Glass Fucker
Wu Shanzhuan
吴山专
Production date
2005-2011
Object Detail
Media
acrylic on canvas
Measurements
100 x 140 cm
Notes
'Glass Fucker' features an image that has recurred in various forms in a number of works, representing Wu Shanzhuan’s interest in connections between sexuality, philosophy, physics and geometry. A simple silhouette of a flatly painted male figure, his weight balanced on his hands, is seen from the front with extreme foreshortening. His dangling penis is inserted in a small glass of water. The figure silhouetted against a dark background recalls the position of Narcissus, the golden boy falling in love with his own reflection, painted so often as a cautionary tale by artists such as Caravaggio, whose version of the Greek myth, may have suggested the pose. Wu, though, is not presenting us with a moral allegory, but rather with a sardonic take on ‘high art’. He says, ‘What looks good is sexy what is sexy looks good.’
Accession number
2013.061