Miss Meatface

Kat Toron­to, aka ​‘Miss Meat­face’, is a mul­ti-dis­ci­pli­nary artist who works in per­for­mance-based pho­tog­ra­phy. She uses her often unset­tling and sur­re­al Polaroid images to explore the cul­tur­al ideals of fem­i­nine beau­ty and the objec­ti­fi­ca­tion of women by toy­ing with the push and pull of dom­i­nance and sub­mis­sion, and the act of reveal­ing and con­ceal­ing. Diag­nosed with a rare form of cer­vi­cal can­cer in 2010, which even­tu­al­ly led to a full hys­terec­to­my, Kat uses Miss Meat­face as an artis­tic cat­a­lyst to delve into a com­plex set of ques­tions about where she now fits into soci­ety as a woman. 

‘In the begin­ning, I exper­i­ment­ed with spe­cial effects make­up and took self-por­traits with a Polaroid cam­era. That’s where the Meat­face thing came from. Then grad­u­al­ly, as I explored my rela­tion­ship with the fetish com­mu­ni­ty and reflect­ed on my per­son­al his­to­ry, Miss Meat­face began to evolve. It’s inter­est­ing, how with the twists and turns that my life takes, she just kind of goes with it and reveals some­thing new to me every time.’ – Kat Toronto

Dominic John­son is Pro­fes­sor of Per­for­mance and Visu­al Cul­ture at Queen Mary Uni­ver­si­ty of Lon­don. His books include Plead­ing in the Blood: The Art and Per­for­mances of Ron Athey, and The Art of Liv­ing: An Oral His­to­ry of Per­for­mance Art.