It’s common, in the checkout lane at the grocery store, to see nearly naked women on magazine covers. Companies use bodies to sell stuff and sex on the Internet. And parts fly everywhere in video games. Still, something that remains taboo is art that addresses double standards between the sexes and celebrates the female body. This is why the work of Danielle Graves is important, especially in Indianapolis.

“You enter to find that corporate labels have interfered with incorruptibility. That contradiction has met desire. That an idealistic heaven has met an idealistic hell—a good girl has gone bad. She partners with purity to be sexualized—runs with her sexuality to be sanitized. She is made harmless yet is harmful—sinning for pleasure and indulged upon for corporate gain. She, like many — all — women before her, is a body pressured to be pure, a body that is a sexualized commodity of society, a body that has no will. Pure and Sexless is about finding comfort in the absurdity,” says Graves about the exhibit and the accompanying installation, Virgin Mary Vagina, in the unisex restroom at Listen Hear.

Our culture needs to develop further confidence in celebrating and looking directly into the heart (or in the case of the bathroom at Listen Hear, vagina) of what makes women different. The commissioned installation focuses on the part of the body that politicians and religious leaders most want to control. So if these pieces rub you the wrong way, we encourage you to reflect on why. —Shauta Marsh, curator

Virgin Mary Vagina, in the bathroom, a commissioned piece made possible by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, will remain after this exhibit ends. (*Parental advisory*)

About Danielle Joy Graves
Graves was born and raised at the intersection of 114 and Mr. Rickard’s road. She currently resides in Indianapolis. She received her BFA in Illustration at Herron School of Art and Design and has pushed far from it. From soft sculpture to paper mache, Danielle is working towards creating a world not far from her reality.