The blog of author Dennis Cooper

Sperm

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Andreas Slominski Sperm, 2012
‘Andreas Slominski’s “Sperm” comprises the semen of humans and animals splashed on the walls and floors of the NYC gallery Metro Pictures.’

 

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Hany Armanious Ejaculate and Dick, 2013
Pigmented polyurethane resin

 

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Raymond Pettibon My First Orgasm, 1983
ink on paper

 

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Xiao Lu Sperm, 2006
‘Xiao Lu gained instant notoriety in early 1989 when she fired a gun into her artwork at the China/Avant-garde exhibition in Beijing. In 2006, aged 44 and desperate to have a child before it was too late, she asked fellow artists to donate sperm so that she could inseminate herself. This act of self-help was also a carefully planned conceptual artwork, to take place during the Long March Project, an event involving 30 contemporary artists at Yan’an, site of the mountain stronghold of Mao Zedong’s forces. Xiao prepared optimistically, bringing glass jars and a freezer to store semen samples. To her surprise, not one man would agree, and the work documents their refusal. Xiao Lu says, ‘I took the initiative … and all the men were struggling with this.’’

 

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Louise Bourgeois & Tracey Emin I Held your Sperm and Cried, 2009-2010
‘Bourgeois began their open-ended project by producing a series of gouache paintings of male and female torsos, pregnant women’s bellies, and erect phalluses. After months spent ruminating on Bourgeois’s watercolors, Emin added to them with text, as well as further images of fetuses and miniature female figures.’

 

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Nour Mobarak Reproductive Logistics, 2020
Apple-wood pellets, kraft paper, watercolor, hair, sperm, acrylic, resin

 

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Keith Haring King Sperm, 1988
sumi ink on paper

 

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Stahl Stenslie The Artgasm, 2014
‘Artgasm medically manipulates the male audience/participant to experience the maxi- mum of corporal pleasure, ie orgasm. The orgasms are involuntarily induced through a medical device and under the medical treatment of a doctor and nurse. By neural stimu- lation males will erect and ejaculate within two minutes.

‘Situation: each participant (3+) are put on a surgical table and covered in a white, med- ical cloth. Their penis can be exposed through a hole in the cloth. 10 minutes prior to performance the participant mus take a necessary heart medicine (betablocker) to avoid stress of the heart. Then the procedure of i: stimulus, ii: erection and iii: ejaculation is started. The betablocker is important since a physically induced corporal excitement without a mental stimulation is potentially dangerous. A team of on doctor and two nurs- es in the usual uniforms apply the apparatus until the erection/orgasm/ejaculation cycle is completed. Their behaviour is medical, technical and functional. They are professionals just doing their job of making men achieve ejaculation/orgasm. The sperm is collected in a medical container. This could be used for other purposes/use.’

 

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Cary Kwok Arrival (Jazz), 2017
Bronze, wax, chrome, resin, stainless steel and lamp wiring

 

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Saeborg Ultra Unreal, 2022
‘The Ultra Unreal exhibition sees the modern world of chaos, COVID and climate change and ups the ante with something even more unreal: latex landscapes of dung beetles devouring faeces (“Pooptopia,” it’s called) and farmers milking frozen sperm. And then there are the videos of alligators created with rice, and burial sites covered by green lasers.’

 

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Bjarne Melgaard Untitled (Sperm on the Grave of Paul Gaugin), 1998
Watercolor, mixed media and collage on paper

 

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Guillermo Kuitca Last of Sperm, 1995
Painting, 102 x 122 x 5 cm

 

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Rego Kim Luxury Orgasm, 2014
Painting, Ink on Canvas

 

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Mire Lee Carriers, 2022
‘In Mire Lee’s installations and sculptures, there are low-fi motor-driven pumps, concrete mixers, PVC tubing, and hand-grafted silicon abscesses, which merge into experimental assemblages. Her kinetic installations rely on circulatory systems that mimic the homeostatic process of organs. In an algorithmic world, where questions of pleasure and consumption habits are increasingly quantifiable and aligned into predictive patterns of regulated behavior. Her works leak into their environments; they squirt, drip, or amass with viscous liquids — a process where components of the artwork begin fluctuating between various states of arousal throughout the duration of the work’s display.’

