Saggy Tits and Wobbly Bits: Postpartum Bodies in Live Art

Context: This practice-based research project will critically examine, challenge, and redefine existing representations of postpartum bodies and cultural norms around motherhood, gender identity, and body image, and create new and original renderings of the postpartum body in live art practice.

Live art has a rich history of challenging societal norms, with artists often using their own bodies as a medium for exploring gender identity, sexuality, and disability (see: Schneider 1997; Jones and Heathfield 2012; Keidan and Mitchell 2012). Using the body, particularly the artist's own body (Heddon 2007) facilitates a visceral, interactive engagement with audiences, making it effective for exploring the politics of postpartum bodies.

The postpartum body is often on the periphery of societal discourse and subject to unrealistic standards, such as the pressure to "bounce back" to its pre-pregnancy state (Ruggeri 2022). Such pressures can contribute to low self-esteem and postpartum depression; crucially, this project will address the psychological, physical, and social factors of postpartum bodies.