Photo By Gail

Lauren Kalman’s Tongue Gilding (2008), a digital print laminated on acrylic, entertains questions like, “Where does adornment end and body modification begin? How do we use jewelry to create and ‘ideal’ body? Can it create an ‘abject’ one?”

Trained as a metalsmith, Kalman has made gold body embellishments which, in order to be worn, alter the body in a way that may seem unusual or off-putting. She then documents the works through photographs that focus on these performative elements. At once seductive and repulsive, Kalman’s images ask us to question the ways in which we present our adorned bodies to the world.

Photographed in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.