Meditations on the body

In this project I put images of my body on hard materials like metal and wood. I bent them in irregular shapes, left sharp edges and photo transferred the images so they would over time rust and decay. I was meditating on the impermanence of the body along with the obsession with physical beauty and beauty standards.

Fuck Machine

A grotesque meditation on what is desirable in a woman; an exploration on sex, femininity, and desirability.

Cult of the Porn Goddess

Cult of the porn goddess was an exploration on body positivity and welcoming people to meditate on the contrast between society’s expectations of a woman’s body versus what it means to live peacefully in ones own body. I was thinking about porn because that is used as a standard and an ideal for both how women should look and act if they wish to be desirable. I then took the perceived focal point of that desire, a woman’s genitals and ability to provide pleasure for another and bastardized it into a painting where the woman is only sexual organs. That turned into a sculpture where the genitals are the mouth, and I deified that into the porn goddess.  From there I also used images of my own body, a plus sized body that did not fit society’s mold or expectations of womanhood, and presented that in poses usually reserved for only “desirable” women. I remember during this time questioning my own womanhood and challenging even in my day to day life the conventions of being a woman. I remember other women approaching me and remarking that they would never have the confidence to leave the house like I did or wear x y and z, women of varying shapes and sizes. I remember that fueling these projects. Another offshoot was the porn beads I made by cutting up old playboy magazines and making paper beads from the pages. I made prayer bead type bracelets with them and prompted people to use them to meditate on their own sexuality. From there I had a series called play with me intending to talk about sex – I transferred my own image onto stacking blocks I made and asked people to literally play with me and meditate on sex.  

Radical Pleasures

Radical Pleasures was the culmination of my meditations on sexuality and my body. It was a celebration of pleasure and how it manifested for me at that time. The centerpiece of this show was a coffin I made adorned with my own nudes, done in a style nodding to the reclining Venus and done over many years of working with this subject matter. I had a video of myself dancing in a joyous way to music I really enjoyed and at the other end I had an altar I made dedicated to Pleasure.