Waxes

Manuela Ben Aïm made the body sculptures for WAXES, a dance piece by choreographers Sarah Baltzinger and Isaiah Wilson that continues their earlier work Anatomical Venus.

In WAXES by choreographers Sarah Baltzinger and Isaiah Wilson, bodies awaken in a clinical, alienating world. The piece is a continuation of their earlier work Venus Anatomique. WAXES explores how bodies have been viewed, objectified and controlled throughout history — and how that gaze still lingers today.

Sarah and Isaiah draw inspiration from historical wax anatomical models by ceroplast Clemente Susini, created in the 18th century to teach female anatomy. They see these wax bodies as figures suspended between life and death. In WAXES, bodies once meant to be studied, dissected and controlled slowly come to life. In an absurdist, sometimes humorous way, you are drawn into their inner world.

To create the wax figures, deceased bodies were exhumed to study and replicate their anatomy. Around two hundred bodies were used to produce a single venus anatomique. These bodies often came from mass graves, containing people who, for example, were unbaptised or from lower social classes.

Susini’s wax figures were life-sized and hyper-realistic, positioned and adorned in a way that made them appear almost romantic. Think velvet drapes, long curling hair and jewellery around the neck — with a body beneath that lies completely open, exposing all its organs. This contrast fascinated Sarah and Isaiah and invited them to play with the tension between beauty and horror.

Sarah and Isaiah were inspired not only by the wax figures themselves, but also by the varied reactions of audiences. When visiting the exhibition at La Specola in Florence, they observed how some viewers reacted with disgust, others with pure fascination, while some showed no emotional response at all.

According to Sarah and Isaiah, the erased history of the venus anatomique remains deeply relevant today. They draw a connection between the historical treatment of female bodies and the ongoing issues of oppression and socio-political appropriation of women, non-binary people, trans people and others who fall outside the norm.

WAXES invites you into the critical gaze of choreographers Sarah Baltzinger and Isaiah Wilson, who investigate the ways bodies have been viewed, shaped and controlled across the centuries. In a clinical, alienating setting, bodies move between object and subject: exposed, desired and denied. They break free from gendered and erotic fantasies, where nudity ceases to seduce and makes room for the raw and the impure. What happens when a body no longer wants to be looked at, but looks back? When it withdraws from centuries of projection and reclaims itself again?