Sophy Rickett
VAUXHALL BRIDGE (from the series 'Pissing Woman'), 1995
Silver gelatin print mounted on aluminium
120 x 120 cm
The ‘Pissing Woman' series depicts Rickett publicly urinating standing up, wearing a tailored suit jacket and a skirt. In this work, taken on Vauxhall Bridge in central London she is depicted against the backdrop of the SIS (Secret Intelligent Service) Building, the home of MI6, located on the south side of the river Thames, London. The selected locations for these night-time performances made for the camera are all associated with patriarchal power, order and in this case suave, if not misogynist, male spies along the lines of James Bond.
The bow in her stance and the way her hands are positioned ‘just so’ suggest Rickett has taken care to make the act of urinating seem as ‘manly’ as possible. To be a woman taking that space is therefore not only a rebellion; it is a parody of phallic fetishisation that takes on multiple masculine stereotypes in the act.