Healing as a Feminist Praxis: Combatting Gender Violence through Art and Protest in the Americas

This article investigates how two Latine contemporary artists and a Chilean feminist activist collective construct and empower healing as a feminist praxis in their works on gender violence. At the core of this article is an investigation of three central methods that encompass what I term “the feminist praxis of healing”: first, healing as a means of historical recovery via the documentation of gender violence as a crime against humanity; second, healing as a way of fashioning a meditative space for restorative justice for victims, families, and allies; and finally, healing as an embodied manifestation and articulation of rage. Through these three methods I explore the relationships between healing, feminist activism and activist art, mourning, grief, the labor of care, solidarity, and rage. I turn to the work of two Latine visual artists, Adriana Corral and Ruby Rumié, and a Chilean activist feminist collective, LasTesis, to demonstrate how the documentation of healing and healing from gender violence, rather than the presentation of trauma and disembodiment, are essential to contemporary artistic and activist feminist agendas. Furthermore, by exploring two historically male-dominated and institutionalized spaces, the museum and the street, I propose that an activist and artistic agenda centered on healing within these spaces is critical for our feminist futures.