Philip Pirolo, Velvet Orifice on Panel

Whether a bloom, wound, or transgressive opening penetrating the panel’s surface, Velvet Orifice on Panel is a sculptural piece that explores issues of desire, intrigue, fear, and the forbidden. When creating sculpture, Pirolo often uses basic building materials, such as gypsum compound and sometimes textiles like sheer silk and, in this case, lush velvet. Art historian and theorist Amelia Jones, in her essay Negotiated Difference(s) from Theories of Contemporary Art by Richard Hertz, explained the use of some of Pirolo’s materials: “He appropriates erotic paraphernalia generally associated with gay male cultural practices, aestheticizing them such that the characterization of gay identity as deviant in relationship to the heterosexist mythical norm is overturned.”

 

Velvet Orifice (site specific installation) was part of the touring exhibition Nature Morte

Four Domes Pavilion, Wroclaw

Guildhall Art Gallery, London

 

Philip Pirolo's work is featured in the Thames and Hudson publication  Nature Morte: Contemporary Artists reinvigorate the Still-Life tradition by Michael Petry

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