WHEN THE VANILLA MELTS

Marie Obegi presents a series of “modèles vivants” using inks and water based pigments on paper.

Obegi has always been interested in people and the ways we connect with ourselves and one another. Choosing strippers and kinksters as subjects is a way to explore these connections through the prism of sexuality.

Nudity has always been one of the most prominent subjects in art history. However, distinctive from the traditional, static relation between artists and models, Obegi strives to build an organic collaboration between the two. The artist’s creation process is influenced by the transformation, improvisation, as well as the duration of these poses. Ranging from 1 to 20 minutes, the restrictive time-space creates a sense of instantaneity and intimacy, resembling the process of oriental calligraphy. Instinctive artistic choices have to be made and time becomes electric.

These works are then carefully selected and reworked by the artist in her studio, where she enjoys a “voluptuousness of time”, that opposes the fast pace of the short poses and allows her to reconnect with these subjects more gracefully. Colors and tones are manipulated, outlines are reshaped, and the vitality of these drawings is prolonged within the lapse of time. These vivid models are purposely left as incomplete figures, accompanied by the temporality that they live in.

These works question not just the erotic nature of sexual practices, but rather, the transgression of sexuality as a normalized, institutionalized instrument of reproduction.

For Marie Obegi, sex goes beyond reproduction or pleasure, it is political and cultural. The artist extends the explorations of such transgression with the subject of kink. “Kinkiness” is a colloquial term for non-normative sexual behaviour. It derives from the idea of a "bend" in one's sexual behaviour, to contrast such behaviour with "straight" or "vanilla". Works on display exclusively exhibit models that work with and around sexuality. Strippers or kinksters, especially Shibari (Japanese rope bondage), as physiological experiences intertwined with psychological complexities and power dynamics in a contemporary context.

The artist further unveils political exploitations of sexuality exemplified in a revelation of the subconsciousness. This is accomplished by tracing the obscure and ambiguous path of human psyche. The flesh is inviting and unyielding, showing the elusive essence of sexuality in various cultural and political contexts.