Shakespeare’s Cleopatra: Vulva Necklace
Cleopatra’s beauty and open sexuality, which, as Enobarbus points out in his famous description of her in Act II, scene ii, is awe-inspiring.
As the play culminates Cleopatra stands to lose her honor after her defeat by Caesar. By parading her through the streets of Rome as his trophy, he intends to reduce her character to a single, base element—to immortalize her as a whore. The Queen of Egypt, rather than suffer this humiliation, takes her own life by the bite of two asps: the first on her breast and the other on her arm.
The outer labia of this piece are sculpted in a vibrant gold. They are imprinted on both sides with the continuous body of a snake, brushed in iridescent reds and set with purple micro-bead scales. Her inner labia are sculpted in a deep black kissed in iridescent purple.
• Hung from a 18.5" beaded necklace
• Pendant measures 1.4" x 1.1"
The model for this piece is Elizabeth
Because women don’t normally have a visual reference for what is normal ‘down there’. We can’t even see what we have! When we do have a visual reference it generally comes from porn in which women are chosen based on the shape of their Vulvas and are bleached, dyed, shaved and surgically altered. Porn Vulvas are like Chimeras, they do not exist in the natural world.
We use real models to show women that no matter the shape every woman is beautiful. We use real models to show women there is no standard Vulva: they are all different and perfect as is. Bleaching is NOT required.
