The Chocolatiest Sex

'The Chocolatiest Sex' (2012) appropriated doll, condom, chocolate

Nina Power, One Dimensional Woman:

"Almost everything turns out to be 'feminist' - shopping, pole-dancing, even eating chocolate... it's every woman for herself, and if it is the Feminist woman who gets the nicest shoes and the chocolatiest sex, then that's just too bad for you, sister... to Freud's infamous question, 'what do women want?' it seems, then, that we have all-too-ready an answer. Why! They want shoes and chocolate and handbags and babies and curling tongs washed down with a large glass of white wine and a complaint about their jobs/men/friends... but a hip young feminist must have her indulgences... chocolate has come to represent that its female devourer is a little bit, well, 'naughty'... chocolate represents that acceptable everyday extravagance that all-too-neatly encapsulates just that right kind of perky passivity that feminized capitalism just loves to reward with a bubble bath and some crumbly cocoa solids... what makes women happy? Ask them and they'll reply, in roughly this order: sex, food, friends, family, shopping, chocolate."

The Oedipal Triangle, Capitalism and Consumer Feminism

Developing my ideas upon desire, I began to reconsider the ideas of Lacan, and, after re-reading 'Sexuality and its Discontents', the theories of Deleuze and Guattari, particularly in relation to the connections between desire and capitalism. They argue that capitalist society imposes constraints to regulate "allowed" desires - those which centrally relate to the reproduction of the family. uch psychologists argue the Oedipal triangle, a concept introduced by Freud, in which the child comes to sexually desire the parent of the opposite sex, and simultaneously resent the parent of their own, 'is the personal and private territoriality that corresponds to all of capitalism's efforts at social reterritorialisation'; as such, the family framework is trapped within the capitalist concepts of sexuality, which in turn distort the production of desire, and is 'complicit with how capitalism has constructed social order'. 

Reconsidering Maslow's Hierachy of Needs, I started to contemplate the manner in which we are marketed products and services based upon our desires, and our need for fulfilment and 'self-actualisation'. Reading articles upon "Cupcake Feminism" and how to "brand" modern feminism, it appeared to me that contemporary feminist thought seemed almost like a strategy to market a product - as Nina Power points out 'the height of supposed female emancipation coincides so perfectly with consumerism', presenting the 'remarkable similarity between 'liberating' feminism and 'liberating' capitalism'. As the The F Word states 'we are not interested in pushing forward a hip, 'fashionable' kind of feminism', and these ideas around consumerism and capitalism, combined with my previous work upon sex dolls and the sex industry could be an interesting way to develop my practice.
 

'The body of a woman exists in the battlefield of male control'

Reading through various Guardian articles in relation to the Slut Walks, I came across one reporting upon the Newcastle version of the march. Referencing the speech given by organiser Lizi Gray, she claims "woman have the right to dress how they like and not be attacked", announced to a crowd carrying signs baring slogans such as "My Clothes Aren't My Consent." The emphasis upon clothing in relation to the body reminded me of the current Sarah Lucas exhibit at the Sadie Coles Gallery, in which clothing such as tights are used to represent the female body, and, in my opinion, reflect the textural and sensual qualities of skin. Works such as 'Make Love', left, appeared to me like a play upon the controversial furniture of Allen Jones, and yet simultaneously managed also to tie the female body to domestic objects, in a sense merging them into one. Strong management of the space enabled the pieces to interact with each other, and gave pieces like 'Tit Teddy', below right, a sense of narrative - the work seemed almost like a child had misplaced it on the window sill, and it was simply waiting for its owner to return.

While I was not particularly pleased with the outcome of my previous experimental works around language, I found it curious that I had returned to childhood toys, and began to rethink my work utilising dolls in relation to the human form. Though I had hoped that by merging human speech with almost alien objects I could transform an object of comfort into one which confronts and challenges, it actually forced myself to reconsider the Slut Walks, and to question to what extent they accurately represented women's liberation and contemporary feminism; they seemed to suggest that rather than allowing others to see you as an object, you should instead make yourself an object first, a move which I saw as more of a self-fulfilling prophecy than a celebration of a liberated body. In relation to language, I'm particularly inspired by Lucas' use of a title as anchorage, steering us to consider the work in a way perhaps not initially considered. Playful use of language made me think of Louise Bourgeois' 'Fillette'; 'playing on the ironic contrast between the title and the work, Fillette [little girl] represents a penis', a 'disjunction of word and object'. I feel her influence can also be seen in the sculptural work below, which I believe lies somewhere between her pink fabric forms such as 'Arch of Hysteria' and the 'Uro-Genital Systems' of Kiki Smith. While I had originally intended for the figure to consist of breasts and legs, reducing the female form to the body parts frequently referenced as targets by Slut Walk banners and slogans, as the piece developed I felt it seemed to take on the suggestive of ovaries and a uterus - perhaps reflective of issues prevalent in previous waves of the feminist movement, such as abortion, birth control and biological sexual difference. As my previous doll works have been on a far smaller scale, I feel a more life sized figure manages to relate my enthusiasm for childhood objects with their adult counterpart, here seeming disturbingly similar to a sex doll. Considering how to install the piece, my partner suggested hanging it upside down, and through this a phallic form was created, managing to visual express the idea of the woman "being" the phallus through making herself an object of desire, while simultaneously referencing both the male and female form, and presenting the body as 'a site for deployment of power relations'. I feel that through taking my influence from language, and creating objects which act as a play upon form, I can combine my interests in the patriarchal and phallocentric nature apparent in a number of aspects of society with my desire to "play" with appropriated quotes and phrases to create visual manifestations of language.

'The body of a woman exists in the battlefield of male control' (2012) tights, cotton wool, appropriated textiles