Der Parasit

This sculpture was a continuation of an earlier video artwork. The basic theme is the internalization of the male gaze, and trying to break free from it. The following poem was the main conceptual and metaphoric inspiration of the sculptural work.

“Male fantasies, male fantasies, is everything run by male fantasies? Up on a pedestal or down on your knees, it’s all a male fantasy: that you’re strong enough to take what they dish out, or else too weak to do anything about it. Even pretending you aren’t catering to male fantasies is a male fantasy: pretending you’re unseen, pretending you have a life of your own, that you can wash your feet and comb your hair unconscious of the ever-present watcher peering through the keyhole, peering through the keyhole in your own head, if nowhere else. You are a woman with a man inside watching a woman. You are your own voyeur.” -Margaret Atwood, Excerpt of „The Robber Bride“

The sculpture, an abstracted woman-like figure hanging from her own hair, a long blond braid, depicts a woman and her parasite, the male gaze inside of her. It has a fetishized and somehow pretty, yet at the same time grotesque and uncanny side to it. The materials such as fabric, construction foam, stockings and latex milk were used to create a skin-like texture.