Artists

The overlapping layers of wax recall anatomical models and the display of preserved bodies in archaeological collections. Situated between scientific representation and organic materiality, the sculptures resemble anatomical specimens while retaining a distinctly bodily quality. Their lifelike surfaces create a tension between attraction and disgust, drawing attention to bodily processes such as menstruation and childbirth, which are often socially regulated, controlled or tabooed.

Four sculptures, each shaped like a uterus, rest on medical-looking metal stands. To construct these forms, Naomé Nazire Tahmaz (she/her) brings together two contrasting materials: beneath several layers of wax are handwoven baskets that give the sculptures their shape. Drawing on Ursula K. Le Guin’s Carrier Bag Theory, the basket points to practices of gathering, carrying and preserving. These activities can also be understood as forms of care, historically associated with the private sphere and with feminised labour. In 3 wombs, 4 vessels, care and conservation meet as different practices of preserving and sustaining.

Feminist body horror plays an important role in your work. How did you arrive at this visual language, and what draws you to it?
At first, I never imagined that horror would become such an important part of my work. I am particularly drawn to feminist body horror because it does not present the body as something perfect or controllable, but as vulnerable, mutable and contradictory. I am fascinated by this tension between attraction and repulsion. Bodily processes such as pregnancy, birth and bodily fluids are made visible rather than pushed out of sight. They touch on aspects of the body that are often culturally taboo, blurring the boundaries between inside and outside, the familiar and the strange. It is precisely this ambiguity that interests me. It recalls Julia Kristeva’s concept of the abject, which describes how something that repels us can simultaneously exert a peculiar fascination. This is the tension I try to make tangible in my work.