Alessandra Abballe | All but absent from history

×

Expand

Alessandra Abballe, "All but absent from history," 2018

archival inkjet print, 61 x 76 cm. Courtesy of the Artist.

All but absent from history is a project that explores the structure of adventure narratives, how women who are often excluded from these stories claim space and agency, and the importance of representation in writing. As a point of departure, Abballe investigates Joseph Campbell’s 1949 text The Hero with a Thousand Faces, a comparative work in which the author discusses his theories on the archetypal hero and the characteristics of “the journey.” The cyclical structure that Campbell outlines in his book is imbued with notions of patriarchy and leaves little room for interpretation. At its core, Abballe’s project attempts to intervene in and renegotiate the terms of “the hero’s journey,” as outlined by Campbell, through the exploration of marginalized and omitted female narratives, both fictional and biographical. Turning their attention to the writing and narratives of women, the work included in this project attempts to visually map out Abballe’s research through the compilation of various texts and imagery in their studio, referencing their engagement with these histories while also encouraging further investigation.