Sculpted Empowerment
FEBRUARY 2024
Los Angeles-based artist, Isabelle Albuquerque creates work that reflects her inner transformation and aims to empower us by challenging historical narratives and archetypes. In her sculptural series titled “Orgy For Ten People In One Body” (made from 2013 to 2023) all the pieces are derived from Albuquerque's body, using body casts or 3-D scans, and crafted from diverse materials.
Isabelle Albuquerque, photographed by Jacob Ogden.
Did you always know you wanted to become an artist?
No, on the contrary. I grew up in a family of artists, my great grandmother, my grandmother and my mom were all artists. For that reason, I tried for most of my life to suppress that part of me which led me to start making sculpture pretty late, when I was 36.
Before that, about seven years ago, I worked as an artificial intelligence researcher. Back then I was teaching the AI to paint human nude. During my research, I got so disappointed by the scarcity of women nude made by women themselves that it pushed me to start making sculptures.
What captivates you about nude sculptures?
My favorite music is a cappella, which is pretty unusual. I love a cappella because it’s the most stripped down human form of music, it's like a naked voice in the wind. I think of sculpture the same way, it's the most vulnerable and minimal art, that's what drew me to it.
In your work you seem comfortable talking about subjects that make most people uncomfortable such as sex and desire. Where does this stems from and have you always been like that?
Definitely not. When I was growing up, I had a medical condition where I grew a breast on one side only of my chest. It was almost like having a female torso on one side and a male torso on the other. As a teenager, I'd never met anyone with the same thing and this was before the internet and the body positivity movement. So, I felt totally isolated and alienated from my body. I ended up getting surgery when I was 21 but after that I shut down my body, I had a lot of shame. I was a complete never-nude person, always preferring to be fully clothed in any given situation.
"I really wanted the work to be ecstatic and orgasmic. The moment of orgasm is one of those rare moments where I stop thinking and the body reigns supreme."
Isabelle Albuquerque for Playboy Magazine Netherland
From being a never-nude person to using your own body in your work, that must have been scary…
It was terrifying at the start. It has been very difficult to work through that shame that so many of us hold for so many different reasons. I had my specific reasons, but many people who have gone through different things around their body and sexuality respond to the work because I kept my shame but I didn't hide. I always say “I was blushing the entire time” I was making the work and now, I feel so empowered by them and quite comfortable around them.
How did the sculpture project “Orgy For Ten People In One Body” come about?
It was originally envisioned as a musical ensemble with 10 bodies as 10 instruments. However, in 2018 my family's house burned down in the Woolsey fire and we pretty much lost everything. I'll always remember being with my partner and my mom, pulling out these bronze heads sculptures that were the few things that did survive and thinking “that's an infinite material”. I was never a materialistic person but that event completely changed my perspective on material and what objects can hold. For that reason, the first artwork I created was made of bronze and a brass saxophone.
'Orgy For Ten People In One Body: 1, 2019', photographed by Fallen Limb , courtesy of Jeffrey Deitch.
Is that a real saxophone?
Yes it’s IS, that can be played. This piece is inspired by Leda and the Swan, it’s a greek myth in which the god Zeus transforms himself as a swan and either seduces or rapes Leda, depending on the version. Leda then lays two eggs - one of the eggs gives birth to Helen of Troy - making this possible rape one of the origin stories of Western art history. In my version, Leda is in a position of power and control over the swan/saxophone.
I’ve noticed that most of your sculptures are headless, as if their heads have been cut off.
I really wanted the work to be ecstatic and orgasmic. The moment of orgasm is one of those rare moments where I stop thinking and the body reigns supreme. I’ve been so trapped in my head my whole life, that’s why I love this idea.
It also opens up the meaning and allows the viewer to connect much more with the pieces. Recently a friend shared an uncomfortable sexual experience she’s had and her response was to “laugh my head off” and it’s so interesting because not having a head can be both about objectivity and empowerment and I think my work walks both lines too.
It’s definitely empowering and violent at the same time…
Yes, I think it's important because you can't talk about sexuality without talking about violence. Before I started these, I was making sculptures right when Donald Trump was elected in the United States. I felt like I had to do something with my own rage and I was making thousands of penises sculptures and slicing them.
That gesture, that slice came into the order due to the cut off, but also my personal experience with my own body as having something missing. There's a lot of room in that gap, it can be magical, exciting but also a painful one too.
What upcoming projects are you working on?
I will be exhibiting some works with artist Celeste Dupuy Spencer at Frieze Los Angeles with Jeffrey Deitch gallery. I am also working at the moment on probably the largest sculpture I've ever made that will be for an upcoming big show.
Text by Lisa Boudet