In her 2009 solo show, Wetmore continued her exploration of gross physical changes with a number of sculptures. The largest was Melt, a monumental reclining female figure with a dissolving midsection that formally recalls the work of British sculptor Henry Moore. Wetmore’s interpretation
of this classic pose is sharpened with gross narrative and anatomical details. The model embodies the failure of female fecundity; she passively contemplates the goop into which her body has dissolved. She is covered in a slippery, self-lubricating graphite, as though dipped in crude oil, both lovely and toxic.
In her 2006 solo show, Wetmore was fascinated by her own pregnancy as a surreal and gross physical transformation. She made colorful rubber Boob Balls, brass Pregnant Mud Flap Girls, and Split, a life-sized sculpture in which she is pulling herself up through the floor, to face her own legs dangling from the ceiling. This was inspired by her ambivalence about her ticking biological clock: “I felt like I had two brains - one in my head and one in my uterus,” says Wetmore, “I continue to make art about my amusement at the new perks of motherhood, particularly the paraphernalia: breast pumps, fetal cord cryogenics, and ads targeted to new parents.” Work from this show can be viewed here: http://ellenwetmore.iwarp.com

Wetmore is a graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and the University of Michigan.

http://www.ellenwetmore.iwarp.com
Boston Globe Article by Cate McQuaid: “A Marriage of Art and Humor”