Aislinn Russell
See You Next Tuesday, 2020
Acrylic on unstretched canvas
48 x 48 inches
In a large piece using the medium of acrylic on an unstretched canvas, I painted a pattern of vaginas. The use of pattern plays into the way that patterning has historically been a domestic feminine art, and the repeating nature of the pattern of so many vaginas alongside each other makes the subject matter seem more commonplace--maybe even banal.
The intent of this piece is to normalize the female body. In contemporary society there’s a strange duality in the way the female body is viewed, it is simultaneously a thing of shame and to be concealed and yet also something that is fixated upon and objectified. It seems that a vagina is only acceptable if it caters to the male gaze, like in film or TV or directly turned into a commodified that can be bought and sold.
My aim is to undermine the male gaze by removing this particular feature from the body and thereby denying the sexualization that we have come to expect. There are other expectations, assumptions, and associations attached to this piece and its subject matter. There are the ideas of vaginas as sacred and holy because they give birth. There were people who assumed that this piece has something to do with my sexuality. There are the perceptions of the female body as shameful and disgusting. There are the associations of vaginas as symbols of womanhood as you see at a place like the women’s march, as if having a vagina is what makes you a woman, which I disagree with. The female body and its political implications are complicated nuanced topics that I’m engaging with and exploring in this piece, but I don’t claim to have all the answers to yet.