DXDX studios, Regent Street, Plymouth
July 26th to 16th August 2011
‘after Durer after Mantegna’
The basis for this image is found in an engraving of the
‘Death of Orpheus’ (1494) by Albrecht Durer which is derived from an earlier
lost image by Mantegna. In the image, a scroll attached to a tree declares
Orpheus to be the first pederast or homosexual, justifying his being killed by
the two female figures that are beating him. The window image has adpated
elements of the Durer composition to design a contemporary emblem that repeats
the labelling of the other as aberrant or unnatural. This comments on the ongoing
persecution and execution of gay, lesbian and people designated as other or
unnatural in countries around the world. The design also engages with the
intersection between the textual and the pictorial.
[from DxDx website] WINDOW WORK is a programme of artworks commissioned for the building’s shop display window on the Regent Street side of the building. The current WINDOW WORK project asks artists (through an open call submission process) to propose a text work, diagram, drawing, instruction piece, design etc that can easily be drawn (translated) onto the main studio window using chalk pens.