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Pamela
Joseph
TheTorture Museum
2001
Mixed media with sound
11' x 16' x 6'
more work from
The Sideshow of the Absurd
| The
Torture Museum and the adjoining Beauty Shoppe (You Have to Suffer
to be Beautiful) is a black rubber structure that's painted with
a scene from The Adventures
of Pussy Marshmallow. Inside hang cutting boards and ironing boards
that are wood-burned with images of women in bondage, chastity belts
and being turned into animals. There are also rubber glove trophies
and body parts, mixed with implements of potential destruction. The
background sounds are of water dripping as if in a dungeon, or a kitchen. The women in this Museum, however, represent the endless permutations of that magical household appliance commonly known as the housewife. A visitor can peek in through a small window of The Beauty Shoppe, like a confessional or a peep show, to see the mythical Hydra of domestic danger, who is undergoing a harrowing beauty treatment. |