Lego Project
This project began after an artistic collaboration between myself and a model who labeled himself as a sexual exhibitionist. Though I only worked with him once this model left a huge imprint on how I view my own sexuality, and I began to think about how we as a society view our sexuality as a whole. The stories he had shared with me were honest, funny, intriguing and sometimes uncomfortable. This interaction spawned in me a need to continue this discourse as a visual case study. Throughout this project I interacted with people who have had sexual experiences in public outdoor spaces.
This series allowed the models and permits the viewer to confront behavior that is usually hidden for fear of one being considered a sexual deviant. I consider the act of sex in a public and/or outdoor space to be a common, although lesser form of exhibitionism. It is something a majority of people have done, but don’t normally disclose. Censorship and the proscribed sexual norms that are engrained in our heads from childhood are the foundation of this project. I was taking into account the medias representation of gender when I framed each shot.
Films that depict or reference certain aspects of the female orgasm are more likely to receive the dismal NC-17 rating, which justifies itself as based on “sex or aberrational behavior”. All the while there is a leniency extended in the portrayal or referencing male sexuality and/or nudity. Ultimately this inspired me to frame my images of women from the waist up while keeping males framed from the waist down. The Lego genitalia replicas worn by each model addresses the pixelation of body parts that is often rendered in television. The use of Lego's proved to be a material in which I could playfully reference our culture’s relationship to censorship, and our own body, beginning in childhood.
