Output details

Quiver

In this practice-led research, Luhning investigates aesthetics and power. Quiver is informed by contemporary anti-social behaviour inspired by the crimes of Hungarian Countess Elizabeth Bathory (1560-1614), who allegedly tortured and killed over 600 girls in order to bathe in their blood, a practice she believed would preserve her youth and beauty. Quiver explores how our culture’s enduring fascination with Bathory’s story signals contemporary anxieties about beauty, violence, and mental health; as well, the novel both reflects and challenges current constructs and perceptions of femininity. This applied research draws on theories of the body, disability studies, and theories of aesthetics in order to illuminate complex, and often unsettling, cultural attitudes in regard to desire, power, and the construction of the self.