From Beuys to O'Sullivan: a feminist approach to contemporary sculptural poetry

Using one of my experimental poems as an example, this essay demonstrates how sculptural poetry can stand as a form of resistance as well as a feminist gesture with the potential to shape and heal society and the environment surrounding it. The essay starts with considering the possibility of social and ecological configuration through creative practice as a starting point in understanding Joseph Beuys’ concept of social sculpture. The essay then pursues the complexities of understanding Beuys’ theory of social sculpture by examining ‘Fat Chair’ as an effective specimen of this idea – a creative piece with a political message speaking to humans and their relationship with nature. Throughout this exploration, Beuys’ work is also approached from the scope of various new materialist theories by women thinkers such as Karen Barad, Jane Bennett and Stacey Alaimo. In the context of Beuys’ and my own sculptural poem ‘human-hive’, as well as in the context of ecopoetic work by Maggie O’Sullivan, I discuss the relevance of anti-anthropocentrism and the figure of the shaman as means to resist the damaging capitalist and consumerist structures that contribute towards social and ecological injustice and instead help to form a more balanced and engaged world.