There are 400 of them made of plaster. Miami Beach, behold ‘The Great Wall of Vulva’

There has been a short but proud history of vagina-related works on display during Miami Art Week over the years: the whimsical inflatable vagina of 2019, the 12-foot neon orgasming vagina of 2018. But perhaps no piece is as openly notorious as this year’s “The Great Wall of Vulva.”

The 26-foot sculpture formerly known as “The Great Wall of Vagina” made its U.S. debut at the Wilzig Erotic Art Museum in Miami Beach for Miami Art Week — the “perfect time and place,” according to artist Jamie McCartney.

The frieze in plaster is made up of vulva casts from 400 anonymous volunteers including mothers and daughters, identical twins, and trans men and women who were between 18 and 76 years old. The work took five years to complete and has been on display throughout Europe and the UK since 2011.

Call it prurient if you must, but McCartney, who is also a photographer and was on hand for the show’s opening, says he was inspired to create the piece while producing a commission for a sex education museum in London in the mid 2000s. As he made casts of the volunteers, he was surprised by how many didn’t like the way their genitals looked.

Then he saw a production of Eve Ensler’s play “The Vagina Monologues,” which explores sex, genital mutilation, reproduction, menstruation, gender-based violence and other topics aligned to women’s physical and psychological sexual health. The play, which has been produced in 48 languages and performed in more than 140 countries, had an overwhelming effect, he said.

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“I felt inspired to do something positive with this information and started researching vulva diversity,” he said. “But there were no resources besides pornography, which struck me as a real shame.”

Originally titled “The Great Wall of Vagina” and changed when critics pointed out there were no actual vaginas in the show (look it up if you failed sex ed), the piece aims to demonstrate genital diversity and to ease everyone’s near-constant anxiety about bodies.

The sheer scale of the project — did we mention there are 400 casts? — is designed to provoke preconceived notions about what we’re allowed to see and talk about, McCartney said.

“A picture is worth a thousand words, and this sculpture paints quite the picture,” he said. “Once you have seen these casts, it can’t help but change your perspective.”

McCartney admits he loves eavesdropping on conversations visitors have about his controversial work, which is located in the museum’s ground floor lobby and can be seen from the street through the front window. He enjoys their questions, too.

“The people here in Miami were just amazing,” he said. “They were so interested and wanted to know everything about how it was made and who was in it and how on earth I got so many models. I told them it was easy. There was lots of fun and laughter with a beautiful, open-minded crowd.”

“The Great Wall of Vulva” will be on display through December 2025. The museum is also showcasing two historical exhibitions from the Kinsey Institute featuring artists Emilio Sanchez and Austin Osman Spare as well as “Quarantine Nudes,” a contemporary show from artist Kevin Berlin.

“The Great Wall of Vulva”

Where: Wilzig Erotic Art Museum, 1205 Washington Ave., Miami Beach

Hours: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. daily through December 2025.

Tickets: $25

More information: www.wilzigmuseumbuilding.com or 305-532-9336

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