Mateas Pares: Could you tell us a little bit about the background of the sculpture?
I made it when I had thoughts about stepping into my own body, becoming an inversive form of myself, I first had ideas about the dildo-like sculpture should look like a small person, a small naked version of myself. Then the result was "Being Inside Myself”, a sculpture with a hair braid that symbolized me. It was something playful to think that I was, so to speak, the active one in a sexual act, that I came inside myself.
Is this your first artwork featuring a cock?
Yes.
Did the motif make you hesitate on whether you should do it or not? Was it a big thing for you to portray it?
I usually never censor myself but pursue my ideas even when they feel embarrassing. I thought it felt a bit loaded when I decided to implement the idea.
How come?
Because I "borrow" something from the male world, the phallus, the most male thing, and remake it. Also, I feminize it; I make a claim on the patriarchy.
Being Inside Myself by Sophi Vejrich (2014, Trä, blandteknik 20x15x15 cm)
I get the impression that the usage of the cock in art is quite polarizing. That you can be accused of not being a feminist if you use the cock. Was that something that also played a part when you felt that it was loaded?
Yes, absolutely, I was of course aware of that problem, but for me, the focus was on something deeper psychological which was the important thing in the artwork. Then I think that if you depict something that is charged in a different way and with playfulness, you can de-dramatize subjects.
I agree. I think the intention is key when interpreting and judging anything. However, in these times, when content is oftentimes reduced to soundbites, the intention is usually lost, and the content is judged by its cover, so to speak. Would you agree, and how do you deal with that in your artistry?
Yes, that is a problem; in society as well as in contemporary art. I myself have always worked with an ambiguous and ambivalent expression in my artworks if it is then interpreted in a too one-dimensional way, it is of course a shame, but at the same time, I know that there are viewers who will understand and appreciate the ambiguity.
Sophi Vejrich
There are 13 artists in total in the exhibition. Eight are women, then come gay men, and then — in an absolute minority — comes straight men. I get the feeling that it has something to do with ambiguity. The ambiguity of a straight man dealing with his body.
It is interesting and probably symptomatic. Straight men who are the patriarchy may not need to problematize their gender or display it = their power, in the same way as women and trans people and homosexuals may more often problematize and work with it in their practises.
Explore all artists and artworks from the exhibition COCKS!
Text and interview by Mateas Pares
