Chris (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} rzep) wrote in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} vaginapagina,@ 2009-01-12 14:41:00 |
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Design a Vagina
An art exhibit from the UK wherein the artist has cast a variety of different vaginas to showcase the huge amount of diversity that exists!
http://www.brightonbodycasting.com/desi
From the artist:
For my latest major sculpture I need volunteers to have a cast made from their vagina (well the vulva area really).
Design A Vagina is the third in a series exploring our relationship with our genitals. So far I have completed the first panel of 40 casts, arranged in a grid. The final piece will have 5 panels of 40 casts. I have taken moulds now from around 150 women but I still need another 50 volunteers. The process uses safe, non toxic materials. It's fast and fun, so come on down and be a 1/200th of art history in the making
"Why am I doing it and what's it all about?" I hear you ask. Well, vaginas are as different as a faces many people, particularly women, don't seem to know that. Men tend to have seen more vaginas than women, who have often only seen their own and many have never looked that closely. Hence the exposure of so many, showing the variety of shapes is endlessly fascinating, empowering and comforting. For many women their vagina is a source of shame rather than pride and this piece seeks to redress the balance, showing that everyone is different, everyone is normal, and everyone is beautiful.
The title is a play on words, commenting on the trend for surgery to create the 'perfect' vagina. This modern day equivalent of female genital mutilation is a bizarre practice which suggests that one is better than another. Taste in nothing is universal and any desire for 'homogyny' could be very misguided. 200 casts arranged in this manner is in no way pornographic, as it might have been if photographs had been used. One is able to stare without shame but in wonder and amazement at this exposé of human variety. For the first time for many women they will be able to see their own genitals in relation of other women's. In doing so they may dispel many misconceptions they may have been carrying about what women look like 'down there'. The sculpture is serene and intricate and it works on many levels. The piece is ongoing and growing and I intend to have the 200 casts completed in time for a London exhibition starting in Summer 2009.
Already included are examples of male to female and a female to male transexuals, a virgin, a porn star and a woman with some elaborate piercings. Ages so far range from 18 year old students to a grandmother of 64. I really want to include as many possibilities as I can and am actively seeking a victim of female genital mutilation who would like to be included as well as a prostitute perhaps, maybe before and after childbirth casts, identical twins, a woman who has actually had or is having labiaplasty etc. The more inclusive and complete I can be in this survey the more power this sculpture will have. Please come forward to volunteer and spread the word to anybody else who you think would be interested, particularly if they represent somebody on my 'wanted' list.
The artist is still looking for volunteers, so if you're in the UK and this seems like something you want to be a part of, you can get in touch with the artist via the website.
Thoughts? Comments? I personally love these kinds of projects that throw the diversity of reality into the face of mainstream homogenized representations of bodies.
An art exhibit from the UK wherein the artist has cast a variety of different vaginas to showcase the huge amount of diversity that exists!
http://www.brightonbodycasting.com/desi
From the artist:
For my latest major sculpture I need volunteers to have a cast made from their vagina (well the vulva area really).
Design A Vagina is the third in a series exploring our relationship with our genitals. So far I have completed the first panel of 40 casts, arranged in a grid. The final piece will have 5 panels of 40 casts. I have taken moulds now from around 150 women but I still need another 50 volunteers. The process uses safe, non toxic materials. It's fast and fun, so come on down and be a 1/200th of art history in the making
"Why am I doing it and what's it all about?" I hear you ask. Well, vaginas are as different as a faces many people, particularly women, don't seem to know that. Men tend to have seen more vaginas than women, who have often only seen their own and many have never looked that closely. Hence the exposure of so many, showing the variety of shapes is endlessly fascinating, empowering and comforting. For many women their vagina is a source of shame rather than pride and this piece seeks to redress the balance, showing that everyone is different, everyone is normal, and everyone is beautiful.
The title is a play on words, commenting on the trend for surgery to create the 'perfect' vagina. This modern day equivalent of female genital mutilation is a bizarre practice which suggests that one is better than another. Taste in nothing is universal and any desire for 'homogyny' could be very misguided. 200 casts arranged in this manner is in no way pornographic, as it might have been if photographs had been used. One is able to stare without shame but in wonder and amazement at this exposé of human variety. For the first time for many women they will be able to see their own genitals in relation of other women's. In doing so they may dispel many misconceptions they may have been carrying about what women look like 'down there'. The sculpture is serene and intricate and it works on many levels. The piece is ongoing and growing and I intend to have the 200 casts completed in time for a London exhibition starting in Summer 2009.
Already included are examples of male to female and a female to male transexuals, a virgin, a porn star and a woman with some elaborate piercings. Ages so far range from 18 year old students to a grandmother of 64. I really want to include as many possibilities as I can and am actively seeking a victim of female genital mutilation who would like to be included as well as a prostitute perhaps, maybe before and after childbirth casts, identical twins, a woman who has actually had or is having labiaplasty etc. The more inclusive and complete I can be in this survey the more power this sculpture will have. Please come forward to volunteer and spread the word to anybody else who you think would be interested, particularly if they represent somebody on my 'wanted' list.
The artist is still looking for volunteers, so if you're in the UK and this seems like something you want to be a part of, you can get in touch with the artist via the website.
Thoughts? Comments? I personally love these kinds of projects that throw the diversity of reality into the face of mainstream homogenized representations of bodies.
