Ruth Patir

This video work documents a standard meeting with a fertility clinic gynecologist. It is based on a surreptitious recording, followed by 3D modeling of the scene. The doctor asks Patir a series of questions in varying degrees of matter-of-factness and intrusiveness: "Do you smoke?" "Are you in a relationship?" "What do you do for a living?" "What kind of an artist are you?" The dynamic presented in the encounter is one of mansplaining—the male doctor will never experience first hand the procedures he proposes, but nevertheless he assumes the omniscient, paternal, caring, condescending and judgmental authority. In the contemporary fertility shrine, he is the High Priest.