Artist Profile Juli Havens

Havens’s poised, powerful forms honor activism and translate muted agency into voice.

Artist Statement

This drinking vessel stands as a powerful tribute to Margaret Sanger (1879-1966), a pivotal historical figure whose relentless activism challenged the very societal forces of silence and control that this sculpture embodies. As an activist nurse, Sanger bore witness to the devastating consequences of unrestricted fertility: young women succumbing to too many births, and children suffering from starvation in families unable to provide. In an era dominated by the oppressive Comstock Act, which criminalized the dissemination of information about birth control, Sanger courageously founded Planned Parenthood. She lobbied relentlessly, fighting for the legality and accessibility of birth control, striving to empower with the knowledge and means to control their bodies and futured, he Gagged mouth in this porcelain piece serves as a stark reminder of the era Sanger fought against a time when women’s voices regarding their reproductive health were forcibly silenced, their pleas for information and autonomy unheard, much like the very subject of birth control itself, deemed unspeakable.

Artist Biography

My art often utilizes the female figure as a shocking visual metaphor intended to be deeply thought-provoking and resonate with current significant Issues. My work speaks to a pervasive societal undercurrent, a disturbing valuation of young women not as individuals with intrinsic worth, but as primary producers, their bodies reduced to instruments of demographic replenishment. My art seeks to be a visual commentary on the insidious erosion of autonomy, where the profound, personal act of childbirth is stripped of its agency and transformed into a societal mandate where choice is absent. My work employs shocking imagery to indict a world that, through legislative action or pervasive cultural pressure, attempts to replace the joy of motherhood with a compulsory obligation. It is my hope that this type of art can be a catalyst for change, encouraging a re-evaluation of how women are perceived and valued in society.