The Ecuadorian artist seeks to turn the male gaze on its head, so to speak.
You don’t have to study art history to grasp the aesthetic scrutiny exercised on women’s bodies. We’ve been the muse and the Madonna, the mother and the whore. We’ve been photographed, painted, sculpted and drawn – our naked forms line the walls of museums and subway stations. In short, we’ve been the object of desire, rather than its engine.
But while toppling the canon (and the patriarchy) is easier said than done, subverting it with a touch of humour can go a long way – at least according to Daniela Torres. The Ecuadorian artist seeks to turn the male gaze on its head, so to speak. At her Ceramic Dick Workshops, Torres offers participants of all ages and genders the opportunity to construct a dick of their very own, as a vehicle of fury or an act of hope – or both.
Torres conceived of the project while working on her photography project BOYS, a series of lush male nudes. When several disgruntled participants revoked permission to use their naked image, Torres quite literally took matters into her own hands, constructing ceramic likenesses of their dicks instead. Now she’s inviting her community to participate in that same act of hard-won communion. The workshops take place in Torres’s sunlit Moabit studio.
Attendees gather around a wooden table and are served white wine and slabs of clay. Rather than offering an anatomy lesson, the artist trusts the memory and imagination of her attendees. Participants can pay homage to an infamous dick from their past, or construct the dick they’ve always dreamed of. For this workshop, no ambition is too small. Not that size matters, of course…
- For upcoming workshops, check danielatorres.net €80
