In this series
of black-and-white photographs, Hannah Wilke poses half-naked for the camera,
mimicking the postures of female celebrities and models in magazines and
advertisements. She is mockingly flirtatious in some images, playfully wearing
a man’s tie, tousling her hair, smiling suggestively with her lips parted. In
other images, her expression is cold and distant, as the viewer gazes at the
sensuous curves of her neck, back, and breasts.
But there is
more. Wilke has also stuck tiny chewing gum sculptures of vulvas to her body.
These sculptures simultaneously confront and repel the viewer. The vulvas
explicitly confront the viewer about their sexual thoughts and desires as they
view photographs of a woman’s body. And the vulvas sprout from her face, back,
and chest like warty or diseased growths, and causing the viewer to step back
in revulsion, thus breaking their lascivious gaze.
