Amy Cutler: ‘Fossa’ and feminist speculative fiction
Persistent URL
Author(s)
Burleigh, Paula
Date Issued
June 1, 2025
Abstract
This article examines the drawing and installation Fossa (2015–16) by the American artist Amy Cutler (b.1974) through the lens of feminist speculative fiction. Cutler’s works imagine a women-only community in which long braids of hair function as architecture, technology and connective tissue. Evoking the speculative frameworks of Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Ursula K. Le Guin, Cutler’s work constructs alternative histories that reimagine gendered labour, kinship and industrial development. Rather than a nostalgic or idyllic retreat into nature, Fossa proposes an intricate, fantastical ecosystem rooted in cooperation, collective care and reciprocity between human and non-human actors. By situating Fossa within a lineage of feminist worldbuilding across literature and visual art, this article argues for the political and imaginative potential of Cutler’s speculative practice.
Journal
Burlington Contemporary
Department
Art
Citation
Paula Burleigh: ‘Amy Cutler: ‘Fossa’ and feminist speculative fiction’, Burlington Contemporary Issue 12 (June 2025), https://doi.org/10.31452/bcj12.burleigh.cutler
Publisher
Burlington Magazine
Version of Article
Published version
DOI
10.31452/bcj12.burleigh.cutler
ISSN
2631-5661
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Name
2025_Burleigh_AmyCutter.pdf
Size
6.31 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
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