Personal Statement

My chosen artwork is by Huguette Caland, named ‘Self Portait’, 1971, which is a piece from a series of drawings I saw in the Venice Biennale, which were extraordinarily delicate, intimate ink drawings of female genitalia. I decided to go down the route of using theories discussed in Cath’s Goddesses and Monsters about phallic women and castration fear, which has created an element of humour and irony in my work.

I started by drawing her piece and created collage-type drawings of it, which lead to different drawings of vaginas in Caland’s simplistic style.

I wanted to focus on the materials I used to create these sculptural/paintings of vaginas in order to create a meaning, leaving them open to interpretation. My idea was to use contrasting materials of soft fabrics, making the spectator want to touch them, as well as use clay which mimics what a vagina actually looks like. The act of dressing up a vagina then opens up a social issue that women face, as well as a slightly humorous side of fetishism and strip tease – but by using a ‘scary’ vagina, rather than an entire body.

I believe I was successful in doing this and will continue to develop this idea, as well as incorporate other theories into the next pieces.