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CLITEROS
Weakness, conformism, shame, power and Clitoris. For a year now, I thought about creating a Clitoris series. Why? The clitoris is already in school books, now a lot of people know its shape. Sometimes you can see a clitoris tagged on street walls. It is a natural part of the female anatomy! Why do I want to do more? Why do I want to exhibit more about the clitoris? I want to raise awareness to discard misrepresentation, misunderstanding and celebrate the sensuality of the clitoris. Wome1
Weakness, conformism, shame, power and Clitoris.
For a year now, I thought about creating a Clitoris series.
Why?
The clitoris is already in school books, now a lot of people know its shape. Sometimes you can see a clitoris tagged on street walls.
It is a natural part of the female anatomy!
Why do I want to do more?
Why do I want to exhibit more about the clitoris?
I want to raise awareness to discard misrepresentation, misunderstanding and celebrate the sensuality of the clitoris.
Women must be equally represented in reality as they are in symbolism.
My works consist of 69+4;
69 is symbolic, erotic, yin and yang, man and woman, the balance of life and death.
Plus 4 as the violence against this organ, as it interests some people and scares others.
4 as the 4 methods of excision.
For me, the clitoris is a symbol of peace through a connection of love, for others an obscenity.
First, it’s an uprising against excision!
Today this artistic certainty shatters…..
How can I ever know what it is like to experience such profound pain interwoven with religious and cultural ties when I was born on the other side of the world, born in another world?
I can’t, I know I can’t but I feel a connection an emotional tie as a daughter, as a sister, as a mother, as a woman!
Who am I to talk about excision?
Who am I to talk about the clitoris?
Just an artist, a woman who’s in search of equal existence, the acceptance to be!
I want to acknowledge that I, know only too well of life’s twists and turns, happiness and pain, but they should be journeyed and experienced through self-exploration and not through force of control, causing deprivation and shame.
Generations of mutilated women unable to speak out, who suffered in silence may feel profound grief at this assertion,
I want to speak for the silent, I want to speak for the silenced!
I think about Frodo, who is tortured by the power of the ring.
In the end, he doesn’t want to destroy it and he doesn’t want to become corrupt by its power. But power can be positive!
This new series is like climbing the mountain of destiny.
We are all excised!
I want to shed light where shadows were cast!
History is checkered with excision!
In Europe, institutions implemented secret excisions used to control ‘hysterical’ young women!
In Africa, it is a celebration to recognise the transition from childhood to womanhood!
Women have been persecuted for their abundance of sexuality and lack of sexuality, frigidity, these, in turn, are frowned upon even by women!
but many have died.
We should embrace with solidarity and understanding, this is deeply rooted within culture!
I apologise that I am unable to explain with other words.
I want to explain that physical or mental excision is still alive even in education and explanations today.
Excision is still a tradition, a ritual, mothers bequeath it with fathers.
Men seem not to be concerned but it belongs to them because it touches their sisters, mothers, daughters.
Why do I want to make this art?
Do you want the truth?
I will tell you my story...
My parents were divorced and I lived with my mother. I wasn’t the typical girl, I didn’t want to wear the clothes she wanted me to wear. I was a tomboy, struggling with identity because I didn’t belong in the girl’s world or the boy’s world dictated by societal norms.
My teachers described me as having shaggy hair, imperfect teeth, and being too noisy.
Children ridiculed my complexion saying I had been in the sun with a sieve on my face because I had freckles.
I was in conflict, I challenged, yet I wanted to fit in!
I played with a Gameboy, why wasn’t there a Gamegirl? Why was there such distinctions in society?
When I was 9 or 10 I stood at the toilet imagining what it would be like to have a penis, my mum surprised me with her presence, she was horrified, I thought it was funny! I was curious, what was it like to have a penis? Surely boys wonder what it was like to have a clitoris? I spoke to boys about what it was like to have a clitoris and asked them what was it like to have a penis. I was a female who desired to be a male!
Desperate for acceptance I befriended a boy.
I started going to his house and after a few visits, I was led to a bedroom where I was abused by two children who inserted an iron ruler inside me.
The feeling of weakness and shame consumed me. I felt hurt and dirty and couldn’t make sense of it.
This memory came back to me when I was expecting my first child and the gynaecologist inserted a cold metal speculum inside me, so harshly and authoritarian, against my wishes. Equally harsh and cruel, after childbirth the midwife, tired, rushed stitching the episiotomy I had endured. When I winced she looked at me with contempt. I felt abused again!
I learned about excision at school but had forgotten about it until I went to live in the Ivory Coast, then it all came back to me. I was living in a world drenched in control, superstition and rituals.
My, the female organ and the male organ both exist yet are treated differently - but aren’t they both alive?
The clitoris is never talked about, identity negated, but it is alive and when it is cut it can change the life of a girl forever.
I want to represent to repair suffering.
I want my collection to be pharaonic to fight against the pharaonic excision.
I want to do a clitoris for every woman girl and boy. Yes, every boy because it affects them - do boys think you have lost your sexual identity when excised, ‘what happened to you’? is it a bad thing?
Maybe the clitoris is the hidden penis - I want to doodle it to compliment it and brandish it!
Who controls excision? Man, woman, society?
If it is men, then why?
Is it difficult for men to control their penis? Of course, the answer will be different for each man.
What would it be like to have a clitoris?
Would they control it better?
We all have sexual desire, male or female!
If it is women, then why?
Because it is not questioned? Because it happened to them?
Do they fear ex-communication, shame and even death if they don’t comply?
If it is society, then why?
To control our desire because they are afraid?
Men and women are both under pressure by society.
Now I am 40, a symbolic year, the year of wonder woman!
