Femmes Damnées is the recitation of Charles Baudelaire's poem Delphine and Hippolyta through a speculum and behind a screen. The poem appears in the chapter Damned Women in the collection of poems Flowers of Evil, originally entitled Lesbians. The couple Delphine and Hippolyta has been represented by several male artists such as the realist painter Courbet in The Sleepers.

Hippolyta was the queen of the Amazons who possessed a magical girdle given to her by her father Ares, the God of War. This girdle, symbol of her Virginal power and independence, was the object of Herclules' ninth labor consisting of stealing it from her. 

The text was delivered in its original form in French, my mother tongue, a colonising language, in front of an English speaking audience who had been given the English translation printed on tracing paper. 

The folding screen is formed of silk-screen printing meshes removed from their original metal frames after being coated with photo emulsion and exposed to UV light. Patterns made from my grandmother's felt-tip pen drawings became blocking stencils preventing the light from fixing photosensitive chemicals. The excess was removed with a very powerful water jet, revealing open mesh apertures in the shape of flowers passed down my maternal lineage. The wig made of my recently shaved hair was worn as a crown. 

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