"Lick and Lather" by Janine Antoni, 1993–1994
"Lick and Lather" by Janine Antoni, 1993–1994
Antoni uses intimate activities to shape art and explore gender stereotypes
Since the mid-1990s, New York–based artist Janine Antoni has employed her body as a tool, in her words, to create art. In her "Lick and Lather" series, shown here, Antoni molded her own likeness in soap and chocolate, before bathing with the former and licking the latter until the surfaces were abraded and her features obscured. "Lick and Lather" thus upends portrait traditions premised on likeness by erasing the subject and posing questions about cultural definitions of feminine identity.
Lick and Lather
- Artist
- Janine Antoni, Bahamian, b. Freeport, 1964
- Exhibition History
- HIRSHHORN MUSEUM AND SCULPTURE GARDEN, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. "At the Hub of Things: New Views of the Collection," 16 October 2014-24 April 2016, no cat.
- Credit Line
- Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Joseph H. Hirshhorn Bequest Fund, 2001
- (1993-1994)/(refabricated 2007)
- Accession Number
- 01.9
- Type
- Sculpture
- Medium
- Chocolate and soap
- Dimensions
- Lick: 22 1/2 × 15 1/4 × 9 7/8 in. (57.2 × 38.7 × 25.1 cm) Lather: 20 1/2 × 13 7/8 × 9 3/8 in. (52.1 × 35.2 × 23.8 cm)
- School
- International Contemporary
- Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
- Record ID
- hmsg_01.9
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/py22d76cf8a-47ed-4a77-91e5-3451d2a3b8f4
