Jenny Zhou

Jenny Zhou is a doctoral researcher in History of Art and Visual Culture at Loughborough University. Her research explores how modern women artists engage with the occult from the early twentieth century to the present. Her research is funded by the School of Social Sciences and Humanities.

Before beginning her PhD, Jenny completed an MA in Photography at the Royal College of Art and a BA in Art History at Renmin University of China. Her interdisciplinary background informs her interests in modern and contemporary art, photography, feminism, esotericism, and visual culture. She is interested in how artists engage with mediumship, occult symbolism, alchemy, and witchcraft as a creative approach to challenge the dominant structure of gender and knowledge.

Alongside her doctoral research, Jenny is a visual artist and has presented at conferences. She also has teaching experience in art, photography, and media studies, having taught and tutored students in both practical and theoretical courses.

Jenny’s doctoral research investigates modern women artists who engage with occultism and occulture. Her project examines how women artists use occult ideas and practices to reimagine gendered power and present alternative ways of knowing.

The project focuses on a range of modern and contemporary artists. It mainly focuses on contemporary artists, including Shannon Taggart, Suzanne Treister, Chantal Powell, and Tai Shani. It also conducts comparative studies between artists in the twentieth century, such as Hilma af Klint, Ithell Colquhoun, Paulina Peavy, and Leonora Carrington.

The project contributes to scholarship on modern and contemporary visual art, feminist art history, and Western esotericism by demonstrating how occult art has provided artists with a powerful means of creative experimentation and cultural critique. It proposes that these artistic practices offer alternative models of knowledge production, which is essential in contemporary visual culture.