 

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Tracey Emin Rat Black Sperm, 2009
Polymer gravure on 27 gsm Japanese Tonosawa paper

 

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Gilbert & George Various, 1982
Photographs, gelatin silver print on paper with dye on paper mounted onto board


Sperm Eaters


Hunger


Thirst

 

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Jonty Hurwitz How enough sperm can make a strange human without a uterus, 2010
Digital Photography

 

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Kiki Smith Sperms, 1991
cast glass

 

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David McGee Sperm Rush, 1994
Oil and enamel on newsprint on canvas

 

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Eung Ho Park Sperm Spoons, 1995
found objects; metal; mixed media; spoons

 

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Terence Koh God (Cumming), 2012
photograph, sculpture, collage

 

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Alexander Zuleta A billion sperm and you were the first one, 2022
‘One millilitre of semen can contain more than 200 million sperm. What a coincidence! 21st century, year 2022, a time when we all seek singularity, the ability to be unique and differentiate ourselves from the rest. Zuleta makes us reflect on how the singular event from which a single sperm comes is nothing more than the consequence of a coincidence of mother nature where we are all part of a whole and where a trillionth part of a unit finds its singularity as a consequence of the collective effort of all.’

 

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Laek1yo Untitled, 2020
‘I’m planning to exhibit a jar of my own semen at an extremely high-end contemporary art gallery in Singapore. But it looks like I need to push the deadline back again. 300 wanks later and it’s not even half full!’

 

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Andy Warhol Cum Paintings, 1978
Semen and gesso on canvas, four panels

 

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Jonty Hurwitz Untitled, 2015
‘London-based artist Jonty Hurwitz has created the smallest known, human-shaped sculptures in the world that’s completely invisible to the human eye. The nano sculptures span about the same scale as a sperm, and can only be perceived on the screen of powerful scanning electron microscope.’

 

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Andres Serrano Semen and Blood I, II, III, 1990
Cibachrome prints

 

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‘Canadian jeweler Amanda Booth went viral after posting her homemade jewelry made out of dehydrated cum. Booth has always created trinkets, but after a suggestion, her team couldn’t let her pass up an opportunity to make “jizzy jewelry.” From there, she decided to ask her husband for a “sample,” of his semen and got to work. Clearly, the formula not only works but she’s begun perfecting it. She sells each piece of jewellery for between $110 and $300 Canadian dollars and often offloads more than 40 items a week.’

 

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Gregor Schneider Sperm, 1997
Glass, water, silicone

 

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Rirkrit Tiravanija Untitled 2020 (a hurricane in a drop of cum), 1965
Hand tufted rug

 

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Takashi Murakami My Lonesome Cowboy, 1998
‘The value of Takashi Murakami’s artwork hit new heights in 2008 when his life-sized fibreglass sculpture ‘My Lonesome Cowboy’ – a wacky anime-inspired figure of a boy whose semen stream forms a gigantic lasso around his head – sold for an astonishing $15.2 million at Sotheby’s in New York.’

 

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Marcel Duchamp Faulty Landscape, 1946
‘Paysage fautif or Faulty Landscape was made in 1946 and dedicated to Maria Martins. Martins was a Brazilian sculptor whom Duchamp met in 1942 and became her lover. This is considered such an original and provocative piece because of the material he used to create it – his own sperm (although it was not discovered until 1989 that Duchamp’s seminal liquid was used).’

 

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Tala Madani Cum Shot #3, 2019
Oil on linen

 

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Juan Antonio Olivares Untitled (Cum), 2022
Graphite powder and acrylic on aluminum panel

 

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Gelitin Arc de Triomphe, 2017
‘A male figure depicted by Gelitin, “tall as an elephant”, creates a round-headed arch with an erect penis from which “cum” squirts harmoniously like a fountain, forming a loop and ending up in the figure’s mouth.’

