#onlyTheFinestOfFiFis (Event Details in #Bio)

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As the first artist in residence at the Bushwick nonprofit Nurture Art, Kenya (Robinson) has spent the past eight days investigating “fifis,” or “fleshlights,” homemade sex toys often used within prisons. She’ll continue to explore the objects — and the larger topic of the sexual experiences of people who are incarcerated in the US — as her residency extends throughout the week, making “drawings, photographs, and sculptures that use the fifi as an artistic model.”

The culmination of her efforts will come on Saturday, May 20, in an event at the gallery. With her work on view to the public, (Robinson) will hold a conversation with Illya Szilak, an artist and practicing physician at Rikers Island. The two will discuss fifis and what they represent — both “therapeutic devices and vernacular assemblages” — as well as health and sexuality issues in prisons. It should be a fascinating and essential glimpse of some of the experiences of incarcerated people, which all too often go ignored.

When: Saturday, May 20, 4–6pm
Where: Nurture Art (56 Bogart Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn)

More info here

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Jillian Steinhauer

Jillian Steinhauer is a former senior editor of Hyperallergic. She writes largely about the intersection of art...