Mateas Pares: Could you tell me a little bit about the background of the sculpture?

Filippa Nilsson Kallhed: The sculpture takes its starting point from a casting of my face that I have added objects to — obviously the nose. At the time, the act of adding the nose wasn't a very conscious choice; rather something that happened in the studio during the initial working process. When I start working on a new sculpture, it's an intuitive process where I let my impulses rule, and I don't think too much that I will show it to anyone. If I get the feeling that something is banal and silly, it triggers me and moves the work forward. And isn't a long, ”cock"-like nose rather silly?

Elephant by Filippa Nilsson Kallhed, 2021

I agree. I’m thinking of the Chapman brothers, who are more explicit in their usage of the cock, and who have been replacing noses with cocks as well. Sometimes the figures also have butt holes as mouths. Never vaginas. It is as if cocks and butt holes are seen as comedy; a space where vaginas are not allowed in. Would you ever place a vagina in a face? And what would your relationship be with that act, you think?

I have made a sculpture with an object that could be assumed to be a vagina in a face, so I have to say yes to that question. I definitely think I can depict a vagina but I also get what you mean about cocks and butt holes being more seen as comedy. Maybe I am not specifically interested in showing an actual vagina (as well as I am not that interested in portraying an actual cock); I am more interested in what could be interpreted as something e.g. genitals as we are talking about in this case. I like to think that my working process with its impulses gets preserved in a sculpture, and then the viewer is put in a situation of deciding what they are looking at.

Filippa Nilsson Kallhed

A specific example doesn’t come to mind, but I do have a feeling that I’ve been exposed to a lot of discussions and outcries where objects get accused of being phallus symbols. Do you think there is any substance to these accusations? Do you think we are obsessed with the cock in society? And is that something you use in this sculpture?

Yes, that is probably one of the most common comments I have heard over the years! I guess that is what people tend to see; maybe society is a bit obsessed. I definitely use that in my works sometimes; as a humoristic gesture and to point at patriarchal structures. When making this sculpture, I had traditional portrait busts in mind, depicting important people (mostly men). The first time I exhibited it was at Konstfack’s MFA degree show at SKF/Konstnärshuset, Stockholm. It was not made for the site but the place added an extra layer to the work considering its history and the only-male-artist club that is there.

Explore all artists and artworks from the exhibition COCKS! 

Filippa Nilsson Kallhed on Artworks

Text and interview by Mateas Pares