 

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Richie Culver Roses Are Red, 2020
‘Culver’s work comes off as a wicked mix of Rodney Dangerfield’s self-deprecating humor, the adolescent distress of Mike Kelley and the copyright busting antics of Richard Prince. An artist whipping open his trench coat to reveal it all (to an extent perhaps he shouldn’t).’

 

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Sean Landers Monk in Orgasm, 1991
terracotta, wood, steel

 

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Aura Rosenberg Head Shots: Mike Kelley, 1993
‘Rosenberg had noted that in pornography, women’s pleasure was most often captured via their facial expressions—while for men, the proof was in the irrefutable “money shot.” And so began a prolonged project that would result in a series, and an accompanying book of 61 images, known as “Head Shots.” These closely cropped portraits see her male peers, friends, and friends-of-friends all caught in the moment of sexual release. Her subjects include more than a few boldface names, including the late Mike Kelley and John Baldessari. The experience, Kelley noted in a 1995 fax to Rosenberg, was “definitely the most pleasant photo shoot I have ever done. Now the so-called ‘little death’ is frozen into an eternal one—my longest orgasm to date.”‘

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Thanks, yeah, things are better nowadays. I have to really be careful not to get too excited about the Cannes thing. Our film is very good, I must say, but it’s a very, very competitive situation, and our film is definitely an oddball. It would take a lot of luck. I think love will be glad he read that particular book. Just a hunch. Love realising his neighborhood is at the very center of where all the big Olympics activities and celebrations will be happening and thinking, Uh oh, G. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi. I still haven’t started ‘The Shards’. I really have to do that before it becomes an antique. Yeah, PT sounded supersonic. So, are you continually buying/getting tracks for your show, or do you have a vast library/collection that constitutes a kind of endless supply? ** Misanthrope, Thanks again for the pix. Thumbs up! ‘Dune 2’ is definitely the live activity equivalent of the most Intagramable possible photo op of the day. Have fun, iow. Last I heard, Sammy Case went into a deep Tina hole for a quite a while, cleaned up, and I think was working at a zoo in Florida? ** Jack Skelley, Suave countdown, unimitateable. Yes, Wally Cox’s big D is supposedly no small reason why he was the great love of Marlon Brando’s life. So strange. You know they’re buried side by side. I’ll check the FOKA review. Enjoy the grok. One of these days you’ll be a post-New Years Rose Parade float like the rest of us, ha ha. We finished the sound mix/design yesterday! Now just VFX work to go, and we’ll be done! Lurve, Joey Heatherton. ** Bill, Thanks, Bill. Yeah, we finished it yesterday. Crazy. Thanks for the Zambreno book fill-in link. I haven’t seen that Terayama. Ooh. ** Guy, Well, thank you, sir. I’m good, yes, I think so, yes. Well, thank goodness for therapy then. And trumpets at the ready re: your summer of … love? Maybe not. Wait, your slave made you apply? Not very slavelike there. Watch out. Our slaves are prepping for the 31st. My mind is a little pooped from the film work, but only physically. It stills works okay, I think. Your big mind sounds perky. ** Justin, No, I like blog post requests. I sometimes feel like I’m completely out of ideas, especially with all my busyness and distraction at the current time. I clicked over to your Tumblr, and it looks suave as hell at first glance. I’ll pore over it in a bit. The haircut outcome does sound nice. I remember when I went from hippie to punk rocker in one fell swoop. It’s true, my head went totally viral for a few weeks. ** Mark, Hi. Oh, no, no Paris? That’s totally sad. But practical and understandable. Damn. After8 has been at every Paris Ass I’ve been to, so I’m pretty sure they’ll do it this year. Yeah, hit them up. I’ll pop in there and add my thumbs up to the idea. Or, yeah, surely you know folks over here who’d want to man such a table. It’s a pretty fun, ultra-social deal to be part of. I do remember the young Madonna carrying herself like she was a billion dollars, yeah. ** Charalampos, Hi. Uh, yeah, no Tsiknopempti for me, Jesus. I slept on a water bed a few times back in the day. They were miserable. No surprise they had a Pet Rock-like lifespan. Although I suppose someone must still sell them. A post? Hm, I don’t know. I will think about it. Oh, yeah, let me look back at the Kunstverein post and see if it’s worth salvaging. Thanks, buddy. Hi from pretty much never boring Paris. ** Darbyyy🤔🤨😑in thoughts, Nice. Oh, I do posts about musicians sometimes. I guess mostly the gig posts. I did a great post about the Mellotron, my favorite musical instrument. But not the moog yet, I don’t think. Have you seen the documentary ‘Sisters with Transistors’ about the early female electronic music pioneers? It’s great, you should check it out. Interesting sounding book there. And you sound jazzed about it, cool. I’ve not been reading much because of the film stuff eating me. I did recently reread Dambudzo Marechera’s incredible early 60s novel ‘Black Sunlight’. It’s amazing. My eyes are kind of fucked, but I didn’t see any grammar weirdness. But I love grammar weirdness, so I’m not the best judge. ** Uday, Hi. I was in the scouts, first Cub then Boy until I was kicked out for refusing to cut my long hair. Anyway, it wasn’t very exciting. I’m not a big fan of camping. Oh, for infinite time, yes, please. Zoom interviews can be pretty fun, believe it or not. Sometimes. Good morning. ** Okay. Well, the post’s title tells you everything you need to know. See you tomorrow.

