steel, silicone, urethane foam and mixed media
66 x 42 x 156 in
167.5 x 106.5 x 396 cm
installation view, Pale In Comparison, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah
silicone, urethane foam, pearls, Swarovski crystals, barbed wire, hair weave, fluorescent light, aluminum, steel
60 x 36 x 44.5 in
153 x 91.5 x 113.5 cm
mixed media
30 x 40 x 18 in
76 x 101.5 x 45.5 cm
mixed media
30 x 40 x 18 in
76 x 101.5 x 45.5 cm
mixed media
30 x 40 x 18 in
76 x 101.5 x 45.5 cm
mixed media
30 x 40 x 18 in
76 x 101.5 x 45.5 cm
mixed media
30 x 40 x 18 in
76 x 101.5 x 45.5 cm
mixed media
30 x 40 x 18 in
76 x 101.5 x 45.5 cm
mixed media
30 x 40 x 18 in
76 x 101.5 x 45.5 cm
mixed media
30 x 40 x 18 in
76 x 101.5 x 45.5 cm
mixed media
30 x 40 x 18 in
76 x 101.5 x 45.5 cm
stainless steel bars, fluorescent lights, wiring, silicone, insulation foam, glass beads, fiberglass insulation, steel hooks, steel pins, pearls
64 x 114 x 32 in
162.5 x 289 x 81.5 cm
installation view, Doreen Garner, Art Basel, Statements, Basel
Garner's work considers the entwined histories of medicine and race, and demands respect for the black female body that has always been understood as spectacle. Red Rack of Those Ravaged and Unconsenting addresses the career of James Marion Sims, the 'father of modern gynecology' who performed vaginal surgeries on enslaved women without administering anesthesia, falsely claiming in his medical journals that black women have a higher tolerance for pain and that anesthetics hadn't been invented at the time of his experiments. The installation is made of a large metallic rectangular structure lit by red florescent bulbs. Dangling from hooks in its center are multiple oblong sculptures consisting of silicone body parts sutured together with staples, marbelized silicone, expanding foam, fiberglass insulation and an array of meticulously arranged beads. Each of these abstract forms are about the size of a human torso, but their forms are also akin to an enlarged organ or even a single oversized cell. Garner's 2017 exhibition White Man on a Pedestal at Pioneer Works may have contributed to New York City's 2018 decision to remove Sims' larger-than-life statue from its pedestal in Central Park to the cemetery in Brooklyn where he's interred.
stainless steel bars, fluorescent lights, wiring, silicone, insulation foam, glass beads, fiberglass insulation, steel hooks, steel pins, pearls
64 x 114 x 32 in
162.5 x 289 x 81.5 cm
installation view, Doreen Garner, Art Basel, Statements, Basel
stainless steel bars, fluorescent lights, wiring, silicone, insulation foam, glass beads, fiberglass insulation, steel hooks, steel pins, pearls
64 x 114 x 32 in
162.5 x 289 x 81.5 cm
installation view, Doreen Garner, Art Basel, Statements, Basel
silicone, glass beads, staples, plexiglass, steel pins, urethane foam
60 x 43 x 5 in
152.5 x 109 x 13 cm
installation view, She Is Risen, JTT, New York
'Garner deftly wields this mixture of allure and ritual. She applies common and specialized supplies with regularity and abundance: craft beads and pearls; thousands of metal staples; surgical clamps; and the platinum-catalyzed soft silicone used to make popular sex toys. The pieces shine, they undulate transforming a dark, complicated and repulsive history to an approachable one. This strategy is clearly at work in Betsey’s Flag, a silicone American flag comprised of alternating bands of brown that resolve, on further inspection, into strips of dark female flesh. The title of the work refers both to Betsy Ross, as well as Betsey, one of the enslaved women on whom Sims performed unanesthetized experimental surgery.'
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—Nicole Ivy,
She is Risen, press release
silicone, glass beads, staples, plexiglass, steel pins, urethane foam
60 x 43 x 5 in
152.5 x 109 x 13 cm
installation view, She Is Risen, JTT, New York
silicone, glass beads, staples, plexiglass, steel pins, urethane foam
60 x 43 x 5 in
152.5 x 109 x 13 cm
installation view, She Is Risen, JTT, New York
silicone, epoxy putty, urethane plastic, synthetic hair, steel, pearls, interference pigment
76.5 x 50 x 18.5 in
194.5 x 127 x 47 cm
installation view, She Is Risen, JTT, New York
In Epigenetic Nacre Noir Garner reimagines an oyster shell: enlarged, vulva-like, covered on one side with synthetic hair and teeming with glossy pearls. The work's title refers to the study of gene alteration as the cause of external factors, or, in other words, the idea that one's environment can impact one's DNA. Nacre noir references black mother-of-pearl.
