My body (but not) my choice: feminist arts activism towards bodily autonomy

Bodily autonomy is under threat globally. The United Nations Population Fund’s report ‘State of World Population’ (2021) for the first time focused on bodily autonomy, acknowledging almost half of all women are denied power and agency to make choices about their bodies without fear or violence. Multiple states (e.g. the USA, Poland) continue controlling women’s sexuality and reproductive rights, most recently through increasing (successful) attempts, to criminalise abortion and introducing systems of surveillance and control expropriating women’s bodies. Such developments, characteristic of capitalist relations, have significant social consequences. In this contribution I focus on two exhibitions, framed by feminist politics, in which artists and curators address restrictions to abortion access fostering suppressed ancestral knowledges and intergenerational solidarities. Diana Policarpo, a Portuguese artist, in the exhibition ‘Nets of Hyphae’ (2020-2021), curated by Stefanie Hessler, visualises cycles of ergot fungi (used by women healers for abortions) to explore connections between reproductive health justice, alternative healing practices and shared responsibilities to resist in precarity. Beata Rojek and Sonia Sobiech, Polish artists, in the exhibition ‘Yesterday’s Dreams Weave the Ruins of Tomorrow’s Temples’ (2022), curated by Zofia Reznik, materialise existing and imagined abortion networks of support as a safe sanctuary accompanied by a rich iconography drawn from botanical imagery, graffiti, sticker bombing or the artists’ comic book ‘Abortion stories’ (2021). Thinking alongside the matterscapes envisaged by the artists and curators, I explore their arts activist strategies supporting, raising consciousness and encouraging bodily autonomy through care, storytelling and intergenerational solidarity. My body is my choice.