Chances are if you asked most women to identify their vagina from a vulvic lineup, they may not be so confident they could pick the right one. The multiform conceptual artist Althea Rao thinks it’s remarkable that she and so many women know so little about their own bodies and particularly the vagina, with all of its cultural totemic power.
In “Vagina Chorus,” her performance piece in partnership with the Barnes Foundation, Rao challenges us to know who we are—from the inside out. Since rehearsals began in September, Rao has guided four Philadelphia women on a journey of self-discovery where they have questioned how cultural norms have shaped who they are, and what they thought they could be. Their collaborative work—an audio-visual performance, led by a conductor—culminates this Friday as they perform “Vagina Chorus,” with, yep, their vaginas.
The conceptualization for “Vagina Chorus” started in 2019 as Rao wrapped up a residency in Washington, D.C. She was intrigued with different forms of wearable technology and, in particular, a personal pelvic floor trainer women can use to strengthen and tone the muscles that often become weaker after childbirth or with aging.
It feels gutsy to participate in a performance like this. There’s a risk involved and that’s the thrill of live performance, but somehow using your vagina as the instrument in front of an auditorium of people seems uniquely brave.
Rao, who has sung in multiple choirs, came up with the idea of using a wireless bio-responsive smart device to create a concert complete with sound and lighting effects generated via Bluetooth technology.
She put out an open call for performers through the Barnes Foundation and Women’s Way, the nonprofit that also has provided $500 stipends to each of the performers. Rao asked for women who had opinions about their vaginas—and also who might have medical conditions with their pelvic floor. When the women—Marla Burkholder, Mariah Menanno, Tanzania Jenkins, and Reverend Dr. Michelle Anne Simmons—signed on to the project they each met with a physical therapist, Dr. Molly Scheumann, to understand what they would need to work on: some needed to improve muscle contraction in their pelvic floors, others to release them; some both.
It feels gutsy to participate in a performance like this. There’s a risk involved and that’s the thrill of live performance, but somehow using your vagina as the instrument in front of an auditorium of people seems uniquely brave.
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In order to squeeze the device with their pelvic muscles on cue when the conductor points at them, the group needed to develop strength and control of how to engage the correct muscles. Clench the wrong ones and the device could pop out. Clench the right ones, and it gets sucked inward and triggers the device to make the sound you want.
While navigating the demands of this apparatus week after week, the women talked about life, the world and their individual roles within it. While building up their pelvic strength, they were also building connections to each other and developing a more informed relationship with their bodies.
When people hear about “Vagina Chorus,” it gets a variety of responses from genuine curiosity to eye-rolling to uneasy giggles. People are funny about performance art and women’s bodies. Women’s bodies have been objectified, fetishized, and politicized through the ages, which makes it a fertile area for artists to explore, particularly female artists.
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Yet, in a 2014 story in The Guardian, British art critic Jonathan Jones mercilessly derided performance art and specifically Swiss artist Milo Moiré’s “PlopEgg — A Birth of a Picture” performance at Art Cologne. In that performance, Moiré unclothed pushes paint-filled eggs out of her vagina onto a canvas as spectators watch. Jones calls this kind of art pretentious and silly, a joke.
Rao is not looking to shock audiences or provoke them with nudity. “Vagina Chorus” has, she contends, quite the opposite intent from work such as the seminal 1975 performance piece “Interior Scroll,” by Carolee Schneemann. That work featured the artist undressing and, among other actions, pulling a paper scroll from her vagina that she proceeded to read aloud as it emerged.
Rao wants the acts that her performers do onstage to register as normal and banal, as unremarkable as brushing one’s teeth.
“No matter what other people say or if the audience is skeptical, these four women have developed resilience and have had personal growth. I have seen changes in them. That is meaningful enough to me, and I’m happy to see it,” says Rao.
“In ‘Vagina Chorus,’ I’m not asking the women to channel a persona to make a statement or a striking gesture,” explains Rao. “They are themselves. We don’t have nudity, we don’t let people confront images of genitalia. I would categorize the piece more as socially-engaged art with community engagement being central to the development of this piece.”
Rao, who was born in Beijing, has moved around the globe and lived in Japan, Washington DC, New Haven, New York City, and in Philadelphia where she earned her MFA at Temple University. Working in various media—film, video, sculpture, performance art—she has found herself drawn to artistic practice that investigates power imbalances. Her personal experience with power imbalances has fueled her interest in developing art that examines gender inequalities.
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In December, the artist will leave Philadelphia to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Washington, but explains that despite her departure these women will continue to have conversations with friends and family—even chat at the dog park—about this project and what they’ve learned about themselves and their bodies. They will keep singing the truths they’ve internalized even after Rao has gone.
“No matter what other people say or if the audience is skeptical, these four women have developed resilience and have had personal growth. I have seen changes in them. That is meaningful enough to me, and I’m happy to see it,” says Rao.
Artist Bash: Vagina Chorus, Friday, November 12, 7-10 pm, Barnes Foundation, 2025 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, $10, barnesfoundation.org.
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