“Skin in the Game,” a two-woman art exhibit, opens at Random Access Gallery in Smith Hall on Friday to shed light on sexuality, empowerment, gender and more in the #MeToo era.

The gallery will feature work from Arizona-based artists Samantha Aasen and Malena Barnhart. Aasen said she’s been interested in making art since she was young, and now, she’s channeling that passion into her current work.

Aasen’s featured work will be photos of women’s bedazzled vaginas, she said, an artwork known as “vajazzling.”

“I’m thinking about who is it for, how is it presented and why people do it,” she said. “In my research, there were a lot of people who are doing it just for themselves… some people do it as a gift for their partner.”

Aasen said she uses different mediums, and for this exhibit, photos of her vajazzling will be printed on fabric that will hang in the gallery.

“I flirt with fibers,” Aasen said. “I love fibers, embroidery. I love looking at it. I love the texture and I love how fabric hangs in a gallery.”

The idea came to her when figuring out how she was going to transport her art from Arizona to Syracuse. The fabric, she said, is easy to pack into a suitcase. Through the artwork, she hopes that her audience will start questioning the adornments on people’s bodies and think differently.

Samantha Aasen’s work will feature vajazzling, an art form that incorporates decorating female genitalia with assorted ornaments. In addition, the exhibit will include an interactive game inspired by Dollz, which Aasen played as a child. Courtesy of Samantha Aasen

In addition to the vajazzling, her art in the gallery will include an interactive game inspired by Dollz, a game she played when she was younger, where players could dress pixelated dolls. In the exhibit, audiences will be able to do the same.

Barnhart’s art will also be featured in the two-woman exhibition, which includes her sculptures, vinyl and video pieces as well. She said she looks at culture through a feminist lens and it shows through her art.

“When we learn our culture, we learn our place in it,” Barnhart said.

Barnhart’s art is inspired by her anger at current events and issues in society. She said Donald Trump, the Kavanaugh hearings and other news have fueled her frustration.

What she finds most troubling in society, she said, is the lack of belief of women who are assaulted. Twenty women could testify, but it doesn’t mean anything if it’s an important man, she said.

While these two artists have feminist work in common, they also share similar experiences with censorship and criticism.

“A lot of times I’m the butt of the joke,” said Aasen. “Everyone’s like, ‘Oh, Sammy with her vaginas.’ I get it, they’re kind of kooky, they’re fun, they’re light.”

Malena Barnhart, co-creator of the two-woman art exhibit “Skin in the Game,” looks at culture through a feminist lens when creating her art. Her featured work includes sculptures, vinyl and video pieces. Courtesy of Malena Barnhart

But, Aasen said she’s been told she can’t show her work at particular institutions or galleries because its provocative — which she finds frustrating, since Aasen doesn’t see her work as sexual in nature.

She said she doesn’t understand why people are so scared of seeing women’s bodies. Aasen tries to combat it by showing her art and starting a discussion. Because her work is an intimate look at a woman’s body, she said it can make people uncomfortable because it’s so large.

“I’m okay with a little bit of discomfort,” she said. “I just had to brush it off and try to advocate for spaces where the work isn’t censored.”

Barnhart echoed Aasen’s dislike of censorship, adding she doesn’t see the purpose in showing work that everyone is comfortable with or agrees with. She wants to make people think and question art and the world.

“I don’t want my art to be didactic,” Barnhart said. “I’d like to open up ideas… suggest that things are more complicated.”

Published on March 19, 2019 at 11:19 pm

Contact Brooke: bnkato@syr.edu