Hannah Wilke, S.O.S Starification Object Series, 1974

Wilke is possibly best known for the photographs included in her self-described “performalist” self-portrait S.O.S Starification Object Series. In these seminal images, Wilke covered her body with the small vulva forms she shaped from used chewing gum. The gums, mimicking the larger form of the folded sculptures, represent scars or growths and contrast with Wilke’s flirtatious advertisement style glamour poses. 
Hannah Wilke was born in New York in 1940. She lived and worked in New York until her death from lymphoma in 1993 at the age of 53. Her work is represented in the collections of The Solomon R.Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and The Walker Art Center Minneapolis. A retrospective of Wilke’s work was mounted by Artrium-Centro Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporaneo, Vitoria, Spain, in October 2006 and her work was recently featured in the critically acclaimed exhibition WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.