Janine Antoni

Janine Antoni’s interest lies in the power relations that regulate and inform the way we relate to each other. She is particularly interested in unveiling the politics of the body, especially when associated with gender. To do so, her own body becomes a sculptural tool for making art; it is the ‘measure’ of how she relates to the world and how memory, emotion and experience may be inscribed upon, or locked within, the physical self.

Umbilical, presented as part of the 2012 Biennial, is a key sculptural work by Antoni that draws upon the complex, intimate relationship between mother and child. Antoni cast the inside of her mouth cupped around the bowl of a monographed silver spoon, a family heirloom. At the spoon’s other end is a negative impression of the space within her mother’s hand as it grasps the handle.

Janine Antoni (b. 1964, Freeport, Bahamas) is an artist who lives and works in New York. Antoni’s recent exhibitions include Touch (Museum Kunst der Westküste, Alkersum/Föhr, Germany, 2011), At Home in the Body (University of Virginia Art Museum, Charlottesville, U.S.A., 2010) and Up Against (Luhring Augustine, New York, U.S.A. 2009).

Janine Antoni at Liverpool Biennial 2012

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Umbilical, 2000
Sterling silver, 20.32 x 7.62 x 7.62cm

Courtesy of the Artist and Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York
Exhibited at The Monro