Karen Finley

Karen Finley makes confessional and confrontational work that deals with gender, sexuality, and emotional despair. She uses her naked body in her prefomances by smearing herself with foodstuffs in graphic depictions of sexuality, abuse and disenfranchisement. Much of her work has been labelled obscene. By exploring her own sexuality and difference through 'writing the body', she is threatening the male idea that women can only be fulfilled by having children and finding a husband. By challenging these values she is demonised for it and labelled deviant or obscene. Karen Finley challenges the power of language, using male discourse to expose the oppression of women. She uses chant, monologues and obscene language in poetic and confrontational streams of consciousness. Sometimes it is almost like she is in a trance, trapped within the male discourse.