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Vice Blog

Fetus Cakes and Feminist Porn

Swedish artist Joanna Rytel has made a name for herself making videos in which she masturbates in front of a cat and flashes her boobs to monkeys at the zoo. She also directed the feminist porno Flasher Girl On Tour (about a female flasher flashing herself on the tube, masturbating on a bridge while a ferry is passing by, and sticking a dildo in her hoo-ha in the backseat of a cab), and stormed the Miss Sweden TV finals in 2000 with a sign saying: "Gubbslem" (which is Swedish for "dirty old man mucus"), all in the name of radical feminism. For her other art performances she's done stuff like dressing up as a prostitute and offering sex to attractive guys while turning down the ugly ones, as well as founding the website Abortion Graveyard, where would-have-been-parents can post greetings to their unborn child. Oh yeah, she's also organized birthday parties for aborted babies, with fetus cakes and all. Dokument, a Swedish publishing house just put out a book called Rytel Art Video, featuring image, text, and video retrospectives of all of Joanna's aforementioned activities and much, much more. I popped by the book release the other day to get my hands on a copy and eat some fetus cake.

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This little guy tasted just like princess cake, but with reddish jelly stuff inside.

First we saw two of Joanna's animal pieces where she dances in front of sheep and in a stable. The audience seemed to like it, judging by the constant chuckles. Then we watched her documentary Unplay, in which she investigates gender specific rules by having sex with her boyfriend's best friend, and then confronts them about it while the camera's rolling. You can watch a clip on her website.

Vice: Hi Joanna, how do you come up with all this weird stuff?
Joanna: Well, I want to break norms and beliefs about how one should be and behave.

OK… Why do you strip for animals, for example?
I wanted to entertain laboratory animals because they're so bored in their tiny cages, but I wasn't allowed into any of the institutions. Apparently the monkeys had HIV-- they gave me a lot of vague excuses like that. So then I thought I'd perform for any animal I ran into instead, thinking it would be interesting to see what the viewer was going to project onto them. The reason why I stripped for the monkeys was because they're the animals we identify ourselves the most with.

What have viewers projected onto them?
Many believe that the animals in the films are symbolizing men, so I explain that, "No no, I don't compare animals with men. Animals are wonderful, men are little beasts."

Joanna as a prostitute in her series of work Want to Play Doctor with Your Dick?

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As you use yourself in your work, is it difficult to distinguish the artist Joanna from the private person Joanna?
I don't see it like it's me as a private person participating in my films. I always say, "The girl in the film," like it could be anyone. Even though some things are very personal, they never feel private and I never feel exposed. I'm just an actor in my own art.

Aside from your new porn film, in which Barbies are raping a passed out drunk man in a hotel room with double dildos, what's next for you?
I'm writing a script about male infertility. Damn, I know everything about male infertility now!

People on a fetus cake pig-out.

LINN STIGSSON STERN