project image
Rhiannon Aarons and Sheree Rose
AN ILLEGAL OPERATION (FOR MARY TOFT)

first performed on April 23, 2017
Gatov Gallery, California State University, Long Beach, CA
performed once in 2017

RHIANNON AARONS / SHEREE ROSE

Dulcinea Circelli, Kayla Tange, Aliza J Bejarano, Jungmok Sona Lee, Peter Kalisch

Los Angeles, CA / Long Beach, CA
rhiannonaarons@gmail.com
rhiannonaarons.com

AN ILLEGAL OPERATION (FOR MARY TOFT)
RHIANNON AARONS / SHEREE ROSE

“An Illegal Operation (for Mary Toft)” was a 40-minute performance formulated as a protest against the Trump administration’s war on reproductive rights. I laid on a table and was bound in plastic wrap as an homage to Sheree’s previous iterations of “Resurrection Redux.” Sheree flogged me, Dulcinea, and Kayla before Sheree cut me out of the plastic wrap. I then inched down the ten-foot table until reaching the edge, where Kayla and Alecia held my legs open while Dulcinea held her hand. Sheree then performed a simulated abortion, removing a soft sculpted rabbit from my vagina. Sheree then disposed of the rabbit, and we embraced. Sona then placed a lab coat on me. Sheree and I left the gallery holding hands, walking through the audience as we left. This piece was significant in that it was the first sanctioned performance involving Sheree within a university gallery in the United States. The work was documented with a GoPro camera recording Sheree’s POV, and is among one of the first performances to take advantage of new camera technology in this way.