Janine Antoni

Freeport, Bahamas (born 1964)

Saddle (2000)

"I think the startling thing for me was that I made a ghost of myself. When I’m with the piece I feel the absence, both of my body and the cow. It wasn’t necessarily something I intended for the piece, to be so ghostlike. It’s transparent...there’s nothing underneath, although the shape so articulates the figure. It’s a kind of push-pull that you feel, of such a presence of the figure. For me, the shocking thing was to realize that I’ve made a piece about the death of the cow, my own death."- Janine Antoni

Loving Care (1992-1996)


Gnaw (1992)

Lick and Lather (1993)

"I wanted to work with the tradition of self-portraiture but also with the classical bust...I had the idea that I would make a replica of myself in chocolate and in soap, and I would feed myself with my self, and wash myself with my self. Both the licking and the bathing are quite gentle and loving acts, but what’s interesting is that I’m slowly erasing myself through the process. So for me it’s about that conflict, that love/hate relationship we have with our physical appearance, and the problem I have with looking in the mirror and thinking, ‘Is that who I am?’"- Janine Antoni

http://www.pbs.org/art21/slideshow/?slide=141&artindex=44