Gestures of Retribution

Gestures of Retribution considers how language and representation undermine women and appropriates news media of Australian female politicians. Their hand gestures are transformed through a cameraless darkroom process, becoming a silent act of protest.

Gestures of Retribution explores how language and representation can be used to undermine women and, in turn, serve as acts of resistance. Contemplating recent depictions of Australian female politicians, the work examines news media archives of parliamentary sittings and press conferences and considers their influence on current perceptions of women. Isolating the women’s hands from the original photographs, they become recontextualised through a cameraless darkroom process. This tactile practice transforms the gestures into a silent act of protest.

The neon text work Which Witch? directly responds to the 2011 protest slogan “Ditch the Witch,” famously directed at then-Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard. The work reclaims the phrase, transforming a misogynist insult into a pointed question. Which Witch? serves as a query, a statement, and a refusal of women’s historical oppression and the oversimplified contemporary witch trope. In this reworking, the “witch” is transformed into a figure of resistance, someone who speaks back, refuses dismissal, and will not be reduced or ridiculed.

Together, the neon sign and the photographic prints invite audiences to reconsider how women in public life are framed and how they might frame themselves. Gestures of Retribution reclaims language and gesture as tools for asserting presence and agency, offering a response to the forms of dismissal and ridicule that continue to shape public discourse around women in power.