15 Comments

  1. Uday

    My school had a really strict dress code but I was allowed to be an exception because, honestly I don’t know? I think I read enough that they figured I had long hair in the Indian intellectual sense and not in the problem child sense. Either way I was very grateful for it. Sperm always makes me think of Leeuwenhoek discovering spermatozoa by jerking off into a petri dish and being so grossed out he hoped nobody else would find out about the cells. I like faux-camping, where you hike to a pre-built cabin. I don’t know. I feel like we already invented stationary housing. Why go back in time? Infinite time yes, but I don’t want immortality. Maybe the option to create a personal groundhog day whenever you want?

  2. Dominik

    Hi!!

    What a lovely post! Thank you!

    Yeah, of course, Cannes is an incredibly ambitious goal. But I think it’s great that you’re going for it. Your film deserves it, regardless of their decision. And, you know – maybe love will be a member of the jury this year! Did you manage to finish everything the way you wanted to?

    Uh-oh, indeed! Love’s neighborhood is about to explode pretty soon, I think! 2012 love going to Metro Pictures just to lick the walls while Andreas Slominski’s piece is exhibited, Od.

  3. _Black_Acrylic

    There I was expecting to find Vito Acconci – Seedbed among this list of seminal works. Maybe it would be too much of an obvious choice?

    PT has always been very much a combination. Bandcamp and Intergalactic FM are the main sources of inspiration, with a few of my own 12″s thrown into the mix. I’ll usually post a photo of my featured 12″s onto my Instagram page, if any of those appear. A lot of work has been going into this, but I hope to concentrate on my writing in the coming weeks too.

    • _Black_Acrylic

      Here in the so-called United Kingdom, the sticky stuff always used to be called come. These days however the US spelling of cum seems to have been universalised. Has it really come to this?

  4. Mark

    Hail semen! Regarding Pari-ass, we have some lead on folks who might be able to help us out. Although, After 8 seems like a very good option for us if they’d have us??? I’m going to reach out to them. I’ll also email you offline. It’s killing me that we aren’t going. I’m going to try to work some Mark-magic… maybe rob a corrupt bank á la Robin Hood? xoxo

  5. Misanthrope

    Dennis, I was expecting more sperm, for some reason. Derp.

    You’re welcome. 😀 And thanks, I think we’ll have a good time Saturday. Dune 2 seems to be a pretty decent movie, from what everyone’s saying, including those who were skeptical. We’ll see. I might suck, haha.

    Another “for some reason”: For some reason, I thought Sammy Case had died. Maybe it was dumb me thinking he’d died because he has HIV and that was eventual or some dumb shit. I’m glad that he’s not and that he’s doing okay. That’s good to hear.

  6. Steve

    Those SALTBURN memes have more staying power than I expected.

    Good luck with Cannes. When will you hear back from the festival?

    I caught DUNE 2 yesterday and thought it was an improvement over the first one, but both films are far more solemn and self-important than they can justify. Villeneuve has a better eye than most directors making blockbusters these days, but the film is still pretty sterile and emotionless.

