Conscious of the ways hyper-sexual imagery saturates our society — from advertising to art — Julia Randall provokes a conversation about eroticism through her symbolic drawings of a viscous, biomorphic substance: chewing gum. When I interviewed her for Hi-Fructose Vol. 25, Randall discussed the ways sexuality is often overly idealized, when in reality it can often be strange, humorous, embarrassing and, above all, imperfect and unique. Her chewing gum drawings are intended to inspire new ways to conceptualize carnal desire. Rendered entirely in colored pencil, her subject matter is visceral and suggestive, evoking something different for every viewer. Randall’s latest exhibition, “Oral Fixations: Drawings by Julia Randall” (appropriately, an allusion to Freudian theory), is currently on view at the Davison Art Center at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.
