Artworks: Could you tell us a little bit about the background of the artwork?
Mateas Pares: I usually start projects with some sort of negative feeling and this project started with being annoyed over what seems to be a gravity towards depicting nakedness, cocks, pussies, assholes, sperm, or whatever you see in high brow art; as if that would heighten the quality of the work. But I also know that artists usually are not speculative but take their work seriously, so I wanted to dive into their brains about this subject in order to try to remove my annoyance. That’s how the COCKS! project and exhibition came about. As part of that process it felt obvious to make my very own ”cock work”. The art work depicts the man with the biggest cock ever, Priapus. I was also inspired by Bruce Nauman’s ”Masturbating Man” from ’85.
According to Greek mythology Priapus was cursed by goddess Hera with ugliness, spitefulness, and a huge permanent erection that subsided upon intercourse, while he was still in the womb. It turned out that, for reasons which are left debated, Hera was furious at his mother Aphrodite, and her infamous vengeful nature made her curse Aphrodite in the worst way she could think of.
Being given the greatest symbol of power but unable to use it left Priapus frustrated throughout his life. That it also became the object for ridicule only made the urge for using it even more imperative, to the extent that it consumed his entire being. The central stories that exemplify this tell of incidents where he preyed on women and killed creatures with his cock.
Mateas Pares
For me Priapus’s story is largely a portrait of the corrupting nature of the possibility to obtain power. Having the power so well within his reach made him surrender to it even though he knew that it would cost both him and others.
In my work Priapus is depicted with the iconic erection, but the canvas has moulded it into some sort of smoke-like entity and is forcing it into his mouth as if feeding him with both his own object for power and object for ridicule, while at the same time rendering his body unable to resist.
The canvas can in this way be interpreted as his own greed for power.
But in the mythology we also learn that it was the people who attributed his erection the symbol of power, which leaves the analogy of the canvas in uncertainty. If the origin of his greed for power can be identified in the people, maybe it is them who feed him?
Which makes me wonder; who then carries the guilt for the greed for power’s consequences?
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