THE BEAUTIFUL TWO was a playful, photographic exploration of desire and sex, of love and lust, of attraction and intimacy and of the wide range of emotions we feel as men and as women about these most intimate parts of our own bodies and about those of our lovers.
Shot over four days at THE EDWARDIAN CLOAKROOMS in Bristol from 20. – 25. October 2014 and on a single day on 12. June 2014 at TRINITY CENTER, Bristol passers-by and volunteers were invited to be photographed with two 7 foot, black velveteen sculptures – one of a vulva and the other of a phallus.
This project was about what we find interesting, funny, frustrating, irresistible, arousing, irritating, adorable, disappointing, exhilarating, worrying, comforting, mysterious or even spectacular. Ultimately THE BEAUTIFUL TWO was simply about the vagina and the phallus and about what is beautiful about them. After all it is they that make our love life tick.
THE BEAUTIFUL TWO was also an attempt to show the great variety of individual responses to these fundamentals of our sexual identities, and to counter negative and exploitative stereotypes that are very much alive in our own culture and beyond.
This is an audio collage created from interviews with participants reflecting on their experience of THE BEAUTIFUL TWO at Trinity Center, Bristol in the summer of 2014.
A great many thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts and feelings at the time!
I am also truly delighted and very grateful that the fabulous musicians from the LUND QUARTET allowed me to use their piece LOON to breath more wonderful life into this collage.
You can listen to their magical music here
CREDITS
CLAUDIO AHLERS
Concept, Co- Design, Realisation and Photography
Co-Designer as well as maker of both sculptures: fantastic illustrator, set designer and prop maker – the woman who made it all possible.
Truly gifted and I am grateful to have had her as an additional photographer at THE EDWARDIAN CLOAKROOMS and photographic assistant at THE TRINITY CENTRE.
Additional Photography at THE EDWARDIAN CLOAKROOMS and an inspiration throughout it all through her own fabulous photographic work
Lighting design at THE TRINITY CENTRE by the maestro of luminescence