The catalogue includes all visual and textual works that are a part of the EnGendered Species Exhibitions.
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Susan Porteous | Long Beach, California
Undo straps around do touch, caress and fondle the balls, and read the newsprint of the one-eyed night crawler in a turtle neck sweater. Why not? What the hell? It’s all semantics, anyway.
Contemporary culture is at the heart of Porteous’s original and creative art works. Observant of contemporary culture’s obsession with the sexual organs of men and women, this British artist, now resident in Long Beach, has collected seventy terms that refer to breasts and three hundred and forty-six terms that refer to the penis. “I find it amazing that we have so many terms to describe these taboo areas of the body compared with, for example, those for fingers or toes.” Yes and why is that? What exactly are we trying to hide, cover, recreate or make creative? Porteous’s works are interactive. They are meant to be touched, fondled, handled and caressed.
do touch suggests breasts cradled in a black box lined with pink satin that fastens shut with bra straps. Within the two ballooned “breasts” are seventy typed terms that contain words that denote breasts. Porteous believes that, “Some viewers will be embarrassed once they realize what the object represents, others will be amused.” The same humor plays out in her other pieces. balls invites viewers to fondle a pair of sandblasted steel balls, and in one-eyed night crawler in a turtle neck sweater, Porteous has amased a collection of three hundred forty-six penis related terms in flip-book format. Again, Porteous’s intention is that people recognize and contemplate our culture’s need and desire to fetishize these specific body parts. Viewers should regard her work as interactive and as an opportunity to explore their own personal interpretation of human anatomy and the many names we find for our body parts.
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by Marisol Rodarte
Susan Porteous
do touch, 2005
handmade box, balloons, text
9.5" x 5" x 4"
Susan Porteous
balls, 2004
sandblasted steel balls, binders’ board, paper
2" x 3.6" x 1.75"
Susan Porteous
one-eyed night crawler in a turtle neck sweater, 2004
newsprint, card, typewritten text, Xerox copies
1.5" x 6.5" x 1"
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