THE VULVA MAKER a gathering of flowers

There is an exhibitionist part of what I do. I feel like there’s always been. There’s always been something exhibitionist about what I do since the first time I did a cast of my vulva, I made a mask with it that I wore as a performance. Every time I do that I feel like I’m not talking about myself but I’m talking about the vulva as a symbol.

Today Vulvette Underground is a long way from Concordia University, where Valérie created the “mascavulva,” a balaclava of sorts composed of casts of her vulva. The idea came to her when an assignment called to create a piece related to the human body. “I just thought, I’ve never done any casting … Hmm. I could cast my vulva—that would be fun!

The idea just popped like that. I didn’t have a feminist say behind it.

I didn’t really understand what I was doing at the time. I wore it as a performance in front of my class and right away I knew I had to keep going. I realized we had to have a conversation about it.” Everybody had a reaction, positive or negative. It was leaving no one indifferent.

It’s probable that a low percentage of people have witnessed the casting of a vulva. Much less so as an all encompassing artistic show. I was pretty puzzled when I found myself literally in the middle of that process, surrounded by a motley troupe of artists doing just that.

A multi-disciplinary performance composed of a dancer, a dominatrix dog-woman and a musician trapped between horizontal harp and an awkward clarinet. They all danced around a beautiful young woman who lay nude on a button tufted leather sofa. As the scene unraveled, molding gel was being applied between her legs.