You’ll Never See Fruits the Same Way Again

By Hazel Lee  •  in Design
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(source: i-D Magazine- Vice)

Massage ’em, rub ’em, poke ’em… of course we’re talking about fruits!

Fruit Fingering is the act of fingering a fruit. And behind fruit fingering is artist Stephanie Sarley.

By fingering fruits (peaches, berries, grapes, you name it), Stephanie makes us use our imaginations like never before, as she makes fruits the surreal representation of vulvas and vaginas. Although her art can be deemed as uncanny and uncomfortable, Stephanie isn’t afraid to confront the uneasiness.

Perhaps the next time you walk past a fruit stall, you won’t think of them as JUST fruits anymore after seeing Stephanie Sarley’s next level fruit-fingering art.

Some of us (especially females) may start to wonder, could Stephanie’s videos of her fruit fingering be considered porn for women? I mean, with the way she handles the fruits and all…

“I can’t blame people if they become turned on by that. It makes me feel happy,” she says in an interview with Daily Dot.

However, Stephanie’s “fruit porn” is more than just kinky fetishism or erotic art. With sticky fingers, Stephanie Sarley uses fruits to explore female sexuality and gender issues. Through her Fruit Fingering project, she turns citruses and other innocent produce into forbidden fruits, to bring out the meaning of menstruation, virginity, sex and love. Stephanie wants to “reclaim women’s sexuality in art, evoking the female gaze, confronting the male gaze and the concept of the ‘muse’ by personifying female archetypes.”

From a female’s perspective, she empowers femininity by promoting sex positivity. Aside from squirting fruits, we find Stephanie pouring milk on fruits. This white liquid we drink daily is use to symbolise “fertility and bodily fluids“. With that being said, it’s for us to create our perceptions of her art.

Leaky melon, 2016

A post shared by Stephanie Sarley (@stephanie_sarley) on

Of course, as usual, keyboard warriors emerge – this time it’s the vegans (remember this?). Vegans apparently think that Samantha is a “Perverted Fruit Rapist” as they question the consent of a fruit and the violation of their own rights. I can’t say much any further, but that’s some food for thought alright.

Y’all can follow her ‘gram at @stephanie_sarley.

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