Stacey Guthrie

Stacey Guthrie works with found medical objects and mixed media to explore shared experiences of womanhood that cut across class, wealth and fame. Spectaculum Aequalis takes the cervical smear test as its subject — one of the great levellers of female experience. The vaginal speculums that form the work are arranged on a Jesmonite base, their clinical familiarity made strange by their sculptural context. The piece explores the mutual vulnerability and resilience required to submit to medical examination: the particular act of gritting your teeth and getting on with it that women are expected to perform without complaint.