This week in Brighton, UK, the annual Festival Fringe is underway with a very interesting gallery exhibition – the Great Wall of Vaginas.
The Great Wall of Vaginas is a 30-foot-long structure that broadcasts the molds of 400 different vaginas. The Great Wall of Vaginas represents a diverse collection of different women including mothers, daughters, twins, lesbians and pregnant women, falling anywhere between the ages of 18 to 76.
While the wall leaves little to the imagination, McCartney hopes to raise awareness regarding the reality of genital mutilation in Third World countries. His main goal was to represent the beauty and individuality of women everywhere. The artist had this to say about his latest work:
Why did I do it and what’s it all about?” I hear you ask. Well, it became clear to me whilst working on a not dissimilar piece for a sex museum that many women have anxiety about their genital appearance. It appalled me that our society has created yet one more way to make women feel bad about themselves. I decided that I was uniquely placed to do something about it.
The sculpture comments on the trend for surgery to create the ‘perfect’ vagina. This modern day equivalent of female genital mutilation is a bizarre practice which suggests that one is better than another. Taste in nothing is universal and any desire for ‘homogyny’ could be very misguided. 400 casts arranged in this manner is in no way pornographic, as it might have been if photographs had been used. One is able to stare without shame but in wonder and amazement at this exposé of human variety. For the first time for many women they will be able to see their own genitals in relation to other women’s. In doing so they may dispel many misconceptions they may have been carrying about what women look like ‘down there’. The sculpture is serene and intricate and it works on many levels.
Notwithstanding the artist’s alternative intentions, the wall was recently awarded the Erotic Signature Sculpture Prize. The Great Wall of Vaginas took McCarntey over five years to complete.
