Temple of Men

Temple of Man is a multi-part work consisting of drawings, paintings, and videos. Here, I present a small segment of my engagement with masculinity as both an idea and a symptom. While planning the exhibition, I repeatedly thought of the interior of a church — perhaps also of the interior of a man, whose petrifications become visible in the cloud formations. I am preoccupied with the antifeminism of the political right, the fear of the incels, the madness and conservatism seeping from the manosphere into the mainstream, the rigid concept of masculinity, and its ultimate consequence: wars. The man doesn’t have it easy with his penis either — a thing that swells to full size in the most inappropriate situations, bringing with it a loss of control that exposes its bearer to ridicule. “In cases of conflict, it can be transformed into a weapon-like instrument for the discharge of aggression, while at the same time it is supposed to serve primarily as the site and means of sexual arousal and gratification. And above all, the phallus symbolically presides — its imperious struggle for power and autonomy can never be entirely detached from the penis as its material bearer.” (Rolf Pohl, Feindbild Frau: Männliche Sexualität, Gewalt und die Abwehr des Weiblichen, 2019)