Reimagining Feminist Aesthetics: Text, Image, and Collaborative Space in Violenta pureza

Abstract: This study examines the collaborative work Violenta pureza by Mexican artists Carmen Boullosa and Magali Lara, analyzing its innovative approach to intermedial artistic practice. Through twenty-seven images of domestic objects and accompanying text, the work deliberately disrupts conventional relationships between visual and textual elements, creating what this study terms a “third space” of interpretation. The analysis employs two methodological approaches: first, a semiotic and metaphorical analysis exploring shared themes of violence, isolation, and melancholy in feminine representation; second, a theoretical examination of the interpretative space generated between text and image. This study argues that Boullosa and Lara’s collaboration establishes a new form of feminist criticism through its experimental integration of literary and visual arts, while reconceptualizing the female subject as environmentally situated. Their work anticipates contemporary post-anthropocentric discourse by challenging traditional binaries between culture/nature and subject/object. Through its analysis, this study demonstrates how Violenta pureza ’s innovative intermedial approach continues to offer relevant insights for contemporary artistic practices in literature and visual arts.