Janine Antoni
Bahamian, born 1964
To make Conduit, Janine Antoni began by creating a small, hollow copper sculpture in the shape of gargoyle that can be also used by a woman to urinate while standing; the accompanying photograph shows Antoni doing just that, from atop New York’s Chrysler Building. The concept for the work stems from Antoni’s interest in pirates. As a young girl in the Bahamas, she was fascinated by the notorious eighteenth-century pirate Anne Bonny, who disguised herself as a man. Bonny's disguise included an apparatus that similarly allowed her to urinate while standing. Antoni originally intended to conduct her performance at a church, in reference to an early memory of a nun instructing her that her body was a temple, however, she was turned away from all the institutions she approached. In the end, the Chrysler Building was the perfect backdrop for her performance; the building's facade features several gargoyles similar to the sculptural element of Conduit. As captured in the photograph, Antoni's act and beard-like appearance of her windblown hair also reference the piratical act of walking the plank.
Label from One Another: Spiderlike, I Spin Mirrors, March 7–June 1, 2014