Bron: Dazed & Confused
Datum: december 2004
Titel: Three of a kind: Dutch Art Girls
Door: Anneloes van Gaalen

Three Young Dutch women with a common seam of sex and humour coursing through their art.
#1 +VULVA

+ Vulva is Yvonne Beelen's pseudonym. Vulva is me, the plus refers to the other, says the Rotterdam-based artist with more than a mild obsession with female genitalia. In her latest project titled Come Clay a Cunt, she invited audiences to mould a vagina in a classroom-like setting. Yet 33-year-old Beelen doesn't intend to shock.
I don't present the vagina in a sexual context, she says, and even though my work might seem shameless, I am not. From time tot time my projects make me blush, but shame is good because it sets people off laughing.
Humour is an important aspect of Beelens work. Take the vagina embroidery set she designed. I made this for elderly people, she says, it's called Decorate a Vagina and it is the perfect gift for your nan. It will keep her busy on those long winter evenings.
Her next project, Beelen, a toy store full of vagina-inspired childern's toys, has raised quite a few eyebrows. I have already noticed that many find the idea of toys and vaginas a weird combination, says Beelen, anything associated with sex is thought to be incompatible with children, while the kids themselves often have no problems with this. My aim is to make so-called adult topics more playful.