THE ART OF DICK
Here and there, I?ve been seeing guys who use their dicks as a key element of their performances. The striking thing about these videos, and the reason that I?ve chosen them, is that they don?t fit within the archetype of the phallus that, since ancient times, has embodied sacred values such as fertility, good luck or potency. In fact, the origins of theatre lie in fertility rituals in which the chorus wore leather phalluses.
And things haven?t really changed much in regard to phalluses and our obsession with them; just think of the triumphant ubiquity of porn, where every dick that appears must be erect, producing, sustaining. Romans called this phallus the ?fascinus? ? that?s where the word ?fascinate? comes from ? and the doors and gardens of their houses were full of images of them. But the Romans also had a name for the soft, quiet penis that takes its time, that isn?t architecture. They called it ?mentula?.
The artists that we will see here work with the mentula, which has traditionally been stigmatised and seen as the phallus?s shame. I think it?s no coincidence that, here and there, we?re now starting to see mentulas take a leading role. I think that it?s a process similar to the one that led many women artists to change their way of looking at their pussies onstage ? think of the ?cunt art? of the seventies. And, in fact, some of these examples have links to works by feminist artists from that period. I should also mention that there are things missing from this playlist because video doesn?t last on the Internet without being censored: for example, there was the Russian man who gained instant fame with his naked dance parody of Pirates of the Caribbean; the video has disappeared. And there?s Proyectos Poplíteos, a project I saw in Madrid in 2012, which is also difficult to show without setting off alarm bells. So lets enjoy the fact that these videos haven?t been discovered yet:
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El conde de Torrefiel: Escenas para una conversación... (2012)
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Puppetry of the penis
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LMFAO: Sexy And I Know It (2011)
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Vicente Colomar: Manual básico de cine experimental (2011)
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Pricasso
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Fiacha O'Donnell: Touch but don't look (2010)
El conde de Torrefiel: Escenas para una conversación... (2012)
The first scene of this piece by El Conde de Torrefiel opens with a slow, delicate erection, courtesy of David Mallols, while another performer ? Pablo Gisbert ? tells us a story with his back to us. We had never contemplated an erection before; erections had always been wrapped up in hustle and bustle, urgency, demands, codes and norms. It?s the first time we allow the penis to move in its own time.
Disciples of Uzume
The artists who shake their willies to make us laugh are, perhaps unwittingly, loyal disciples of Uzume, the Japanese goddess of laughter: when the world was plunged into darkness because the Sun goddess did not want to leave her cave, Uzume climbed on top of a barrel, started dancing, and lifted her skirt to make all the gods laugh. Intrigued, the sun came out, and that?s how light returned.
Puppetry of the penis
Australians Simon Moreley and David Friendly created this show after Morley discovered and perfected his talent for balloon twisting. This is just one of the many little figures they make, each accompanied by a brief story. We?ve chosen this particular moment because it reminds us of the legend of Uzume, in which public clamour brought the Sun out of her cave.
LMFAO: Sexy And I Know It (2011)
Here the humour doesn?t come from the provocation of a naked penis, but from a particular version of ?showing your bulge?. LMFAO show off their bulge ? the song is a defence of seduction by suggestiveness, Speedo-style ? but the bulge is restless, it?s a coiled spring. Seduction is not about hardness and prowess, but about the playful, friendly nature of the bulge.
Vicente Colomar: Manual básico de cine experimental (2011)
Vicente Colomar puts together a ?basic guide to experimental cinema? through a parody of film noir, always starring a manly, virile hero. In this scene the hero lip-synchs to a song originally performed by Julio Iglesias, another quintessential ladies? man. The mentula is still calm.
Now we move away from the disciples of Uzume and look at two examples of ?penis art? that follows in the wake of 1960s and 1970s feminist art.
Pricasso
Another Australian. Tim Path has become famous for painting canvasses with his penis, including portraits of George Bush, the Queen of England and his fan Hugh Hefner. His stage name is a cross between ?prick? and ?Picasso?, the tough guy of Western painting. This is an interesting case, both phallus and mentula. There have been many studies on the paintbrush as symbolic phallus, but Pricasso makes sure that we never know whether or not his own penis is erect; in fact, it remains more or less still, and he moves the canvas around it. But one way or another, it reminds us of Shigeko Kubota and her Vagina Painting (1965).
Fiacha O'Donnell: Touch but don't look (2010)
Reformance is a festival in which the participants pay homage to or version works by other artists. Fiacha O?Donnell made this ?Touch but Don?t Look?, based on Valerie Export?s ?Tapp-und-tast-kino? (1968), in which the artist carried a small theatre over her breasts and invited passers-by to touch them.
In a public square in Lavapiés, Madrid, Fiacha O?Donnell offers up his mystery, so we can touch without looking. Local residents watch in amazement, kids mill around trying to find out what?s going on, Fiacha tries to evade them. The rest of us line up. When the time comes, we put our hand in, as far as it goes, we touch and we scream in fright, or we laugh, or we withdraw our hand as though we?d burnt it. That?s the thing about mystery.
The discovery of the term ?mentula? is due to Pascal Quignard and his beautiful book Sex and Terror.
Thanks to: Lucía Olalla, Ester Zaragozá.