Pretentious Artspeak For Juvenile Graffiti
Pompous artist statements for childish vandalism.
[Published first at Little Old Lady Comedy]
A drawing of a penis in a bar bathroom
This optical suggestion of nudity exhibits simplistic controversy, yet emphasizes the complex sexual dynamics of modern manhood and contemporary men’s grappling with our rapidly changing gender relations. Its indulgent utilization of negative space serves as a charged critique of toxic masculinity, while the enlarged “choad” head satirizes self-conscious anxieties of virility. This work’s communal accessibility above a working urinal invites viewers to relieve themselves and juxtapose their own genitals to this two-dimensional phallus, and its application in a real bar bathroom is rich in ambiguous interpretations. Does this incognito genital represent a drunk #MeToo offender at the bar, or is it an expression of impotent frustration of someone going home alone when the lights turn on following the bartender’s announcing of last-call? A “fuckboy” about to manipulate his way into a booty call, or an incel? A man childishly proclaiming his peripheral existence in a superficial, digital world with a crude mark in an old-fashioned, analog medium? This is a work of numerous dualities.
