Member Since: 6/22/2011
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Vulva Hall of Fame unveiled in Milan
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Do you remember The Great Wall of Vagina? British artist Jamie McCartney, the creator, makes plaster casts of vaginas to promote body-positivity and to demonstrate the huge variety of shapes, sizes and looks there can be downstairs.
This month he has been working on a new sculpture, casting hundreds of women in Boulder, Colorado, broadcasting the process live on the Internet for the week-long online festival Red Tent Revival.
Being possibly the best man at ridding genital anxiety, McCartney says of the message behind his casts: ”You’re normal. Whatever you’ve got down there, leave it alone”. The original monumental structure The Great Wall of Vagina, which has been displayed in major galleries in Milan and Australia, consisted of over 400 women’s vulvas, reaching 9 metres long. Wanting to represent women’s genitals from all walks life – from a 76-year-old grandmother to a pair of 18-year-old twins are – McCartney wants people to “stop, look and listen”.
Struck by the exponential rise in the surgical process labiaplasty, the reduction of the labia, McCartney set out to let women know that vaginas are as aesthetically different as faces. He says:
"For many women their genital appearance is a source of anxiety and I was in a unique position to do something about that"
He then went on to create the famous self-funded 400-vulva strong piece, which has helped many women feel confident about their vaginas, and that those seen in ****ography and erotica aren’t always representative of all vaginas. I mean, how could they? They’re all different. Explaining that freedom from genital anxiety is the goal, McCartney hopes the quest for the ‘perfect’ vagina will cease for many.
“It’s time our society grew up around these issues and I’m certain that art has a role to play,” McCartney says. And it will do, hopefully. Erasing racial distinctions, titillation and making the sexual nonsexual, McCartney has allowed vaginas to be seen without a feeling of guilt, or embarrassment. young girls can view this prolific piece of art and not be ashamed by their bodies, moving us forward to a less anxiety-filled, plastic surgery-obsessed world.
Having not perfected the un-perfect genitalia, something McCartney takes into consideration, and has received criticism for is the lack of pubic hair. He has said one common comment is: ‘They’re all shaved!’ You can’t cast hair, so on one level it’s misrepresentative – suggesting that everyone’s shaved.
Obviously, hairless pubic regions leads us onto pre-pubescent **** aesthetics, which can lead further genital anxiety, but this is something he’s working on with his next project. Addressing the inherent issue in a recent work for The Sum of Our Parts, McCartney creates portraits of individual body parts, employing a document scanner to show natural pubic areas without airbrushing.
If the wall of positivity wasn’t enough, you can bag some vulva merchandise in McCartney’s store. Labia phone case? Yes, please.
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I needed a new phone case!
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