As we count down to the June 7th launch of the third and final volume in our ‘Pretty Brilliant women in the arts’ series, we’ll spotlight a remarkable woman artist every week.
Our first spotlight falls on Hannah Wilke (1940-1993), who’s portrait graced the cover of our inaugural Pretty Brilliant issue from 2020.
Hannah Wilke, S.O.S. Starification Object Series (Performalist Self-Portrait), 1974, Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. © Marsie, Emanuelle, Damon, and Andrew Scharlatt, licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society, NY/Pictoright, Amsterdam
In her groundbreaking S.O.S. Starification Object Series Wilke distributed chewing gum to her audience before removing her shirt. She then sculpted each piece of returned, chewed gum into miniature vulvas, adhering them to her bare skin like scars. ‘I chose gum because it’s the perfect metaphor for the American woman,’ she explained. ‘Chew her up, get what you want out of her, throw her out and pop in a new piece.’
By transforming her body into a canvas marked with vulvic ‘wounds’, Wilke directly challenged the art-historical and psychoanalytical portrayal of female genitalia as inherently damaged. This vulvic motif became a signature element across her diverse practice — appearing in drawings, photographs, sculptures, prints, and performances — disrupting the ‘pleasure of the gaze’ and conventional female representation.
Throughout her career, Wilke’s body remained her essential instrument, even as illness transformed it. Her final work, ‘Intra-Venus’ (1991), documents with raw honesty her journey through cancer treatments and chemotherapy. In her ‘Brushstrokes’ series, she created poignant drawings using the last strands of her once-luxuriant hair. The legacy of a wonderful, fragile body.
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