A Libidinal Legacy

Somewhere, most likely in the former CEO of Nike’s basement, stands a statue of a woman with her legs in the air. She is wearing a red bra, black panties and Mary Janes with schoolgirl socks. Her legs appear to invite; her arms are lifeless, more reticent. At first glance she appears headless, her breasts, abdomen and crotch jutted out upwards. A closer look and we see her head, contorted impossibly parallel to her chest and dragged under the curve of her bottom, so that she faces the heel of her right leg. The woman is comics artist R. Crumb’s Devil Girl, one of his most iconic characters, all ‘outrageous tongue and zaftig body’. She has all of the hallmarks of Crumb’s now-infamous women: emphasised breasts, buttocks and legs. The statue renders her a human checkmark.