Miriam Lenk

I discovered this artist, Miriam Lenk, online and have been able to find out that she is a German artist based in Berlin who creates realistic, exaggerated, and hybrid forms of the overweight female body. I don’t even know for sure that the artist is a woman, but am assuming so based on the name Miriam. I’ve looked everywhere to find more information about her but even her official website has little to offer other than a gallery of her work. So, looking at her work it appears that she works largely with epoxy resin and bronze. Based on the way her statues are positioned the obese female form seems to be glorified. It looks like she meant it to be enjoyed and appreciated rather than ridiculed and criticized by society. Several of her pieces are believable in proportion but others are obviously exaggerated.

Cumulus, 2007, Epoxy Resin, 155x200x200cm

Cumulus is a great example of exaggeration in Lenk’s work. Her hips are much wider and her vulva much larger than even the most obese woman that I have ever seen. Her head is still small and un-engorged though, suggesting that emphasis be placed on the skewed proportions of the body alone. Again the sculpture seems to be sexualized; blatantly showing the genitals.  In that actual sitting position and with a stomach of that size it would most likely be hidden and quite a bit smaller. Making the vulva so large and visible reads as being meant as something sexual and desirable, unhidden and unashamed. This work is unusual in today’s society where emphasis is placed on the female form being thin in order to be considered sexy.

Le Mepris, 2007, Epoxy Resin, 160x 130x 80cm

Yolanda, Bronze, 2003/2006, 320x 140x 140cm