MALENA BARNHART
ELIZABETH BRICE-HEAMES
SUE CHENOWETH
SASKIA JORDA
CYDNEI MALLORY
ANN MORTON
CHRISTY PUETZ
REBECCA BLUME ROTHMAN
FORREST SOLIS
​JEN URSO

​Creative Push presents newly commissioned artwork by ten artists that utilize the speculum—a medical device used during gynecological exams to view the cervix and vagina—as artistic material and subject. The project originated with the donation of 2,000 speculums from an Arizona obstetric and gynecological health organization, seeking to encourage annual exams through artistic means. What began as a peculiar topic for an art exhibition transformed into a powerful discussion about women’s health and their personal journeys, forming a universal connection between women.
 
10 Artists / 2000 Speculums shapes a new dialogue around the female experience, one that is free of embarrassment, trauma, and stigma. Each artwork shares a new, often unseen, view of the speculum through means of physical transformation, critique of gendered clichés, personal realization, invocation of mythology, or confrontation of the object’s problematic history. With each reinterpretation of the speculum, the taboo object takes on new meaning to redress the intimidation and anxiety associated with gynecological exams where one’s most intimate and vulnerable parts of the body are exposed. Connecting the art and health communities, this exhibition goal is to raise awareness for women’s health, revealing both the challenges and victories involved.
 
Curated by Lauren R. O’Connell with Creative Push Founder Forrest Solis. Generous funding provided by ASU Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.