Exquisite Corpse

Details from Dolce & Gabbana's Fall 2010 Ready-To-Wear Collection

Doorway

Images by Aviva Rowley, see her photostream here.

In the Forest

Images by Lissy Elle, see her photostream here.

Privates

Public Privates: Performing Gynecology from Both Ends of the Speculum by Terri Kapsalis

In Public Privates, a book about looking and being looked at, about speculums, spectacles, and spectators, about display, illumination, and reflection, Terri Kapsalis makes visible the practices and representations of gynecology. The quintessential examination of women, gynecology is not simply the study of women’s bodies, but also serves to define and constitute them. Any critical analysis of gynecology is therefore, as Kapsalis affirms, an investigation of what it means to be female. In this respect she considers the public exposure of female "privates" in the performance of the pelvic exam.

From J. Marion Sims’s surgical experiments on unanesthetized slave women in the mid-nineteenth century, to the use of cadavers and prostitutes to teach medical students gynecological techniques, Kapsalis focuses on the ways in which women and their bodies have been treated by the medical establishment. Removing gynecology from its private cover within clinic walls and medical textbook pages, she decodes the gynecological exam, seizing on its performative dimension. She considers traditional medical practices and the dynamics of "proper" patient performance; non-traditional practices such as cervical self-exam; and incarnations of the pelvic examination outside the bounds of medicine, including its appearance in David Cronenberg’s film Dead Ringers and Annie Sprinkle’s performance piece "Public Cervix Announcement."

Confounding the boundaries that separate medicine, art, and pornography, revealing the potent cultural attitudes and anxieties about women, female bodies, and female sexuality that permeate the practice of gynecology, Public Privates concludes by locating a venue from which challenging, alternative performances may be staged.

--- from DukeUniversity Press website

Tumors

Images by Frank H Netter, M.D. from A Compilation of Paintings on the Normal and Pathological Anatomy of the Reproductive System, CIBA, 1965.

Anatomies

Images by Fernando Vicente Vanitas.

Little Girl

Images by Amber Rose, see her photostream here.

Balkan Erotic

Stills from Marina Abramovic's 2005 multi-channel video installation Balkan Erotic.

The work explores Balkan pagan traditions and culture through sexuality and the human body. Abramovic researched Serbian folklore and discovered many historic instances of the employment of eroticism and sexuality to address everyday issues. For example, if it rained too much the women of the village would run into the fields and lift their skirts in an attempt to scare the gods and end the rain. Along with amateur actors, Abramovic dressed in traditional folk costumes and reenacted ancient rituals. The videos examine Balkan folklore and culture, the power of sexuality and tradition.

Grass

Images by Darling Child, see her photostream here.

Daily Exercises

From Modern Beauty Culture by Maria Verney, 1933.

Artificial

Sculptures by Cristina Lei Rodriguez, read an interview with the artist here.

Ruff

From Wunderkind's Fall 2010 Ready-To-Wear Collection

Flying Dreams

Drawings by Jeana Sohn.

Alarm Call

Bjork's Alarm Call video directed by Alexander McQueen

Transmission

Images by neil △ krug, see his photostream here.

Book

From calypsospots' flikr set Book Art.

Inflamed

Images from Diseases of the Skin, Eigth Edition, 1918 by Henry W. Stelwagon, M.D., Ph.D.

Blue Spots

Images by iliveinoctober, see her photostream here.

Fur

Images by Oh My Cavalier! (Julianna Swaney) see her wares here.