 "Photo: Isaac Elster - The South End")
If one were to walk into the gritty, paint-stained Student Run Gallery Feb. 14, he would be greeted by a large painting of a woman with an exposed vagina.
This work was one of many at “The Vagina Show” a one night mixed media art exhibit organized by Wayne State students Andrea Zarzycki and Sicily McRaven.
The show displayed painting and drawings of variations of the female anatomy, with images of it often hidden in other objects.
There were also a couple of sculptures of vaginal images and photographs of women in various nonsexual poses.
Twenty-six-year-old photography major Zarzycki said the show was scheduled to coincide with V-Day — national Vagina Awareness Day — and Valentine’s Day.
“We’re a big fan of women’s rights and feminism, so we wanted to do something more woman-esque,” she said. “If you show a full-frontal vagina, a movie becomes NC-17.
“It should not be something people are scared of.”
McRaven, the gallery’s public relations representative, said the show’s themes did not just include asexualizing female anatomy, but also women’s issues and feminism.
“Today is the day that we remember all those different struggles in women’s inequality and how our bodies relate to how we’re perceived in society, and that’s what this show is all about,” McRaven said.
Brian Taylor, a 1979 Wayne State graduate and photography major, was one of the exhibit’s many male viewers. He did not believe that the show’s content completely justified its title.
“It was called ‘The Vagina Show,’ right?” Taylor said. “I really didn’t see a whole lot of that there.
“I would have liked a little more in the way of erotica, maybe a little porn.”
Taylor’s favorite piece was Christina Spivak’s “Empty Box.” This piece included a wooden box holding a broken egg lying in a nest of red string, and a pair of baby shoes hung on that same strand.
“The red thread symbolizes menstrual blood — and of course eggs symbolize babies and what is being lost every month … kind of like lost potential,” Spivak said.
She thought the exhibit did a service in positively acknowledging female anatomy.
“It’s a good thing because guys are always adjusting themselves, kind of like ‘yeah, I got a penis,’ and girls are like ‘don’t let anyone see my parts,’” she said. “This way you’re acknowledging that female parts exist and portraying them all different ways, not just sexually.”
Zarzycki said she hopes there will be a “Vagina Show” next year, and is already working on its grant proposal.
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