual part, reveal another level.
