2026 SPE Annual Conference: Catalyst for Exchange
Looking for a chapter event?
Past SPE Annual Conferences
exhibitions
2026 SPE Annual Conference Schedule
print this pagePerforming Strength: Exchanges between Feminist Art and Bodybuilding
Rebecca Drolen; Imagemaker Award
Friday, March 20 - 9:00AM to 10:00AM
Athens
In this presentation, I will share my ongoing research and work exploring the intersections of feminist art, performance, and women's bodybuilding. My studio practice is preoccupied with the concept of what it means to be a "strong woman." I have spent three years documenting women bodybuilders and am currently preparing for a bodybuilding competition myself. This embodied approach includes training, photographing, and performing the discipline of bodybuilding as both a personal inquiry and an artistic strategy.
The broader project, Unstable Entity, includes photographic and sculptural works that draw parallels between women bodybuilders and precarious still-life constructions. Within this juxtaposition is a meditation on the body as an architectural construct and the unsettled standards of what it means to be a "strong woman" alongside the structures that often fail us. The collage of forms speculates on the relationship of female strength to intimidation, sexuality, and desire as well as the individual stamina required to pursue both mental and physical wellness.
Situating this work within a lineage of feminist artists such as Lisa Lyon – who viewed bodybuilding as performance art - and Kathy Acker—who invested in bodybuilding alongside her writing practice—I investigate how physical transformation can act as a form of resistance. Where patriarchy prescribes smallness and restraint for women, I ask what it means to become physically larger, stronger, and more visibly powerful. Themes of discipline, failure, and the slow labor of transformation are confronted in both the gym and the studio.
speaker
Rebecca Drolen
About
- Board Reports, Letters, and Minutes
- History
- Staff
- Board Members
- Board Committees
- Board Elections
- SPE Code of Conduct
- Caucuses
Join
Members
Annual Conference
- About the Conference
- Overview
- Speakers
- Schedule
- Registration
- Calls for Proposal
- Volunteer
- Sponsors
- Exhibit
- Anti-Harassment Policy
- Hotel & Travel
- Location + Travel
- Hotel
- Schedule of Events
- Schedule
- special events
News & Events
Chapters
Exposure Journal
About this piece
Comments about this piece
Dialogue and critique are important to the SPE mission.
Please join the conversation.