Vivienne Binns Case

Vivienne Binns is and Australian female artist born November 1940. She is most famously recognized for her early work containing strong feminist themes. In the 1970's Binns co founded the 'Women's Art Movement' based in Sydney. In the early 1900's women did not have the same equal rights as men they were seen as lesser. It wasn't accepted in society for women to take on the role of art, women were seen as stereotypical mothers and housewives. Women were not regarded as prestigious artist and Binns thrived to change this perception.

Binns exhibitions contained work with a feminist approach and were considered outrages by critics. Many of her sculptures symbolized women's genetalia and were not well received. Her work contained powerful symbols of female sexuality, this was definitely not expected of a young women at that time. Binns is now seen to have advanced the 1970's movement of feminist art.

Binns created the piece of work 'Vag Dens' in her early career, just after she had left art college. Binns states "The name Vag Dens did not occur to me until after the painting was finished. A friend who was a psychologist told me that the image of the toothed vagina appeared in many cultures over many centuries; it was called Vagina Dentata. I was amazed, I had no knowledge of this."

The painting is one of a pair which contain strong sexual themes. As a young artist she was highly influenced by the surrealists movement, this is seen through her use of bright surreal colour within her work. Around the time she painted this piece within society tension was arising about sexual context that surround the younger generations of society.

Binns then goes onto say about her work 'I've often puzzled over the teeth. It's never simply been an image of castration to me, I think of it as a symbol of legitimate power. Just as the beautiful rose with its sweet smell has thorns and the tigress has teeth which can both rip animals apart and gently carry her cubs, so this imaginary form represents the power of the feminine."