Vagina print donated to Claude Nichol Sexual Health Clinic

Local celebrity artist Jamie McCartney donates Great Wall of Vagina print and book to Brighton & Hove Sexual Health and Contraception Services.

The sexual health and contraception (SHAC) team in Brighton will be using new visual aids to help overcome female patients’ embarrassment and stigma about their bodies after receiving a donation from Brighton artist Jamie McCartney.

After the clinic requested a poster from Jamie, he upped the offer to give the team a print and book of his ‘Great Wall of Vagina’ sculpture, which he developed to highlight the stigmatisation of aspects of women’s bodies and ‘body shaming’. Jamie will officially donate his gift on Wednesday February 7 before clinic starts.

Perceptions about body image can have directly harmful consequences for patients when it leads to delays in seeking help to get infections like chlamydia or gonorrhoea diagnosed and treated.

Brighton & Hove SHAC matron Anita Weston, said: “There is so much stigma around the female anatomy and many of our patients have real misconceptions and often negative self-perceptions about their bodies and how their vulva should look. One patient even told me “it looks like a car crash down there”.

“Jamie’s Great Wall of Vagina shows that everyone is different and we will use his artwork to help our female patients change their perceptions of their ‘abnormality’ by showing them the variety of what ‘normal’ looks like.

“We are very grateful to Jamie for his kind donation and fully support his mission to ‘change female body image through art’.”

Jamie McCartney, said: “I am delighted to help promote better sexual health in my own city. Education is the key – knowledge empowers people. This artwork helps women overcome unnecessary anxieties about their bodies and feel good about themselves. It makes it easier for someone to seek medical help when something isn’t right and discuss these things with their partners.”

Jamie is familiar to most for his Brighton Body Casting business, making casts of people to create sculptures – anything from baby hands in plaster or glass to whole bodies in bronze.

Established over a decade ago at the erstwhile JAG gallery on Madeira Dive, he was in the Lanes for a while, then by Hove Station and is now at a permanent, purpose-built studio in the harbour in Portslade. The branded, pink, company pick up truck tuktuk brings mirth to many and is a hilarious feature of the August Pride Parade. However Jamie’s involvement in the local community largely goes unsung.

The Great Wall of Vagina is a twenty-six feet (eight metre) long wall sculpture made from plaster casts of vaginas (well vulvas actually) taken from four hundred different women volunteers. This infamous sculpture is credited with changing the lives of women the world over.

Brighton and Hove Sexual Health and Contraception services provide a comprehensive sexual health service at three sites across the city.