Susa Tyrniluoto

On the Battlefield of Sex

As an artist I mainly work with themes of gender and sexuality.

My project On the Battlefield of Sex looks at gender in the light of current biological knowledge, where gender is seen not as a set of boxes but as characteristics that vary by degree.

Biology recognises that every one of us is physiologically both ‘male’ and ‘female’, and that the boundary between man and woman is open to interpretation. No legislation anywhere in the world has acknowledged this.

The image alongside is from my work 100 and One Genders, in which I asked participants to define both the feminine and the masculine side of their identity on a scale of 0–100.

I am also building a new model for defining sexuality, because the current ones – heterosexual, gay, lesbian and others based on gender boxes – do not work if gender is defined as a spectrum.

I publish the Kinky Art Café website, a gallery and dating site for kinky art open to the whole spectrum of gender and sexuality – including people who define themselves as heterosexual.