Unveiled as part of this year’s Parcours section at Art Basel is a work being described as the first ever public sculpture depicting a nude, openly trans woman. Designed by the American trans artist Puppies Puppies (aka Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo), the work is a life-sized bronze statue in the tradition of classical sculpture, based on a 3D scan of the artist’s body. Written on the work’s plinth is the word: “woman”.
This statue:
Not “Woman”.
“Trans women are erased, murdered, arrested and exiled every day,” Kuriki-Olivo says. “When you look at trans history you see so many blank spots which can only be recovered through storytelling. In this context, my continued existence is revolutionary, and I need to be hyper-present in the world. It is important for me to have this sculpture in the public sphere.”
That first claim. It sounds as if all men who claim to be women experience erasure, murder, arrest, and exile every day. It’s an absurdity, a melodramatic self-pitying thought-free absurdity.
That second claim – a “history” full of blank spots could just mean a history that doesn’t exist. The blank spots could be not wicked conspiratorial censorship but just an absence. Maybe there just haven’t been all that many men who thought they were women until very recently.
Blank spots that can only be recovered through storytelling are…stories. They’re like stories of Loki and Balder and Freya, Athena and Artemis and Apollo. They’re not “recovered” in the sense of being hidden truths brought to light; they’re inventions.
In the context of all these blank spots and stories his continued existence is far from revolutionary. Another word for being “hyper-present in the world” is narcissism. He doesn’t “need” to be hyper-present in the world any more than the rest of us, and saying he does is sheer narcissism.
It’s not at all important for him to have that tawdry insulting sculpture in the world or anywhere else.
Comments
9 responses to “Woman Not”
Surprised the statue isn’t doing the head tilt.
“My … existence is revolutionary”. Vapid claim of Generation Me. Sheesh.
His grand artistic shout out to the world — “I DON’T KNOW WHAT A WOMAN IS.” Well done, doofus. Message received. :P
Ceci n’est pas une femme.
Except the old mythological stories have some level of fun in reading them, and have at least some artistic merit. The trans stories are just pathetic look-at-me stories.
That statue reminds me of the hardcore bodybuilders in my days of owning a gym. Too much juice shrinks the penis and creates man boobs.
Holyjesusonapogostick – I’ve just realised I was running a gym for trans!
That’s a dude, dude.
Well. We do keep saying how calling them trans women makes people think of them as actual women. This should make things clearer to the casual observer.
Does it matter that most of the stories are bullshit transwashing of gender non-conforming men and women who wouldn’t have called themselves “trans” in a million years?
No, you don’t. Not moreso than anybody else. How exactly does one do that anyway? Open your eyes REALLY WIDE? Cross your arms and stamp your feet? Drink lots of coffee?
Why? Does everyone else get a sculpture too? If not, why you particularly? I don’t need a sculpture but it is important for me to have a pony.
Oh, I see. Still no, though.