This autobiographical work celebrates queer femme experience, privileging the female body in an eroticised state and experiences of womxnhood. The sculpture presents a seductive and highly sensual visceral aesthetic language which is achieved through a mash-up of different materials including plaster, clay, resin, mirror Perspex, metal objects and a colour palette of pepto-bismol pink hues. The title FRUITS DES FEMMES translates to Fruits of The Female which is a tongue-in-cheek nod to the presentation of fragmented body parts in the form of a cake-like column structure. Snake-like forms, nipples, ribbons, bows and sapphic pop-culture references are featured, such as the carabiner clip hanging from a vagina-esque clam shell purse, which is also a reference to Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. Themes of mysticism, the female body, pleasure and eroticism are explored to offer an alternative language for desire, sexuality and fantasy and portrays an empowering image of female subjectivity. The work is autobiographical referencing my internal struggle with ‘coming out’ and refuting oppressive heteronormative (and patriarchal) idealisations of the female body that are inscribed in the everyday.
2020
plaster, jesmonite, pigment, clay, resin, found objects, acrylic mirror
35.0 x 25.0 x 25.0 cm
IP2126
Text & images © Olivia Strange
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Fruits des Femmes by Olivia Strange
The Ingram Prize 2021
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2:37