Stef Van Looveren

2020

Object, 15 (+16) x 19 x 10 cm.
Materials: silicone and titanium piercings

Collection: Courtesy Stef Van Looveren.

Stef Van Looveren (°1992) is an Antwerp based multidisciplinary genderfluid artist. Using pronouns they/them. Van Looveren studied Fine Arts at Central Saint Martins, London and Sint Lucas, Antwerp. Stef Van Looveren’s practice translates itself into video installation, photo, sculpture and performance. They use the installations as an attempt to mirror and dismantle the performativity of our human behavior, primarily within the notion of gender. Playfully mimicking our social conducts along with visual culture, their work moves towards a surreal gesture.

Stef Van Looveren’s DPA bags support their vision that ‘sex’ should be seen as an interchangeable, wearable accessory, something that the wearer can play around with. Moulded on a diverse range of real body types and depicting various types of genitalia, the DPA Bags are meant to be as inclusive as possible and celebrate the distinction between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’. Using literal and/or recognizable shapes that help visualize and dismantle social expectations, roles, and behaviors. Taking these shapes out of context and proposing a new combination, as an attempt to question and shift the construction that has been established around them. Showing the broad spectrum of sexes plays an important role in deconstructing the gender binary system by challenging us to rethink the meaning of our bodies.

Hanne Gaby Odiele on the handbag sculptures: “The world is slowly reawakening to the understanding that sexuality and gender are on a spectrum and that sex is as well. Everyone’s body reacts to and produces hormones differently, and everyone’s genitals are unique. While these sculptures could celebrate our colorful differences, for many intersex people, this is not our reality. Intersex children in Belgium and all over the world are still subjected to non-consensual irreversible genital mutilation at the hands of the medical establishment. This potentially traumatic treatment often, if not always, produces lifelong physical and mental health complications. The surgeries that I speak of are cosmetic and meant to “normalize” our bodies by forcing them to adhere to a binary standard of “male” and “female”. As much as I want to celebrate our physical differences, it is triggering for me, a person who has been denied the right of bodily autonomy. I cannot let that go unaddressed. Thankfully my anatomy does not define me, and being able to live openly as an intersex person has freed me from the constraints of a binary that I was never meant to fit into. I’m proud to be intersex and would not want it any different. That said, I want to live in a world where intersex children can grow up free from this harm and all intersex people can fully celebrate their beautiful and perfect intersexy bodies.”

https://stefvanlooveren.com/