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| Hannah Wilke S.O.S. Starification Object Series 1974-1982 Museum of Modern Art, N.Y., USA |
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Rights (Photo / Work):
© Marsie, Emanuelle, Damon and Andrew Scharlatt /The
Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles/
Bildrecht, Wien, 2013
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„I do not separate my art from my body, it only is another par of it."[1] With these words Hanna Wilke describes the core of her oeuvre. Inspired by the style of "Body Art" that exhibits the Self and the body of the artist and interacts directly with the audience, she uses her own body as instrument of expression and protest. During the performance, that is the base for the photos of "S.O.S. Starification Object Series", Wilke distributed chewing gums to the audience, out of the chewed gum she created vulval sculptures and sticked them onto her body. She then had herself photographed in lascivious poses. Her body is decorated with chewing gum vulvas and labial shapes reminding of vulvas. Wilke decided to use chewing gum, because it is an every day object: you buy, you use it and if you are tired of it, you carelessly throw it away. Wilke considers the chewing gum as a metaphor for the american woman.[2] Disfiguring and stigmatising herself with the chewing gums sticked onto her body, she brings into question the perception of women who are objectified and sexually desired by men. The spectators are confused by the chewing gum objects, because they are not used to see affected the woman's beautiful and perfect image, which has been shaped by merchandise management. Wilke shows the self beyond its proper uniqueness[3] and criticises and reacts to the mass consumption due to capitalism and the idols created by the mass media. She has decided to entitle this work "Starification" (term used for something extremely special), since it easily can be transformed into "Scarification". The term describes the decorative scarring of the skin, in african tribes, for example. In the figurative sense the term "vaginal wounds"[4] is used as an allusion to the pains (cosmetic surgeries, diets) women undergo for being conform to the aspired social ideal.[5]
Biography: http://www.hannahwilke.com/id10.html (Translation: K. Seifter) |
