Uterus Giving the Finger Tote Bag – off-white

Product detailed description

The motif on this bag is based on Uterus Giving the Finger (2017) by Annette Messager, a soft sculpture made of fabric, papier-mâché, paint and rope, measuring 80 × 80 × 13 cm. A uterus raising its middle finger is one of the artist's best-known and boldest motifs: something usually spoken of in whispers is given a voice, a sense of humour and a clear point of view.

The motif returns repeatedly in Messager's work, from a wallpaper of uteruses to drawings and sculptures. It turns a bodily subject into a gesture of defiance, and a serious question of freedom and self-determination into something you can also laugh at. This very mix of laughter and urgency runs through the whole exhibition Annette Messager: Tragikomedie at Kunsthalle Praha.

The bag combines a striking artistic motif with everyday practicality. It is a way of keeping contemporary art close at hand, whether you are heading to the shops, to work or to a gallery.

Annette Messager

Annette Messager is a French artist whose practice brings together installation, drawing, collage, photography and object-making. She represented France at the 2005 Venice Biennale, where she won the Golden Lion for Best National Participation, and her work has been shown at institutions including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, MoMA in New York and the Hayward Gallery in London.

Throughout her career she has explored the body, gender, desire and memory. Her early works examine systems of control and stereotypes associated with women; from the 1980s she developed new ways of depicting the female figure – witches, monsters, heroines and protesters – often with humour and gentle subversion.

Her work is defined by tension between opposites – care and violence, order and chaos, playfulness and unease. In doing so, it invites us to look anew at what we take for granted.