This sculpture features two pairs of breasts: one representing pre-op flesh and the other representing post-op flesh after a hypothetical breast reduction and reconstruction surgery. The silver platter on which two of the breasts are presented vaguely alludes to the cold metal of surgical tools and tables that are used in such procedures. I presented the breasts on a silver platter with lace hanging beneath it to disrupt and subvert the gory connotations of surgery and to contextualize the breasts in a more stereotypically “precious” setting.

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Additionally, using a silver platter in presentation also comments on the Western economy of consumption, the process of consumption, and the capitalist society in which our very flesh has become a commodity. By presenting the breasts on a silver platter, the viewer is forced to question if they should consume them or not and what it would mean to consume them. Further, if body parts are being offered up for consumption, what is left to separate us from a primal, cannibalistic society that we try to distance ourselves and our government from?

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While this piece holds an underlying eerie allusion to cannibalism and modern morality, it also represents autonomy. The pre-op and post-op breasts in this piece are loose representations of my own breasts as I am scheduled from a breast reduction surgery this year. Thus, the tension between a more intimate and autonomous procedure and a more public and sinister gesture is intentionally present in this piece.