Femme Piquée (I Don’t Need No Anti-Venom)
Product details
A woman lies, contorted, upon a plush plinth—but is it pain or pleasure? This is the question that made Auguste Clésinger’s 1847 marble sculpture Femme piquée par un serpent so bombastic and scandalous. The work was also sharply criticized after its debut for the realism of its generous curves, achieved through a plaster cast taken directly from the body of his muse, Apollonie Sabatier.
In modeling this oil monotype on paper after Clésinger’s sculpture, I’ve added my own symbols and ambiguities to the narrative. A highly venomous coral snake winds through the composition, though it remains unclear whether it is its own creature or a continuation of the figure’s braided hair. Its colored bands echo those of the beads on her bracelet, where adornment begins to look like warning.
Oil ink monotype on paper, 29 layers, 2026
18” x 24”