Medium: Oil, oil stick, acrylic, pastel, charcoal & marker on linen

Year: 2022

   Marla Bendini's mixed media self-portrait 'Well-Behaved Bottoms Rarely Make History / The Pleasure is All Ours' credit the ground-and-bed-breaking nerve and lust of power bottoms with the sentiment of the iconic phrase and reclaims pleasure, feminist potentials and agency from toxic masculinity and femphobia. Marla paints herself in the nude, steely focused, devouring the moment- she recalls images of the succubus, pontianak and representations of uncontrollable femme fatales, reinterpreting their demonisation as a way to achieve freedom. The Hello-Kitty bedsheets tells us this scene is her domain, while the unidentified participant wearing only a holiday teeshirt could be a partner, a client or a hookup. Marla paints a hyper charged scene of sexual chaos as while using the sensually lit room & sunset image to symbolise the pending calm release of tension.