FLYING FUCK #4 (2023)

Picture
SCROLL TO BOTTOM OF PAGE FOR VIDEO DOCUMENTATION.  WEAR HEADPHONES OR SPEAKERS WITH GOOD BASS RESPONSE TO HEAR AUDIO.   The site-specific sound installation  Flying Fuck #4 was created especially for the group exhibition  “Instinct #12: An AIDS Walkthrough” at We Are Village (Berlin) which aimed to design an intergenerational dialogue on the impacts of HIV/AIDS on our society through various mediums (April 6-16, 2023​).  Originally created for an exhibition at Moltkerei Werkstatt (Koln, Germany) in 2000, my "Flying Fuck" sound installation series express the joyous laissez-faire innocence (and naïveté) of sexual liberation that preceded the AIDS crisis. Antibiotics could treat venereal diseases and what else was there? “Flying Fuck” expresses this era of the 60s through the 80s on multiple levels, piercing the heavens through a condom-like cloud, while a soft roar fills the room with a reminder the looming danger.  Flying Fuck #4 was intentionally installed in the shower room at We Are Village, invoking the memory of love and sexual freedom in the gay bathhouses where AIDS was purportedly spread in the early days of liberation, with the hard walls reflecting and amplifying the subtle ominous sound.  “Flying Fuck” uses donut-shaped latex balloons to naturally amplify the low frequencies made by vibrators piercing the centers. An invisible circular pattern of sound intensity creates a sound hole in the room, reflecting the visual image. No speakers or external sound sources are used. 
Picture
The “Instinct #12: An AIDS Walkthrough” exhibition was sponsored by Instinct. Berlin which biannually presents exhibitions of artists whose practice includes a perspective on queer identities.  My participation in this exhibition was supported, in part, by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant.  

Please view the video documentation below using headphones or speakers with good bass response in order to hear the sound.