Pam Shields: Pub(l)lic Art

Pam Shields invited everyday women in her small Pennsylvania town to take anonymous selfies of their own vulvas, from which she created drawings exploring this most private part of a woman’s body. To find contributors, Shields relied on word-of-mouth, the way women have transmitted stories and information throughout the ages. Participants took selfies in the privacy of their own homes or at open house events in a photo booth Shields created out of a plastic storage shed.

A private group was set up on Facebook creating a safe space for members to share information about feminism, women’s health and sexuality. This group became known as Project “S”. As support and interest grew, one member created Project “S” tee shirts with proceeds going to a local non-profit benefiting women. A powerful development of this project has been the birth of a space for participants to speak of body image issues that surfaced as they took their selfies. In a time of vaginal contouring and aesthetic labiaplasty, Shields came to see her drawings as an affirmation that each vulva is beautiful and unique.

Her drawings are exhibited without fixative or protective framing, remaining as exposed as the women who volunteered to share their selfies. 

Here are some, done in charcoal on watercolor paper.

Pam Shields is a figurative artist whose work explores the female body as it actually is, rather than the idealized version perpetuated by culture. She works in charcoal and pen and ink. Her work is based on stop motion photos of herself and on selfies taken by other women. In her One Body series she examined the taboo of female masturbation and in her Project S series, she asked anonymous women in her small town to submit selfies of their own vulvas. Shields then made large charcoal drawings based on these selfies.

Pam Shields has had solo shows at Ceres Gallery in NYC and various galleries in Pennsylvania. She has participated in exhibitions at A.I.R. and Pen & Ink in NYC and with EmPoderArte in Madrid, Spain. Her studio is located in Reading, PA.