Island womxn
make good wives
Chapt. 2 Vulva Monologues
Photography
2023 - Ongoing
Womxn of Malta, we struggle to be humanised. Again and again, we are just a means to an end, objectified - vessel of reproduction, this is how our system views us.
How can we begin to understand, let alone improve our sexual reproductive health and rights under a system ruled by patriarchy? What is female sexual pleasure, dare I ask? Does it even come into account?
This project addresses the struggle of Maltese woman’s experiences with their sexual pleasure and the understanding of their own autonomy. This is done through exploring the aspects of catholicism and colonialism in their implications on the female body. Acknowledging the transgenerational sexual trauma of the community, this project investigates a shift towards a more hopeful future. In conversations with the artist, Maltese people assigned female at birth share their stories and their struggles to gain autonomy and sexual liberation.
How can we begin to understand, let alone improve our sexual reproductive health and rights under a system ruled by patriarchy? What is female sexual pleasure, dare I ask? Does it even come into account?
This project addresses the struggle of Maltese woman’s experiences with their sexual pleasure and the understanding of their own autonomy. This is done through exploring the aspects of catholicism and colonialism in their implications on the female body. Acknowledging the transgenerational sexual trauma of the community, this project investigates a shift towards a more hopeful future. In conversations with the artist, Maltese people assigned female at birth share their stories and their struggles to gain autonomy and sexual liberation.
There is a distinction between pain and suffering which Audrey Lourd carefully explains:
Suffering is the nightmare, the reliving of unmetabolized and unrecognised pain. Pain is an event, an experience that must be recognised, a force that can catalyse change, force knowledge or fuel action. We have been taught to endure suffering, to suppress our longings and to silence ourselves. But our pain slowly fuels a hopeful change that will liberate us towards our female right to body autonomy and agency.
Patriarchy is the ultimate leech, a venomous symptom running through our societal system, our motherland, Malta.
Vulva Monologues
Chapt. 1 On Revelations
Photography, film animation,
podcast, instalation, publication
2022
To all Vulva baring women, are you aware of your
own authentic, autonomous sexual well-being? Have you started a conscious
sexual pleasure journey?
Vulva Monologues is an ongoing multi-platform project about the female search for autonomy through self-pleasure. I have been working with 7 womxn who feel confident with themselves and are consciously on a sexual pleasure journey.
Cami, Eline, Kiki, Kiki Elize, Roberta, Whitney and Yanzi invite all viewers into their individual self-pleasure journeys as together, we strongly believe in the importance of communication to be able to liberate and empower the topic of female pleasure.
We have been carrying the burden of our ancestral past and we are now slowly chiselling away the damage, the constructs, the stigmas, the taboos and the shame that society has put upon us. We are awakening our subconscious and strengthening our consciousness. Pleasure is something that is learnt - it’s a process. We are on a constant, winding journey. Sexually, womxn go through several changes over their lifetime. Our desires and pleasures go through highs and lows and so we need to listen to and explore our individual bodies and communicate amongst ourselves.
To be able to have the confidence of having full ownership of your body and to know what you like is so important and so taking that first step, fed by your curiosities, is key.
A sexual revolution is brewing. The title 'Vulva Monologues' is a play on words with reference to ‘The Vagina Monologues’ by Eve Ensler, 1996. We are a new generation, bringing forth the sexual revolution to a new turning point liberating a woman's right to pleasure!
Vulva Monologues is an ongoing multi-platform project about the female search for autonomy through self-pleasure. I have been working with 7 womxn who feel confident with themselves and are consciously on a sexual pleasure journey.
Cami, Eline, Kiki, Kiki Elize, Roberta, Whitney and Yanzi invite all viewers into their individual self-pleasure journeys as together, we strongly believe in the importance of communication to be able to liberate and empower the topic of female pleasure.
We have been carrying the burden of our ancestral past and we are now slowly chiselling away the damage, the constructs, the stigmas, the taboos and the shame that society has put upon us. We are awakening our subconscious and strengthening our consciousness. Pleasure is something that is learnt - it’s a process. We are on a constant, winding journey. Sexually, womxn go through several changes over their lifetime. Our desires and pleasures go through highs and lows and so we need to listen to and explore our individual bodies and communicate amongst ourselves.
To be able to have the confidence of having full ownership of your body and to know what you like is so important and so taking that first step, fed by your curiosities, is key.
