Brazilian artist Laura Lima and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, have been accused of directing models participating in a site-specific installation to insert rope into their vaginas, Miami New Times reports. The Inverse, Lima’s first American solo show, features an industrial nylon rope that winds itself up the four floors of the museum and ends between a peformer’s legs which protrude from a hole in the wall. 24-year-old Kayla Delacerda and another young woman have said they were instructed to penetrate themselves with the end of the rope, despite not being explicitly written in the job description: the casting call’s ‘only requirement is that [participants] remain relaxed over the course of a four-hour period and engage passively with the sculpture, which will be attached to them, at their comfort.’ Lima has denied pressuring the participants into performing the act. In a statement, the ICA has said: ‘The museum and the artist explicitly told performers that their privacy and comfort is paramount and that they should not under any circumstance do anything they do not wish to do.’
24 June 2016
