bilder und texte
Destruction of masculine superiority is visualized through the manipulation of a stallion’s body.
Within this topic I search to link masculine identities and their constructs of power with a physical experience. Sex and gender participate in a reciprocal process. Cultural and social elements need the body which on the other hand is manipulated to construct and deconstruct social positions. The body gets turned into a battlefield.
and now i am stuck in sweet red jelly. my legs pointing to the sky that was destined to my kind. what will my brothers say?
Die Hoden werden in der Arbeit zum Symbol von Männlichkeit schlechthin. Die kultische Art sie zu betrachten macht sie zur begehrenswerten Trophäe. Gleichzeitig wird das Konstrukt aber aufgelöst durch Ekel, Ironisierung und Zerstörung.
The notion that the testicles turn into a masculine symbol, that implies at the same time a position of power within society, gave me the idea of creating artificial bull balls. Almost in a cultic sense I presented them as a desirable trophy but not without mutilating, mocking and finally destroying them.
A painting I derived from one of the models. It didn’t satisfy me and I decided to go on using different materials.
first stallion and bull i did in dublin.
painted sketch (finally)
During the last months I was fascinated by mainly one topic: castration. At first view it only seems to be a cruel and brutal act of physical mutilation (which it definitely is), but psychological and cultural points of view show that there is much more to it. Be it mythology or religion, psychoanalysis or the historical exertion of castration, it always comes with a certain concept of masculinity that is closely linked to aspects of power. Thus the process of castration also involves the questioning and destruction of specific images of maleness as a social construct.
I want to show the loss of power, the downfall in hierarchy and the extent of the consequences as well as the different aspects of cruelness (be it physical or psychological). As subjects of castration I choose bulls and stallions since they symbolize a certain picture of masculinity throughout cultural history. I’m still not sure what the best way of visualisation is, so the painting process will be marked by experimentation (hopefully).
europe castrating zeus
