Yet, while phalluses are ubiquitously alluded to and aggressively symbolised in gallery contexts, rarely is the organ itself the focus of our attention. Step into a museum like the National Gallery and it’s hard to move for female nudes – penises, on the other hand, are comparatively few and far between. In patriarchal society, we’re perfectly accustomed to ogling women’s bodies – but men’s, especially their most intimate parts, are less familiar territory. For some, that lack of visibility only makes penises all the more preoccupying – certainly, taboo is the animating force behind many of the works in COCKY.
COCKY surveys our diverse interpretations of the penis, from the divine to the erotic. Some combine the two – such as the work of Brazilian sculptor Chico Tabibuia. Born Francisco Moraes da Silva in Casimiro de Abreu, 1936, Tabibuia began making sculptures in his teenage years before commencing his practice in earnest aged 40. Infused with the Afro-Brazilian syncretic religion of Umbanda as well as Pentecostal Christianity, Tabibuia believed he was finding entities who already inhabited the wood he worked with (from the Trumpet Tree, the local word for which gave the artist his name).