ARTIST STATEMENT
This series Eat It, is a tribute to and contemporary revisit of Judy Chicago’s installation The Dinner Party, 1979. The reimagined vulva’s are a form of pleasure activism, a tongue and cheek and sensual iconography from stories and fantasies shared amongst friends. A pressing against taboo and restricted sexual societal normativity that has been projected onto femme identifying and marginalized bodies. To see possibility and claim the capacity our bodies have to transform, erect new, and celebrate eros. “I believe our imaginations—particularly the parts of our imaginations that hold what we most desire, what brings us pleasure, what makes us scream yes—are where we must seed the future, turn toward justice and liberation, and reprogram ourselves to desire sexually and erotically empowered lives.” ― Adrienne Maree Brown, Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Leah Dalton is a queer artist whose work draws on the capacity of and engagement with the body as a form of identity activism, plasticity exploration, and the body as a form of storytelling and reimaginings. Dalton’s work explores the intersections of gender, body politics, and the poetics of materiality within the expanded field of Sex Ecologies. Dalton often incorporates their own body in performance, and works with others archiving their stories, specifically women and those in their LGBTQIA2S+ community. Recent projects include; Director and Curator at 109 Gallery, Chickamauga, GA, Ox Bow Residency, Saugatuck MI, 2023, Curator of Sex Ecologies: Becoming Plastic, Stove Works Gallery, Chattanooga, TN, May 2023, Board Member Women’s Eco Art Dialog, Berkeley, CA, Artist Workshop in collaboration with Anna. L. Georgie Ph.D. Vice President of Conservation Science and Education Tennessee Aquarium, Chattanooga, TN (March 30 -2023), All Voices Heard Poetry Publication, Something Left to Say group exhibition at Wick Monet gallery 2022 in Pittsburgh PA, and Artist Talk Art-A-Nooga, Dry Ice gallery, Chattanooga TN, artist in residency with Kriti Contemporary Gallery, Varanasi India, and artist in residency in Oaxaca Mexico. Dalton received their bachelor’s degree from Savannah College of Art and Design, and a Masters degree in the Low-Residency program from the Art Institute of Chicago.
© Leah Dalton