I have now opened my mind to what I want - I will not conform to society’s interpretation of an artist, I will not paint flowers and landscapes!
We live in a world that exists through control and negation. It’s time for change and liberation.
We all desire. We should all be open-minded, respect equality and desire.
For a year now, I thought about creating a Clitoris series.
Why?
The clitoris is already in school books, now a lot of people know its shape. Sometimes you can see a clitoris tagged on street walls.
It is a natural part of the female anatomy!
Why do I want to do more?
Why do I want to exhibit more about the clitoris?
I want to raise awareness to discard misrepresentation, misunderstanding and celebrate the sensuality of the clitoris.
Women must be equally represented in reality as they are in symbolism.
My works consist of 69+4;
69 is symbolic, erotic, yin and yang, man and woman, the balance of life and death.
Plus 4 as the violence against this organ, as it interests some people and scares others.
4 as the 4 methods of excision.
For me, the clitoris is a symbol of peace through a connection of love, for others an obscenity.
First, it’s an uprising against excision!
Today this artistic certainty shatters…..
How can I ever know what it is like to experience such profound pain interwoven with religious and cultural ties when I was born on the other side of the world, born in another world?
I can’t, I know I can’t but I feel a connection an emotional tie as a daughter, as a sister, as a mother, as a woman!
Who am I to talk about excision?
Who am I to talk about the clitoris?
Just an artist, a woman who’s in search of equal existence, the acceptance to be!
I want to acknowledge that I, know only too well of life’s twists and turns, happiness and pain, but they should be journeyed and experienced through self-exploration and not through force of control, causing deprivation and shame.
Generations of mutilated women unable to speak out, who suffered in silence may feel profound grief at this assertion,
I want to speak for the silent, I want to speak for the silenced!
I think about Frodo, who is tortured by the power of the ring.
In the end, he doesn’t want to destroy it and he doesn’t want to become corrupt by its power. But power can be positive!
This new series is like climbing the mountain of destiny.
We are all excised!
I want to shed light where shadows were cast!
History is checkered with excision!
In Europe, institutions implemented secret excisions used to control ‘hysterical’ young women!
In Africa, it is a celebration to recognise the transition from childhood to womanhood!
Women have been persecuted for their abundance of sexuality and lack of sexuality, frigidity, these, in turn, are frowned upon even by women!
but many have died.
We should embrace with solidarity and understanding, this is deeply rooted within culture!
I apologise that I am unable to explain with other words.
I want to explain that physical or mental excision is still alive even in education and explanations today.
Excision is still a tradition, a ritual, mothers bequeath it with fathers.
Men seem not to be concerned but it belongs to them because it touches their sisters, mothers, daughters.
Why do I want to make this art?
Do you want the truth?
I will tell you my story...
My parents were divorced and I lived with my mother. I wasn’t the typical girl, I didn’t want to wear the clothes she wanted me to wear. I was a tomboy, struggling with identity because I didn’t belong in the girl’s world or the boy’s world dictated by societal norms.
My teachers described me as having shaggy hair, imperfect teeth, and being too noisy.
Children ridiculed my complexion saying I had been in the sun with a sieve on my face because I had freckles.
I was in conflict, I challenged, yet I wanted to fit in!
I played with a Gameboy, why wasn’t there a Gamegirl? Why was there such distinctions in society?
When I was 9 or 10 I stood at the toilet imagining what it would be like to have a penis, my mum surprised me with her presence, she was horrified, I thought it was funny! I was curious, what was it like to have a penis? Surely boys wonder what it was like to have a clitoris? I spoke to boys about what it was like to have a clitoris and asked them what was it like to have a penis. I was a female who desired to be a male!
Desperate for acceptance I befriended a boy.
I started going to his house and after a few visits, I was led to a bedroom where I was abused by two children who inserted an iron ruler inside me.
The feeling of weakness and shame consumed me. I felt hurt and dirty and couldn’t make sense of it.
This memory came back to me when I was expecting my first child and the gynaecologist inserted a cold metal speculum inside me, so harshly and authoritarian, against my wishes. Equally harsh and cruel, after childbirth the midwife, tired, rushed stitching the episiotomy I had endured. When I winced she looked at me with contempt. I felt abused again!
I learned about excision at school but had forgotten about it until I went to live in the Ivory Coast, then it all came back to me. I was living in a world drenched in control, superstition and rituals.
My, the female organ and the male organ both exist yet are treated differently - but aren’t they both alive?
The clitoris is never talked about, identity negated, but it is alive and when it is cut it can change the life of a girl forever.
I want to represent to repair suffering.
I want my collection to be pharaonic to fight against the pharaonic excision.
I want to do a clitoris for every woman girl and boy. Yes, every boy because it affects them - do boys think you have lost your sexual identity when excised, ‘what happened to you’? is it a bad thing?
Maybe the clitoris is the hidden penis - I want to doodle it to compliment it and brandish it!
Who controls excision? Man, woman, society?
If it is men, then why?
Is it difficult for men to control their penis? Of course, the answer will be different for each man.
What would it be like to have a clitoris?
Would they control it better?
We all have sexual desire, male or female!
If it is women, then why?
Because it is not questioned? Because it happened to them?
Do they fear ex-communication, shame and even death if they don’t comply?
If it is society, then why?
To control our desire because they are afraid?
Men and women are both under pressure by society.
Now I am 40, a symbolic year, the year of wonder woman!
I have now opened my mind to what I want - I will not conform to society’s interpretation of an artist, I will not paint flowers and landscapes!
We live in a world that exists through control and negation. It’s time for change and liberation.
We all desire. We should all be open-minded, respect equality and desire.
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