Foreign Bodies/Tits Uncensored
Foreign Bodies/Tits Uncensored
Photographic documentation of performance, 2014
Foreign Bodies/Tits Uncensored is a transitory installation that questions notions of performance art being ephemeral. Functioning first as an installation, the large, sculpted breasts are attached to materials that prompt reflection on the ways that we are connected to or disconnected from these parts of the body. The breasts were then moved from the gallery space to the public sphere, where they were pulled along the sidewalk outside of Victoria’s Secret (on Robson street in downtown Vancouver) until they were directly smashed by myself and the public. The leftover fragments will function again as an installation piece along with photographic documentation from the performance.
This artwork questions and targets sexualized ideals of bodily perfection within mainstream visual culture. If Victoria's Secret sells the antidote to insecurities that it helps to create, then this installation/performance/installation is meant to strip away that facade and remind us of the strength of bodies and the fragility of manufactured, commodified objects (which is what women's bodies are expected to be.)
Photo by: Diana Hanitzsch