Cris Bierrenbach
The 2003 series Retrato Íntimo consists of five X-ray portraits showing the lower abdomen of artist Cris Bierrenbach. For the images, the Brazilian artist inserted various sharp-edged and pointed metal tools, from forks to syringes, into her vagina, protected by a layer of Vaseline. The penetrations are shocking and evoke female experiences of domestic, sexualised and medical violence. However, the intimate portraits are also self-determined and defy the notion of female passivity. This, along with their drastic nature and clinical coldness, prevents them from being viewed with voyeuristic lust. This distinguishes them from the ‘internal portrait’ of the character Clawdia Chauchat in Thomas Mann's novel The Magic Mountain – an X-ray image of her lungs. Hans Castorp receives it from Chauchat after a night together. Bierrenbach takes up this literary motif, but develops it further in her X-ray series into a sharp reflection on sexuality, power relations and the limits of the female body.