silicone, epoxy putty, urethane plastic, synthetic hair, steel, pearls, interference pigment
76.5 x 50 x 18.5 in
194.5 x 127 x 47 cm
installation view, She Is Risen, JTT, New York
silicone, epoxy putty, urethane plastic, synthetic hair, steel, pearls, interference pigment
76.5 x 50 x 18.5 in
194.5 x 127 x 47 cm
installation view, She Is Risen, JTT, New York
silicone, synthetic hair, electronics, wood, brass
60 x 14 x 14 in
152.5 x 35.5 x 35.5 cm
installation view, She Is Risen, JTT, New York
'Cloth covered in short, curly black and dark-brown hair is stretched around a working gramophone in an echo of the black women’s bodies that were made to open and open again under the gaze of prying gynecologists like James Marion Sims and Nathan Bozeman in the late nineteenth century. This performative sculpture is based on the completion of a circuit. When activated, it fills the gallery space with a sound recording of the arrest of Sandra Bland, which eventuated in her death in a jail cell days later. The gramophone’s horn, swathed in synthetic black hair, forces a reckoning with the resonances of the organic in the mechanical that calls to mind David Hammons’s insurgent practice.'
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—Nicole Ivy,
She is Risen, press release
silicone, synthetic hair, electronics, wood, brass
60 x 14 x 14 in
152.5 x 35.5 x 35.5 cm
installation view, She Is Risen, JTT, New York
wood, silicone, synthetic hair, yarn, steel pins
75 x 51.5 x 13.5 in
190.5 x 131 x 34.5 cm
installation view, She Is Risen, JTT, New York
'Garner’s Olympia refigures the sitters in Edouard Manet’s iconic painting as isolated bodily parts. Signifying on Manet’s Impressionistic flattening of the surface, this piece offers an even more distilled image: a three-dimensional silicone cast of a model’s pelvis rests on a shelf near a bouquet of pink flowers made to replicate disembodied vaginal canals. The French prostitute and her black maid are reimagined as parts standing in for wholes. We might wonder whether Manet’s original derives at least part of its visual force from the implication of this very reduction. If so, then Garner’s surrealist revision leaves us without the ideological cover of the Western art historical canon to obscure the intersecting forces of gender, race, sex and power at play in the earlier painting.'
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—Nicole Ivy,
She is Risen, press release
wood, silicone, synthetic hair, yarn, steel pins
75 x 51.5 x 13.5 in
190.5 x 131 x 34.5 cm
installation view, She Is Risen, JTT, New York
wood, velvet, silicone, staples, synthetic hair, forceps
45.5 x 60 x 22 in
115.5 x 152.5 x 56 cm
installation view, She Is Risen, JTT, New York
wood, velvet, silicone, staples, synthetic hair, forceps
45.5 x 60 x 22 in
115.5 x 152.5 x 56 cm
installation view, She Is Risen, JTT, New York
wood, velvet, silicone, staples, synthetic hair, forceps
45.5 x 60 x 22 in
115.5 x 152.5 x 56 cm
installation view, She Is Risen, JTT, New York
foam, blood-tinted polyurethane
216.5 x 48 x 48 in
550 x 122 x 122 cm
installation view, White Man On A Pedestal, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn
silicone, insulation foam, glass beads, fiberglass insulation, steel meat hooks, steel pins, pearls
96 x 96 x 96 in
244 x 244 x 244 cm
installation view, White Man On A Pedestal, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn
silicone, insulation foam, glass beads, fiberglass insulation, steel meat hooks, steel pins, pearls
96 x 96 x 96 in
244 x 244 x 244 cm
installation view, White Man On A Pedestal, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn
silicone, pearls, Swarovski crystals, glass beads, fiberglass insulation, expandable foam, stainless steel table, plexiglass mirror, rotating pedestal
30 x 60 x 30 in
76 x 152.5 x 76 cm
installation view, White Man On A Pedestal, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn
silicone, pearls, Swarovski crystals, glass beads, fiberglass insulation, expandable foam, stainless steel table, plexiglass mirror, rotating pedestal
30 x 60 x 30 in
76 x 152.5 x 76 cm
installation view, White Man On A Pedestal, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn
silicone, pearls, Swarovski crystals, glass beads, fiberglass insulation, expandable foam, stainless steel table, plexiglass mirror, rotating pedestal
30 x 60 x 30 in
76 x 152.5 x 76 cm
installation view, White Man On A Pedestal, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn
silicone, pearls, Swarovski crystals, glass beads, fiberglass insulation, expandable foam, stainless steel table, plexiglass mirror, rotating pedestal
30 x 60 x 30 in
76 x 152.5 x 76 cm
installation view, White Man On A Pedestal, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn
urethane foam, silicone soaked satin, hair weave, steel pins, staples
29 x 21 x 6 in
73.5 x 53.5 x 15 cm
installation view, The Remains, JTT, New York
urethane foam, silicone soaked satin, hair weave, steel pins, staples
29 x 21 x 6 in
73.5 x 53.5 x 15 cm
