Adonis
(tag 026)
2019

Assemblage (23” x 12.5” x 4”)

Artist description:

This artwork deals with desire. In Greek mythology, Adonis was the god of male beauty and desire. In popular culture, referring to someone as an Adonis calls attention to their being a very handsome young man.

Here we see a very handsome young man as the source of desire. The photograph is a circa 1950’s vintage physique study, taken by Bruce Bellas (a.k.a. ‘Bruce of Los Angeles’). This now seemingly tame photograph was then considered to be pornography. The photograph is mounted on a trivet. A trivet is an object that holds hot plates slightly above a tabletop to prevent the heat from warping/damaging the tabletop. As we see here the trivet it is still holding a “hot plate,” namely the image of the handsome young man. The artist used a trivet with a rooster atop so that it could be painted gold as a visual pun in reference to ‘the golden cock.’ Dangling from the bottom of the trivet are three glass beads…referring to the three ‘Hail Mary’ beads found at the end of a rosary…suggesting that for most people, it would be from the luck of a ‘Hail Mary’ pass to get this young man’s attention. Timing would be everything. At the end of the beads hangs a Sessions mantle clock pendulum bob embossed with a large letter “S”, which is again a reference to time, but also ‘Sex.’