#DoreenLynetteGarner “Here hangs the skin of a surgical sadist! To be physically assaulted by those who identify as Black women, those who formerly identified as Black women, and those who were identified as Black women at birth” 2022 Sim's silicone skin, resin clay, steel, steel pins, rope, raffia, speed bag, punching bag, punching bag stand, and cowrie shells - For the past several years, Garner’s work has confronted the inhumane practices of J. Marion Sims, an early-nineteenth-century physician once regarded as the “father of modern gynecology.” Many of Sims’s so-called medical advancements were achieved by conducting recurrent surgical operations without anesthesia on at least ten unconsenting, enslaved Black women, including Betsey Harris, Lucy Zimmerman, and Anarcha Wescott. This piece facilitates a ritual catharsis of past and historical traumas by repurposing the material remains of a silicone skin replica of the bronze statue of Sims that once stood in Central Park. The replica was originally used in Purge, a 2017 performance wherein Garner and a group of Black women staged their own version of a vesicovaginal fistula repair on this form, mirroring the operating theater format under which Sims often executed his brutal procedures. Transformed into a boxer’s punching bag and speed bag, this stand-in for Sims’s body is a vehicle for ancestral revenge, retribution, and the release of rage. The raffia surrounding this structure aims to, in Garner’s words, “bring his spirit and presence forth so he can feel the pain.” Cowrie shells, once used as currency during the transatlantic slave trade, occupy the space below the platform and serve as a mode of protection. - Vivian Crockett Curator @sharpwhitebackground In REVOLTED @newmuseum on view through October 16th @the_silicon_don