![]() 2005-2007
Semen, acrylic glass, aluminium, refrigeration system, 85,5 x 63,5 x 52,5 cm
White Cube 2005-2007 Semen, acrylic glass, aluminium, refrigeration system, 85,5 x 63,5 x 52,5 cm This work is a 10-centimeter cube literally full of the artist's frozen semen, collected from 2005 to 2007, exposed inside a refrigeration system at a temperature of -30°C. The piece was first showed at the exhibition Deposit - Notes on Density and Knowledge, held at Porto University, from January to June 2007. Text from the catalog: Leonardo has associated the idea of deposit to the fact of the recent creation of Portugal's first sperm bank, precisely at Oporto University. In this sense the work can be contextualized in a site-specific perspective. However, the paradoxical and abstract nature of the work is understood in the logic of a conceptual art tradition. In fact the piece establish an ironic dialog with artists works of previous generations, like Piero Manzoni Merda di Artista, 1961 and Marc Quinn Self, 1991, who also have used body fluids on their sculptures - feces and blood, respectively. Insinuating like a monument to life itself, the work questions man's irrational desire to reach immortality. |