“The Split” is a performative video documenting the action of splitting a phallic vibrator that tackles the psychoanalytical theories of “penis envy.” This theory was developed by Sigmund Freud regarding female psychosexual development, and states that young girls experience anxiety upon realization that they do not have a penis. The video takes a playful twist on this idea, by splitting the phallic object with a reciprocating saw, and opening it up, only to reveal its multiple layers: at first it starts to resemble a vagina, but in the end hides another phallic shape inside. It thus serves as a reminder of the anatomy invested with fantasies, of the anatomy as a radical contingency and of our discomforting and ambiguous corporeality.
Zorica Čolić
EN