Artist’s Statement
Angela C. Wild’s XX is an unapologetic feminist reclamation of female biology, rendered through the universal and intimate medium of her own hands. At a time when women’s sex-based existence is threatened with erasure, Wild turns to the bedrock of scientific reality: the XX chromosome. Using her body as both subject and tool, she composes hand gestures that inscribe three emblems of womanhood — All of which are exclusive parts of the female anatomy: the XX chromosome, the vulva, and the ovaries — asserting their materiality against ideological attempts to dissolve them.

This work emerges from a lineage of feminist visual culture that insists upon the political significance of women’s anatomy. Where patriarchal discourse has sought to appropriate or deny women’s sexed bodies, Wild reclaims them, not as biological determinism, but as sources of pride, sisterhood, and resistance. XX thus becomes both an act of self-definition and a declaration of collective identity: women have been oppressed because of our biology, and we will continue to resist through it.

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The Three Gestures

White — The XX hand sign, made by interlacing fingers into a double cross, has become a gesture of recognition and revolt. It symbolises the reality of female chromosomes, standing in contrast to the XY system of males. Deployed by women — including Olympic athletes — as a public act of protest against being forced to compete against men, the gesture embodies defiance and solidarity. Wild’s 2021 rendition predates the viral wave of digital XX activism, situating her work as an early and deliberate act of feminist resistance.

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Red — The ovary sign draws its lineage from the Ovarian Psycos, the radical Chicana feminist bicycle brigade founded in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, in 2010. Their hand gesture — irreverent, subversive, and defiantly unapologetic — reclaims femininity as a source of political strength. With their motto, “Ovaries so big we don’t need fucking balls,” the Ovas merged cultural pride, sisterhood, and community activism. Wild channels this spirit, weaving their insurgent energy into a wider feminist iconography that refuses erasure.

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Black — The vulva gesture, formed by cupped hands, resonates with feminist movements across Europe, particularly in France and Spain. As an emblem of bodily autonomy and collective empowerment, it reaffirms the centrality of women’s sexed bodies in struggles for liberation. From feminist marches in Madrid to the iconic cover of Spare Rib, the gesture has long served as a visual shorthand for connection, solidarity, and defiance. In Wild’s hands, it becomes a bridge between political history and embodied presence.