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Single Vibrating Phallus – 2015 // Nylon tights, mattress stuffing, pink vibrating bullet
SEXUALITY VS CRAFT, AND SEXUALITY AS SUBVERSION
Within this project, I have been exploring notions of gender and sexuality through manipulation of the crafts, confronting the gender stereotypes and taboos surrounding female sexuality and obsession of the phallus. The phallus as signifier of power and status in Freudian theory denotes that women therefore have a ‘lack-of’ due to the absence of a penis. This is a particular theory that I took inspiration from for my art practice. By constructing a mass of phalli, I therefore possess the power which is linked with the ‘masculine’ phallic form.
The purchasing of vibrating bullets for the ‘Bunch of Dicks’ piece is a point of reference when thinking about the taboos of female sexuality, due to the inherent shame that comes with publically expressing your sexual awareness as a female in today’s society.
I intend to merge laughter and shock in my work, as laughing and joking is usually a social mechanism to cope with uncomfortable situations, and this is often the case when speaking about my inspiration and personal experiences with the male form. My work intends to playfully evoke feelings of disgust as well as showcase the soft vulnerability of the materials also linked with fetishes and craft work. This awkward mix and juxtaposition of the phallic form and materiality is very exciting to me.
Bunch of Dicks (60 Vibrating Phalluses) – 2016// Nylon tights, mattress stuffing, cotton thread, pink vibrating bullet
COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE – SMITH & YOUNG 2016
Comme Un – Smith & Young 2016 // Nylon tights, stuffing, tea bags, vaseline, gold thread
The title for this piece is the French for ‘as one’ which has been chosen due to this being a collaborative project whereby both our works are inspired by French Philosophers and other complex theories. This piece is evidence of myself and Ellen Young merging our practices and materials in order to produce an object (or set of objects) that resemble dismembered, and disgusting organs without bodies. As my practice playfully experiments with the phallus and in particular the ‘circumcised’ forms the collaboration therefore allowed experimentation with the more ‘natural’ uncircumcised form, and Young was able to mould her work into a less ambiguous form than what her previous works have been centred on. Constructed from Young’s tea bags and Vaseline and my nylon tights and stuffing, the materials marry into the domestic realm and become sympathetic to both of our practices. Meticulously stitched together with gold thread the Vaseline filled tea bags ooze and seep out of the holes and the pores of the stitching. This grotesque work is part of a series of seven uncircumcised phalluses for the Apex 2016 Degree Show @ University of Lincoln.