installation view, The Remains, JTT, New York
urethane foam, silicone, steel pins, pearls
27 x 23.5 x 7.5 in
68.5 x 59.5 x 18.5 cm
installation view, The Remains, JTT, New York
urethane foam, silicone, steel pins, pearls
27 x 23.5 x 7.5 in
68.5 x 59.5 x 18.5 cm
installation view, The Remains, JTT, New York
urethane foam, silicone, latex, pearls, staples, hair weave, steel wire, glass beads, steel pins
36 x 27 x 8 in
91.5 x 68.5 x 20.5 cm
installation view, The Remains, JTT, New York
urethane foam, silicone, latex, pearls, staples, hair weave, steel wire, glass beads, steel pins
36 x 27 x 8 in
91.5 x 68.5 x 20.5 cm
installation view, The Remains, JTT, New York
urethane foam, silicone, hair weave, pearls, steel pins
38 x 29 x 7 in
96.5 x 73.5 x 18 cm
installation view, The Remains, JTT, New York
urethane foam, silicone, hair weave, pearls, steel pins
38 x 29 x 7 in
96.5 x 73.5 x 18 cm
installation view, The Remains, JTT, New York
hand-blown glass, teeth, hair weave, Swarovski crystals, polyester fiber, glitter, petroleum jelly
7 x 5 x 5 in
18 x 12.5 x 12.5 cm
Combining elements of the grotesque and the beautiful, these hand-blown glass forms are bulbous, seeping, colorful, transparent, and organic. Embalmed with charged materials occupying their negative space, they are also adorned on the outside to resemble medical images of cancerous phenomena, tissue irregularity, and cellular malignancies—visual obstacles for the viewer to renegotiate against their standards of attraction. Visually enticing, these crafted objects purposefully confront the dark spectres of atrocity associated with the objectification and dissection of the black women’s bodies in the history of medical experimentation.
hand-blown glass, polyester fiber, latex, Swarovski crystals, synthetic pearls, hair weave, forceps
5 x 5 x 11 in
12.5 x 12.5 x 28 cm
'BANDANAS, STUFFED CONDOMS, PEARLS, CHAINS, HAIR WEAVE, BEADS, DENTURE REJECTED TEETH, PAINT, LATEX, MASTERBATORY GRADE SILICONE, COSTUME JEWELRY, CRYSTALS, GLASS EYES, ZITCOLORED CABOCHONS, and TAMPONS. These materials populate the interior and exterior surfaces of my sculptural objects—blown ultrathin glass membranes, fragile visceral tissues resembling tumor forms. Combining elements of the grotesque and the beautiful, the hot glass forms are bulbous, seeping, colorful, transparent, and organic. Embalmed with charged materials occupying their negative space, they are also adorned on the outside to resemble medical images of cancerous phenomena, tissue irregularity, and cellular malignancies—visual obstacles for the viewer to renegotiate against their standards of attraction. As a child, my younger sister had a massive stroke, acquiring physical disabilities and an alternative facial structure that pulled her cheeks, mouth, and ocular muscles aggressively off center. Alongside her, I battled negative attention from the public, knowing the beautiful, glowing, and gentle person that she was beneath that distorted surface.'
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—Doreen Garner,
Ether and Agony, press release
hair weave, silicone, pearls, dissection tray
13 x 9 x 4 in
33 x 23 x 10 cm
Saartjie's Triangle refers to Sarah Baartman, a South African Khoikhoi woman who was born in 1789, the year the French Revolution produced the Declaration of Rights of Man. In South Africa she was a servant and was eventually handed over to Dr. William Dunlop who brought Baartman to London in 1810 and toured her around Europe as an oddity. Since the late 17th century the Koikhoi had been regarded as the 'missing link between human and ape species.' Dunlop even went so far as to say that Saartjie was of a different species entirely that he named Homo monstrosis monorchidei. Further, most scientists agreed that the hot, damp tropical climate created a licentiousness and sexual profligacy in African women that was unknown among European women. Baartman was made to stand naked, not only in medical schools but at parties of the wealthy and made to impersonate a chained animal where crowds paid a shilling to stare at her and say whatever they pleased to her. As author Harriet Washington writes in her book Medical Apartheid, 'They began by staring at her in disgust, progressed to laughing at her, and ended by being aroused by her. 'After Saartjie died at the age of 27, her body was dissected, cut into pieces and preserved for continued medical theater. The naturalist Georges Cuvier, who had once danced with Baartman at a party, made a plaster cast of her body before dissecting it. He preserved her skeleton and pickled her brain and genitals, placing them in jars displayed at Paris's Museum of Man. They remained on public display until 1974. In Garner's sculpture, silicone fat cells are layered and sliced in a way that the sculpture also resembles a piece of cake or pie with the top most layer being a thin covering of hair. This intentional compression of desire, consumption and disgust are at the heart of Garner's work.
hair weave, silicone, pearls, dissection tray
13 x 9 x 4 in
33 x 23 x 10 cm