Denton Fae
she/her
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
From Grand Rapids, MI, Denton was pursing a B.S. in Writing when she fell in love with Metals and started combining art with the written language. Most of her work focuses on the body, trauma, queerness, and the juxtaposition of women and violence.
“Facing limited access and inadequate research for reproductive healthcare, it can be detrimental, and in some cases deadly, for people with uteruses battling medical issues. Guardian of the Vulva explores femininity, objectification, and violence. The piece is a uterus in the form of a breastplate, with chained ovaries as maces. Mimicking a medical diagram, the viewer has an anatomical look inside, complete with an IUD, plush padding, a working cervix, and an insertable tampon. Weighing over 10lbs, the wearer is forced to experience the unrelenting pressures that are imposed upon women.”
“For the majority of my life, my queerness was this unseen force that caused me to alienate myself from friends and family. Now, everything I make and do is to bring recognition to the part of myself that felt shame in being who I was. While I’d always had an affinity for the taboo, it wasn’t until I started metal smithing that my artwork began having an openness to it that wasn’t ever in my writing. The more work I made in Metals, the more I wanted to actually know about myself. The concept of making the internal visible, whether it be physical or emotional, is an inspiration to the work I do and the lens in which I view the world.
Guardian of the Vulva was featured in a recent show I held called, ‘Stop Thinking about Teeth and Snatch’ which focused on my body of work surrounding the vagina dentata, an archetypal motif often depicted as a toothed or fanged vaginal opening, which was an exploration into the complexity of female sexuality. Women and Queer individuals are all underrepresented in the medical field and this piece reimagines the idea of self-protection in medicine for people with uteruses."
What does being queer mean to you in relation to your material choices? Is it something you consider?
"Guardian of the Vulva", Copper, bronze casting, upholstery, embroidery, 8” x 5”, 2023Is the work queer because the maker is queer, or is it queer because the subject matter is queer?
“For me, queerness goes beyond just identifying as queer, it is also the way I interact with the world around me. Through my experiences and when connecting with other queer individuals, I have found that we share a common struggle of being underrepresented in the medical field. Whether that includes the stripping of reproductive health rights, male-anatomy-only medical diagrams, or limited gender affirming care, the medical field has continuously impacted the queer community. In my piece, Guardian of the Vulva, I address this issue by reimagining the mace, historically associated with weaponry and warfare, as ovaries, which serves as a tangible reminder of the way reproductive health has been weaponized against women. My reimagination of the uterus as an armored weapon advocates the necessity of thorough reproductive care for all."
Anything else you would like to share about this work? This can be an important part of the process, sourcing materials, or research.
“All of the fabric used was recycled and repurposed upholstery. I wanted to include upholstery in this piece as a commentary to the historical contexts in which women have been viewed as objects."