118. Alexandra Banks - 11 June 2023

Australian Women Preach

Corpus Christi - John 6: 51-58

Dr Alexandra Banks PhD works as an artist, theologian, writer and researcher who engages theologically with the arts and trauma theory to uncover the complex landscape of embodied memory. Alexandra’s key area of interest is the historical suppression and coercive appropriation of biblical women’s bodies and voices, and the doctrinal and practical implications of this interpretive legacy. Within her studio practice, Alexandra is fascinated with how everyday objects such as payphones and letterboxes have the capacity to point to and draw out silenced biblical characters like Hagar and Ishmael, and Mary, mother of God. Through her engagement with everyday objects, her current research is focused on how church buildings, stained glass, and their ornamentation provides a visual representation of interpretive traditions, institutional memory, and an example of a pedagogical architecture of power and surveillance.