Introduction

Abstract

Kiki Smith’s Pee Body (1992) is a life-sized wax body of a woman crouching down. The figure, with head down, rests her arms over her knees. From behind her runs a multitude of yellow trails of beads that bend and curve round each other, forming a pool. We look at the woman but are unable to see her face, which is turned away from us. Is she ashamed at having committed a private and degrading act in public? Perhaps there is no shame involved, and she is simply at rest after emptying her full bladder. Her generic body shape, lack of personalizing features and hidden face minimize her individuality and she cannot be identified. Any embarrassment that she may feel is hidden. Or maybe she represents an everyman figure that reflects our mortal predicament of being trapped in a body of flesh. If this is so, then her act of degradation becomes a shared act and she is representative of humanity.