Pass or Play (A Contemplation on Temptation)
(tag 501)
2017
Private Collection
Assemblage (19.25” x 22” x 5.25”)
- wood wall shelf
- Jesuit (priest) book ends (one with football, the other with a flute)
- rooster/cock trivet with cock/rooster spray-painted gold
- plexiglas
- copper wire
- vintage male physique photograph
Exhibition History:
California Heritage Museum, April 27-November 8, 2019
Artist description:
This artwork deals with desire, sexuality and temptation. As a visual pun regarding the title of this artwork, here we see two Jesuit priests, one holding a football and the other playing the flute. Whether to ‘pass’ on the temptation or “play” is the dilemma here. We see a very handsome young man as the source of temptation.
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 that had a rooster atop so that it could be painted gold as a visual pun in reference to “the golden cock.”