Matriarchy/Patriarchy
At a lecture given by Lutz Presser at the Museum of Contemporary Art the artist offered the following explanation of how he had arrived at the initial idea for this current exhibition Matriarchy/Patriarchy, “my friends said why don’t you deal with something that’s relevant, so I thought ‘what’s relevant to everyone…sex’”. Indeed this revelation offers some explanation of the imposing presence of generously proportioned phalli and (upon much closer inspection) vaginas lined with soft red fabric and complete with clitorises. However the challenge is to overcome this genital focus and decide whether this rather grotesque sculpture installation sufficiently elucidates the Matriarchy/Patriarchy premise.
In the “Working Paper for Matriarchy/Patriarchy” which accompanies the exhibition, we are offered an explanation of the ideas surrounding the work. Presser provides a detailed account of the pre-Christian myth of Lilith and her creation as mate for Adam (from the same cosmic matter from which he was made, thus making her his equal) - her subsequent refusal to submit to him sexually or otherwise, and her choice to leave the garden, becoming a “monster or demon of the night who returned to cohabit with Adam and later with other men when they were asleep, subsequently giving birth to demos and evil spirits”. Presser goes on to explain Eve’s creation as “companion” for Adam after Lilith’s desertion. Eve is made from common matter and thus “from her inception she was inferior to Adam, relegated to a lower status in the hierarchy of existence”. According to Presser these myths illustrate society’s shift from a matriarchal to patriarchal position - the dichotomy which it is his prime intention to explore.
Certainly the “Working Paper” does provide an interesting view of