A sexual revolution is brewing. The title 'Vulva Monologues' is a play on words with reference to ‘The Vagina Monologues’ by Eve Ensler, 1996. We are a new generation, bringing forth the sexual revolution to a new turning point liberating a woman's right to pleasure!
What Does your orgasm look like?
Podcast
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Fuck Me
Performace, Film
in Colaboration with Ben Maier
2021
Fuck Me is a short performative film that explores the
themes of reclaiming and discovering one's own sexual identity in the face of
conservative views on sexuality. The film is set within a fictitious storyline
that critiques the concept of virginity within the Catholic Church. Inspired by
the Flux art movement, the film takes the audience on a satirical journey of a
rebellious woman who is challenging the taboos and stigmas that once affected
her personal sexual growth.
Ex- Marionette
Film
By Emma Grima and Kiki Kazimi
2023
eX-MarionXtte is a curious journey in which two former marionettes discover what it means to let loose of their strings and let their impulses guide them to places of enchanted entanglement.
Kiki and myself started to work in collaboration due to our common interests in pleasure activism. I was introduced by them to the Post-Porn movement which has amplified our works voice and helped to share and be part of a larger community fighting for better sexual reproductive health and rights. Together we try to destigmatise in a manifestation for social change. With these common meeting of minds, we want to create environments for intimacy to be explored through a playful journey where care and nurturing are central to the experience of visual eroticism.
Kiki and myself started to work in collaboration due to our common interests in pleasure activism. I was introduced by them to the Post-Porn movement which has amplified our works voice and helped to share and be part of a larger community fighting for better sexual reproductive health and rights. Together we try to destigmatise in a manifestation for social change. With these common meeting of minds, we want to create environments for intimacy to be explored through a playful journey where care and nurturing are central to the experience of visual eroticism.
Unspoken Truths
An ode to womxn suffering in silence
Film, Photography, Sensory Instalation
2021 - ongoing
Dear Malta,
Why are we the last EU country with a complete ban on abortion? Why do women seeking abortions continue to suffer when such a choice is a human right? The topic on abortion is a largely unspoken topic, censored by the state, the church, and a threat of criminal prosecution. It is a social stigma that is silencing Maltese citizens. The overall stigma has silenced many into burying their thoughts and emotions, especially the more vunerable and less privileged who are in dire need of your support and understanding.
Moreover, us women are being forced to lie due to the complete blanket ban you have constituted on abortion (Chapter 9 Criminal Code of Malta). How can we begin to heal when we are forced into lying and when we are burdened with guilt and fear instilled by our country? Without official statistics there is no way of knowing how many women are experiencing this trauma, but I can show a fraction of the pain these desperate women are going through in isolation and silence.
Your silenced women
Why are we the last EU country with a complete ban on abortion? Why do women seeking abortions continue to suffer when such a choice is a human right? The topic on abortion is a largely unspoken topic, censored by the state, the church, and a threat of criminal prosecution. It is a social stigma that is silencing Maltese citizens. The overall stigma has silenced many into burying their thoughts and emotions, especially the more vunerable and less privileged who are in dire need of your support and understanding.
Moreover, us women are being forced to lie due to the complete blanket ban you have constituted on abortion (Chapter 9 Criminal Code of Malta). How can we begin to heal when we are forced into lying and when we are burdened with guilt and fear instilled by our country? Without official statistics there is no way of knowing how many women are experiencing this trauma, but I can show a fraction of the pain these desperate women are going through in isolation and silence.
Your silenced women
Individual Stories
Three Maltese women open up about their individual abortion stories, shedding light on the choice process and emotional thoughts they have gone through. Having to stay anonymous, three dancers were selected to represent their stories. Together we joined forces to carefully choreograph each individual story. The female dancers were able to chanel these emotions as they have gone through this process themselves and understand the weight of it.
Photography & Political Action
2020
Artistic action In-collaboration with YPB
44 individuals have stood together in unity and raised their fists in a strong statement against the criminalisation of abortion, by holding hangers up high. The hangers serve as a symbol of suffering faced by women in Malta who have been forced to resort to unsafe methods to obtain an abortion, which is a safe and accessible procedure in most countries across the globe. There was a strong collective presence that day, everyone felt the same sentiments of both anger and sadness; however, they were unified by the need for change. It was an emotional sight seeing so many people gathering together sharing the same thoughts on such a stigmatised topic.
A Fight for Change
