Combining soft sculpture and performance art, Nakita Shelley’s Outbursts consists of the artist’s painted personal phone number and a wearable sculpture that exaggerates the simple yet sometimes controversial parts of the female body. While wearing the sculpture, Shelley speaks with audience members about their own thoughts and experiences with the representation of the female form. This cause for conversation affords women to, as Shelley states, “reclaim their characteristic bodies from a society that tries to make them all uniform,” as well as an opportunity for people outside that audience to rethink the standards and expectations put on those who identify as female.
Among the painted veins and stretch marks, the flesh-colored forms include very intimate donations from women throughout the community. These donated pubic hairs, head hairs, and menstrual stained fabrics are a way to portray the influential relationships that can blossom when such taboo subjects are discussed between women. By utilizing her “proper homemaker skills” Shelley stuffed, sewed, and assembled the suit with assistance from many willing hands in her community. The suit also includes man-made pieces of clothing such as bras, elastics, nylons, and corsets—all undergarments that are largely accepted ways of conforming women’s natural body types.
Shelley’s phone number is painted on the wall for instances when she is not in the space—providing an opportunity for those who want to have personal and direct conversations with her. Shelley states, “I want to hear your stories, experiences, and opinions that have made you feel inaccurately portrayed through your body and your experiences. I want to hear those hilarious period stories, the rules and regulations put on your bodies and how you reflect on them, choosing for yourself how you want to portray [your own bodies].” Shelley provides this gallery as a safe space to have the experiences of those unheard come to light. By confronting personal struggles, the artist invites her audience to do the same in order to become forces to unite and unify all women and their bodies.
Outbursts Copyright 2020