Lift me up and take me down
Lift me up and take me down
Exhibition 3 - 5 July 2008
Three nights exhibition in Gad Zukin's Studio Tel Aviv
Sderot Har Zion 110
Naomi Felice Wonnenberg, Lift me up and take me down, installation / sculpture
elevator / chocolate, 2m x 1.60m x 2.20m, 2008, photo Shlomo Serry
"Lift me up and take me down"
Naomi Felice Wonnenberg
- Chocolate installation in a public lift
Naomi Felice Wonnenberg's installation in a public space is called "Lift me up and take me down" is designed to be installed in a public lift (elevator).
It is an installation that plays on the common fantasies of claustrophobia and random sexual encounters that most people experience when they enter a lift. We all know the situation when the doors of the lift close and we invariably scan the other people in the lift. What would happen if we got stuck, would we feel molested by the other passengers? Or would it be a unique chance for a spontaneous sensual moment with a stranger?
In Wonnenberg's installation it is not the people in the lift that turn into sexual objects, but the lift itself. In her installation the lift produces an organic growth of male lust in the sticky hot air of the Mediterranean country: Chocolate phalli are "growing" from the walls, reaching out to the unprepared user of the lift.
The culinary penises are placed in such a way that the people usually take some moments, before they discover them. All in all there are three of them. A tiny one, barely peeping out of the wrinkly foreskin is placed in the row of the buttons of the lift. Most likely the people will notice this one first, as they are looking at the buttons to decide which one to press. Then there is a half grown penis growing out of the wall opposite the buttons. It is more of a little dick than a proud phallus, a little lust in the process of sensual awakening. Last of all, people will notice the enormous penis growing down from the ceiling corner, as if a stalactite. It is a proud species of its kind and judging from size alone can surely stand its man. But again, it is not on frontal display, as if shying away from the spot light and hiding in a dark corner of the lift. Yet it grows down onto the people, which does on the other hand give it a threatening aspect.
The chocolate penises are all made from casts from real men. They are not "perfect" dildos from a sex shop, but they are as imperfect and personal as every individual man. For example the half grown penis is a bit lop-sided, as if a little animal that shyly raises its head to look up, it grown from the right side wall at a height of 1.6 meters, or height of eye sight.
The material used to cast the phalli is chocolate. A kind of very dark chocolate rich in cocoa, made by an excellent Swiss producer. Due to the high quality of the chocolate, the cast remolds every detail of the original penis, rendering every wrinkle and every imperfect individual trait. It makes them look very different from the sex toys of exaggerated size and appearance on sale in sex shops. They also emanate a strong smell of chocolate. In its culture of origin, the Aztec culture, chocolate was a know aphrodisiac, which is of course most fitting for the context.
Some visitors may be attracted to the phalli to try and take a cheeky bite. Other might feel repulsion. The spectrum of reactions of the public audience is as wide as the nature of sexual encounters is in life. People may draw back or, on the contrary sniff, touch, or lick the phalli. Of course, because of the texture of chocolate this work of art is also of a most ephemeral nature. The heat of the high Mediterranean day temperatures will make it get sweaty and then cause it to melt down. The ephemeral nature of the chocolate sculptures draws a parallel to the ephemeral nature of our sexual potency. A work of art that is all too human and that allows the visitor to encounter, not the only the work of art, but through the work of art, themselves and their own personal fears and desires.
Gad Zukin, Placetation, carkit polymeres 15 cm x 80 cm, 2008
Press release
תרגום לעברית בהמשך
Lift me up and take me down
Gad Zukin – sculpture &
Naomi Felice Wonnenberg - sculpture / installation / video
Exhibition 3 – 5 July 2008 20:00 – 24:00
Sderot Har Zion 110
Tel Aviv
"Lift me up and take me down", a multi-media exhibition will be held for three nights in Gad Zukin's Studio, opening on the "Tel Aviv White Night" לילה לבן. Gad Zukin exhibits sculptures made from polymers. Naomi Felice Wonnenberg, a new media artist from Berlin, shows an installation "Lift me up and take me down" in an elevator with phallic sculptures made from chocolate growing from its walls and screens her video "Fishy Thing".
Gad Zukin's sculptures live up the contrast. A seemingly massive metal-like 2m x 3m sculpture hangs suspended in mid-air. A shell which looks like it could have been taken from the carcass of a plane reveals its true nature upon a closer examination. Made entirely of carbon fibers, it ways less than a kilo. Swaying in the middle of his studio, it plays on the visitor perception and expectations. Another one of his sculptures "Placentation", 2008, takes its name from placenta, the maternal origin of all being. But this sculpture is made from drips of polymers that have hardened into spikes - the very opposite of the protective placenta organ.
