The Great Wall of Vulva

Award winning artist Jamie McCartney presents his most recent epic sculpture, The Great Wall of Va**na:

Female genitalia have long been a source of fascination, recently of celebration but generally of confusion. Today it seems that creating images of the va**na is the sole preserve of pornographers, erotic artists and... feminists. Step in British artist Jamie McCartney who has grasped the nettle to create a monumental wall sculpture all about this most intimate of places. For 400 women their privates have gone public...

Half a decade since its humble beginnings, The Great Wall of Va**na has enticed women from all over the world to volunteer to be cast by McCartney in an overwhelmingly positive reaction to the project. The 9 metre long polyptych consists of four hundred plaster casts of v***as, all of them unique, arranged into ten large panels. McCartney set out to make this project as broad and inclusive as possible. Included are mothers and daughters, identical twins, transgendered men and women as well as a woman pre and post natal and another one pre and post l***aplasty. It’s not vulgar, it’s v***a! This isn’t just sensation, it is art with a social conscience and McCartney wants people to stop, look and listen. This is about grabbing the attention, using humour and spectacle, and then educating people about what normal women really look like. Described as “the Va**na Monologues of sculpture” this piece is intended to change the lives of women, forever.

“I realised that many women also suffer anxiety about their ge****ls and I was in a unique position to do something about that.”

V***as and l***a are as different as faces and many people, particularly women, don't seem to know that. Men tend to have seen more than women, who have often only seen their own, and many have never looked that closely. Hence the exposure of so many, showing the variety of shapes is endlessly fascinating, empowering and comforting. For many women their ge****ls are a source of anxiety and shame rather than pride and this piece seeks to redress the balance, showing that everyone is different and everyone is normal. McCartney hopes this sculpture will alleviate this anxiety and help to combat the trend for cosmetic l***al surgery which has seen an exponential rise in recent years. The number of operations are doubling year on year and are often undertaken without proper knowledge of what constitutes a ‘normal’ appearance. This new fashion for creating 'perfect' va**nas sets a worrying trend for future generations of women.

“This is a bizarre practice which suggests that one is better than another and it has got to stop. Taste in nothing is universal and any desire for 'homogyny' could be very misguided. It’s time our society grew up around these issue and I’m certain that art has a role to play”

The Great Wall of Va**na, which appeared on Channel 4’s programme The Perfect Va**na, makes for fascinating and revealing viewing which is a far cry from po*******hy. It is not erotic art. It is not about titillation. McCartney has pulled off an amazing trick, to deliberately make the sexual nonsexual and take you much deeper. One is able to stare without shame but in wonder and amazement at this exposé of human variety. For the first time for many women they will be able to see their own ge****ls in relation to other women's. In doing so they may dispel many misconceptions they may have been carrying about what women look like 'down there'. The sculpture is serene and intricate and it works on many levels.

“If this sculpture helps just one woman decide not to proceed with unnecessary plastic surgery on their ge****ls then it will have succeeded.”

www.greatwallofva**na.co.uk