Warning: This post features some seriously strange nudity and may not be suitable for work environments.
An erection in a priest's robe, standing arms raised amidst a popsicle-colored wash of blues and pinks. A vagina in a leather face mask and red "Lolita" sunglasses, baring her front teeth. An anus squirting toothpaste onto a crisp, clean toothbrush.
This is just some of the fantastical freakiness that goes down on the Tumblr Girls Unawares.
The Tumblr, run by a Hamburg-based male artist who asked to remain anonymous, celebrates the gnarly weirdness that makes up the bodies we look at every day. Removing genitalia from their owners and reinterpreting them through a funhouse of textures, colors, ensembles and activities, Girls Unawares creates monstrous, virtual private parts that ooze and squeak and pop like overzealous cartoon characters.
"Dear human body!" Girls Unawares writes on his Tumblr. "You are our willingness clay! We feed you up or slim you, we stretch or shrink you, we add or cut something off, we even switch your gender due to our needs! You are our media-morphed, sexually-reduced, ad aestheticized and fetishized perception of ourselves!"
In an interview with The Huffington Post, Girls Unawares explained how he was inspired by the young Tumblr community, particularly the way identity and appearance become as malleable as the three-dimensional clay he works with.
"These young bloggers are very open, very political and very critical," he explained. "Their aesthetics differ from the media's clean and artificially beautified bodies. They realized a body can have fat, stretch marks, scars. They use BDSM as their playground or just as a fashion statement. And most importantly, they want to decide for themselves about their bodies and their sexuality. That's the Tumblr generation I portray!"
To pay tribute to the generation of virtual activists and creatives, Girls Unawares deconstructs their Tumblr profiles -- upon their request -- and presents them with surrealist takes on online vibes. Great hair? You're a giant boob with legs. Sweet arm tattoo? You're a pair of boobs chopped in half and floating in a tank like a Damien Hirst installation.
Girls Unawares is a delightful translation of Tumblr's ethics and aesthetics into a visual equivalent, one that appeals to the post-internet generations in particular. At the core of his project, the artist hopes to spread the gospel of Tumblr nation, mainly their messages of self-love and radical acceptance.
"Forget about the media's body ideals," Girls Unawares concluded. "It's all fine! No, you don't have too much fat, you're not too skinny, not too short or tall. Yes, it's ok to be gay, bi, cis, fluid, trans or binary. Sure, masturbate or let someone you love choke you. Your body hair, stretch marks and freckles are beautiful! It`s all only your thing ... Have fun and enjoy the short time we have!"
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