This Artifact (Digital film 8mins 10 seconds) completed in 2010 is the outcome of a specific research project funded through a research and development grant from the Scottish arts council in 2008. This project explores the role of expressionism as language in re-engaging with issues of gender and role play in a post feminist context .The film Paraphernalia was the culmination of a range of research methodologies including drawing, sculpture, ceramics, installation, costume making/ design, script writing. The film was shown as part of the Glasgow International Festival curated by Katrina Brown in April 2010. It was screened/ exhibited at one of the bespoke outsourced venues in The Trongate area of Glasgow city-centre established by GI for the duration of the festival.

The title ‘Paraphernalia’ refers to the original definition of the word in Roman law, meaning a woman’s belongings not included in her dowry. Borrowing the styles of composition, lighting and mood from German expressionist cinema, the film seeks to use this form to examine the role-play inherent in social hierarchies and the politics of gender. Effectively it ‘uses’ expressionism to reengage with the themes of seminal feminist artists of the 70s. However in the process it both interrogates expressionism (as in Hal Fosters notion of the ‘expressive fallacy’) and challenges accepted notions of feminist practice.