Prize
Oversized protective cups
Tinted resin
Each piece: 10”L x 81/4”W x 3”D
Installation dimensions variable
1999
Mine’s bigger than yours.
Prize is both a celebration of machismo and an indictment of the absurd need to flaunt manhood. These amplified ready-mades exist as ideal form as well as hyperbolic statement. Their close association with genitalia speaks volumes about what is being protected, both physically and psychologically.
In Prize (Gold/Silver/Bronze), each piece is presented as a fetishized trophy. Informed by a well-known athletic paradigm, the three medals have a prescribed hierarchical value. Even within this stilted competitive realm where formal elegance overtakes base functionality, the game and its arbitrary rules still preside. Prize (Gold/Silver/Bronze) announces that there is always a loser, a runner-up, and a winner.
Prize (Folly) , seen below, speaks to the oversized ego in play in today’s world. From sports to celebrity to politics, a hyperbolic sense of masculinity is a sure ticket to notoriety and, in some cases, infamy. The stakes are higher as what needs to be protected (by implication) has grown