Naomi Felice Wonnenberg's installation "Lift me up and take me down" is an installation of chocolate phalli growing from the walls of an industrial lift. The lift itself seems to produce an organic growth of male lust in the sticky hot air of the Tel Aviv night. "Lift me up and take me down" is an installation that plays on the classic fantasy of getting stuck in a lift. The closed doors of the lift create a space - intimate and claustrophobic at the same time - that stimulates our fantasies and desires. Inevitably one scans the other users of the lift and starts to wonder what would happen if the doors were to remain shut.
Concurrently Naomi Felice Wonnenberg's video "Fishy Thing" will be screened in a loop. In this video a woman is seen playing with the splendid Japanese Koi carps. These fish display an estranging desire to approach, touch, sweep, and seemingly kiss and push the woman about. In the course of the video their initially mysterious shy and tender approaches change into a frenzy of sexual lust. The woman's facial expressions oscillate between pleasure and pain. The borderlines between active and passive sexual behavior are smudged. The Koi fishes dazzle with their ambiguous appearance. On the one hand their magnificent colors and elegance constitutes an attraction, on the other hand their slimy touch and their fleshy round mouth opening and pushing into the woman's face are utterly repulsive. Eventually the charm and the unearthly beauty of the Koi enchant the viewer and it becomes difficult to condemn the aggressiveness of the erotic scene.
Lift me up and take me down
גד זוקין – פסל
נעמי פליס ווננברג – פיסול / וידאו / מיצב
התערוכה תתקיים בתאריכים 3-5 ליולי 2008 בין השעות 20:00-24:00
בסטודיו של גד זוקין, שדרות הר ציון 110
תל אביב
"Lift me up and take me down", תערוכת מולטימדיה, תושק ב-3/7 בסטודיו של גד זוקין במסגרת אירוע הלילה הלבן בתל אביב ותוצג משך שלושה לילות.
גד זוקין מציג פסלים עשויים פולימר. נעמי פליס ווננברג, אמנית מדיה ברלינאית, תערוך את המיצב
Lift me up and take me down"" במעלית הסטודיו בשילוב של פסלים פאלים העשויים שוקולד הבוקעים מהקיר, במקביל תוקרן עבודתה "Fishy Thing".
הפסלים של גד זוקין מייצרים קונטראסט. הם עשויים מחומר דמוי מתכת בגודל של 2,3 מטרים אך תלויים מרחפים באוויר בחלל הסטודיו. שריון שנראה כאילו נלקח מגופו של מטוס נוסעים מגלה את טיבעו האמיתי במבט מקרוב מרחף במרכז הסטודיו ומערער כושר התפיסה והמרחב של הצופה בו הוא עשוי סיבי קרבון ושוקל פחות מקילו. פסל נוסף "Placentation", 2008 זכה לשמו מן השליה, החומר הראשן האופף את האדם, אך הפסל הזה עשוי נטיפי פולימר שהתקשו לקוצים הוא ההפך המוחלט של השליה המגוננת
המיצב של נעמי פליס ווננברג, ""Lift me up and take me down, משלב שימוש בפסלים פאלים עשויים שוקולד הבוקעים מקירותיה של מעלית תעשייתית. המעלית נדמת כמייצרת צמיחה אורגנית של תשוקה גברית באוויר החם והדביק של הלילה התל אביבי. ""Lift me up and take me down', הוא מיצג הפועל על הפנטזיה הארוטית הקלאסית של כליאה במעלית. הדלתות הנסגרות של המעלית יוצרות חלל אינטימי וקלסטרופובי באותה העת המעודד את הפנטזיה והתשוקה. באופן בלתי נמנע סוקר כל נוסע במעלית את הנפשות הנוסעות בה עימו ותוהה מה היה קורה לו היו הדלתות נותרות סגורות.
במקביל במעלית תוקרן בלופ "Fishy Thing" , עבודת וידאו של ווננברג . בסרטון נראית אישה משחקת עם דגי קואי צבעוניים. הדגים מייצגים תשוקה מנוכרת לגשת, לגעת, ולהחליק, ולמראית עין מנשקים והודפים את האישה. במהלך הווידיאו ביישנותם המסתורית הראשונית הופכת לפרץ של תשוקה מינית. הבעות פניה של האישה נעות בין כאב והנאה. הגבולות בין התנהגות מינית פאסיבית ואקטיבית מתרופפים ומשתנים. דגי הקואי יוצרים מראה כפול משמעות. הצבעים היפים והאלגנטיות של התנועה מכוננים משיכה ואילו מגעם הרירי ופיותיהם העגולים והבשרניים המתאספים כנגד פני האישה מייצרים דחייה אסתטית. בסופו של נלכד הצופה ביופיים של הדגים ונעשה קשה לגנות את האגרסיביות של הסצנה הארוטית.