Response to Lick and Lather by Janine Antoni

I believe that Lick and Lather creates a picture of the cycle of discovery and destruction of the self. Janine Antoni licks and eats away at the chocolate until it eventually becomes a sculpture of herself. The gentle process of licking coupled with the aggressive gesture of eating are representative of the things we do to ourselves over time and through many experiences that make us who we are. I believe a similar message applies to the soap sculpture of herself, but where she was putting herself into the chocolate sculpture, she is now applying the soap sculpture to her body. Antoni begins with the sculpture and uses it to wash herself making the end result not about the disintegrated soap but about the cleaned body that came of its use.