Vulvas

Not knowing what to do with myself and feeling lost, I coil built these two large vessels from Black Clay, which is a rough and groggy stoneware. The qualities of the clay reminded me of African pottery styles. I am perpetually attracted to and interested in the idea of the vessel, and I think also the vessel like quality of the body. There is some irony in this concept, however, because there is no negative space in the body. The lungs, stomach, bowel and womb, organs one might think of as 'empty' or 'full' are fleshy masses that collapse in or expand out to accommodate their contents or lack thereof. So this kind of poses a problem, or question when it comes to the work that I make. But I don't think that I am quite ready to unpick that just yet. 

There is a quality to the clay that made me think of the vulva- not because of any textural or visual attribute, but because of the abjectification of the vulva, and the almost abject darkness of this clay. It will fire rough and dark, and it looks so much like shit when I work with it that it is almost too obvious to focus on abject concepts. But I was thinking about the ritualistic associations with womanhood, cycles, the secrecy of the female genitalia, and also the echoes of its form in nature- flowers, leaves, ripples of water, as opposed to the masculine counterpart of the seed pod. 

I started making these vulvas with a mind to mimic the moist quality with liquid metal- maybe getting some silver or gold grains and melting them into the crevices of the sculptures with a blow torch, or pouring liquid molten metal into them, or possibly even firing the sculptures with glass grains. Metal would be preferable however. The idea of glass is less appealing to me because it is a more literal representation of moisture. 

Maybe there is a way to give the vulvas some kind of 'function'. If the work could be hanging together and expelling something, that would be exciting to me. Blood, urine, something resembling cervical mucous. Like a traditional water feature but more representational of an actual female body, as opposed to the sanitized version utilized in art, more appealing to the male gaze. It's also important to me that the vulvas aren't penetrated, that they are expelling something. That they are removed from sexuality and placed back in the actual function of the body.