My Toe (Uncensored)

Yes, it’s a toe—the right big toe belonging to artist Lisa Schamlé, to be precise. This utterly ordinary part of our body is often neglected, but not in this installation. Schamlé put questions to her big toe, like: Who are you? What do you like? How are we related? In her search for answers, she’s placed her toe in various settings, including inside an oyster shell with the oyster still in it, to find out what seemed to suit it best.

What started as a personal exploration soon turned out to have unsuspected political implications. When Schamlé posted photos of her toe on Instagram, there was an immediate online response from foot fetishists—is there any part of the female body that can’t be unintentionally sexualized? Consequently, Schamlé decided to set up an OnlyFans account for her toe (/u217509940), so that it would at least make some money from this sexual objectification.

Schamlé has turned this journey into a humorous but confronting installation incorporating photography, sculpture, embroidery and live performance. Visitors are invited to objectify their own, usually overlooked, toe.