Virginia Ham
Based on found objects, Morag Keil’s installations are always a form of social critique. Made up of rails, tyres, fencing, abandoned personal items and different forms of debris, this delineated, off-limits zone seems to have been the setting for some sort of traumatic event, perhaps a crime or accident. Several portraits scattered on the ground may pay homage to victims— all women. This work is actually about violence toward women and the desire to control their bodies. Indeed, the title of the work refers to a vulgar expression used by the singer Marilyn Manson to speak of the vagina. The photographs that respond to the floor installation show, in the vein of many advertisements, women without faces, amputated of their identity and framed by watercolours of flowers—some stereotypical images of virginity.