The Great Wall of Vagina London

The Great Wall of Vagina London

By Ekaterina Mironova

If you haven’t yet heard of the Great Wall of Vagina, then it’s time to sit down and take a moment to experience contemporary art at its finest. Like its namesake, the Great Wall of Vagina is an installation that operates on a massive scale, and has been making waves since its inception five years ago, and British artist Jamie McCartney is at the he(art) of it.

So what exactly is it?

Well, like the name suggests, it really is a great wall of vaginas. The exhibition is made up of ten panels, with each containing 40 plaster casts of real-life vaginas. Women from around the world have volunteered their time and their enthusiasm to bare all and be a part of this amazing project. At the moment there are 400 casts available on display.

“For many women their genital appearance is a source of anxiety and I was in a unique position to do something about that.” McCartney said. And it’s true: the project has been going strong for five years with more and more vagina casts being added to the artwork. McCartney is already planning several more panels for the wall, he is developing a new vagina wall to celebrate Women of the World featuring vaginas from around the globe, and he is also planning a cast to raise awareness of Female Genital Mutilation. In addition to this, he’s planning a smaller scale commercial series of artworks which could be purchased in public.

The project is set to highlight the differences between one woman and the next, showing off how beautiful and unique each woman is in her own way. “It’s not vulgar, it’s vulva!” McCartney’s website declares, and it’s on a mission to transform the way that people think about vaginas, self-identity and the fashion industry which seems to want to pump out generations of identical women and sex symbols.

Included in the plaster casts are women from aged from 18 to 76, and include family members (including identical twins), a vagina that has been cast pre- and post-labiaplasty, and transgendered men and women. This “art with a conscience” installation is set to hit London’s Hay Hill Gallery alongside McCartney’s photography under the exhibition title ‘SKIN DEEP’.