California Tit Tub

California Tit Tub 

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California Tit Tub is an interactive sculpture that emphasizes a physical experience with the body, and a separation from the inability to physically distance oneself enough to objectify the breast. The round inflatable tub is covered in velvet and filled with hand sewn breast sculptures. The participant is invited to immerse themselves in the tub among the sculptures. The experience in the tub produces a physical pressure on the body. Every part of the body is engaged through the tactility of the materials. Through repetition, the amount of breasts becomes illogical and ironic. The participant is surrounded by the breasts, removing the distancing implicit in the male gaze. The experience in the tub makes the fetish shift from a sexualized removal from the breast to a close encounter. The breasts overpower the male gaze, which has been constantly projected onto them. Tit Tub challenges what’s appropriate through the prominence of the nipples. Breasts in culture are both praised for their beauty, or shamed for overexposure, something to flaunt and conceal at the same time. This is limiting and, offers two mutually exclusive ways to think about female identity and the body. The tub creates a space where the proximity of the sculptures to the body doesn’t allow to the distance associated with fetishization. Though repetition and irony, California Tit Tub shifts the fetishized view of the breast.