This research investigates the coexistence of male and female characteristics of forms, materials and processes, which together can suggest a gendered tension. Exploration of the different gendered approaches to material process as a means of producing form focuses on both intellectual and emotionally expressive processes.

This research takes as its contextual starting point American women artists of the 1960s and 70s. In particular it explores the way women such as Eva Hesse and Louise Bourgeoise reacted against the conceptual, material and geometric rigidity of Minimalist art – mostly created by men - to develop more sensuous and expressive forms of sculpture which are often labelled Post-Minimalism. These ideas were explored in 1966 by Lucy Lippard in the exhibition and related essay Eccentric Abstraction.

This argument supports a body of practical work, which reinterprets these debates about gender and sculpture within the changed landscape of contemporary art and gender politics.