    I have two reviews out today: Rose Glass’ LOVE LIES BLEEDING (https://gaycitynews.com/love-lies-bleeding-rose-glass-film-review/) and my March music roundup, featuring Judas Priest and Reyna Tropical (https://gaycitynews.com/march-lgbtq-music-judas-priest-reyna-tropical/)

  7. Darby 🤨😐😑

    SPERm!
    Hi no I haven’t hear of that documentary but I will def check it out sometime.
    Oh I actually looked into the book/ author Dambudzo after reading what you wrote. I’m glad I did, whatever inert curiosity drove me to. Their work looks promising and akin to something I’d read, especially the description of House of Hunger, that’s cool.
    Although, you said black sunlight was a 60s novel though everywhere it states it was published in 1980? Was that a mistake or…is there another version…elusive?
    I’m intrigued.
    There’s something called medical coding, and its essentially transferring medical data into numerical codes that represent the prognosis or just general procedures. I think its really interesting and I’ve been looking into it, since its mostly remote and other benefits while I can focus on other things.

    Oh I hope u have a good week. Dont let a pigeon ejaculate semen on your window.

    • Darby 🤨😐😑

      weekend*

  8. Justin

    Hi, Dennis! Interesting post today. I’m fascinated by that Artgasm performance. Thanks for checking out my blog. 😎 I love imagining you as a long-haired boy in a Scout’s uniform reading Sade.

  9. Charalampos

    l am also fascinated by Dambudzo Marechera and had exact same thoughts with Darby when I read about him in the morning, thank you very much for sharing. Is good idea to read Black sunlight first or the other book? I have interest in terrorist organisations and it’s the theme of the book I think? I read now a book called CONSUMING//TERROR: Images of the Baader-Meinhof

    Tsiknopempti going strong here with sausages and mprizoles and mpiftekia and tzatziki
    I had very strange dream today that led me to a Greek serial killer I did not know before and a Greek novel I also did not know. Both mentioned to me in the dream as Foreshadowing like someone showing them to me. Spirit friends doing their Job again? As I am getting back into reading Greek literature of the interwar period (cursed poets they were) one day I can maybe recommend you something good. I am very interested how dreams show you things you did not know before. How do these things slip through shakes me. I wrote a poem recently about the idea of extending the between sleep and awake phase so you can navigate truths and I felt I got something out of my system finally

    Love from Crete Chania

  10. Cori Diaz

    Hey Dennis! Big fan and native New Yorker. Absolutely LOVE the Metro Pictures gallery. I actually just moved to LA, but before I did, I was able to look at the papers you donated to the NYU Fales & Special Collections Library. Really exciting to see your collages and letters and the way you talked about your work with others. As a fiction writer/playwright having just moved to LA, do you have any recommendations for any places to check out? I’ve done a workshop at Beyond Baroque and it was fabulous. I’m still exploring the area and would love any recs!

  11. Girl

    Oh, well what a prescient post…! Any faves? My slave didn’t exactly “make” me apply, no, sorry that’s just my occasionally weak/ inaccurate English. He suggested it very passionately and edited my abstract, so I agreed to do it. But you are right in that he’s told me that he’s also a “switch” and not just a slave. But he says he would like to be a total slave with me rather than a switch, which is ideal for me… He says he’d like to enslave another man though. Your film sounds all-consuming but in a great way. When will it be finished? I can’t wait to watch Room Temperature! XO

  12. Kyler

    Hi Dennis, you won’t be too surprised I don’t think that I use my Sperm for magickal purposes. I don’t tell a lot of people this! But I know I can tell you almost anything. I realy came on to tell you how much I’m loving Genet’s The Thief’s Journal. This book has been sitting around here for years and I never read it. I am totally blown away. I can’t describe to you the effect it’s having on me. I’m sure you know Genet better than I do, but I think I’m now a fan. Reserved 2 more items today from the library. I saw your comment about The Shards and was just wondering today if you’d ever get to it. It’s long but worth it. A dangerous writer like Genet.

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