Still plugged in - more Matthias Herrmann

[photographs featured are from a variety of matthias herrmann
collections which you can see here.]

dear lifelube
hope chicago is not too cold right now. i once was close to
commit suicide
in chicago... was invited as a guest speaker at the
museum of
contemporary
art
and it was SO cold and windy and
unpleasant and the
talk was about AIDS
and so
(within a general idea
show) and it was the
first time i ever spoke
publicly
about my being
hiv+ and then i thought
it was a mistake and i
thought going into
the lake would be a good way
out.
-matthias herrmann, december
6, 2007

Welcome To The Dark Side (excerpt)

Post-HIV-infection, there’s a continuation of theme in Herrmann’s work, he holds ground above this nagging sagging human flesh, but by revealing sickness there is an inherent slant, coupled with an apparent indulgence in mood: these hotel diaries continue to document Herrmann as pornstar, underwear model, pervy horn-pig, but his compulsion to exhibit has taken on a dead-pan edge. There is also an increasingly introspective, melancholic feature: still lifes (with or without spunk), packages of HIV meds appearing as their own persona, available pornography. Total-Image: I feel sexy (but my eyes say sick), my cock is rock hard (but I’m wearing this stupid wig again), I feel like showing my asshole (even if it is ragged and ulcerated). The material is not so different, it still has fun, yet it is haunted by the specter of HIV and drug therapy. With the information of diagnosis comes a viral perception of bloody tissue in the toilet, or cum on the fruit bowl, that cannot be denied. Even with the shame equation aside, this is a different quandary than Hannah Wilke’s Intra-Venus series: death is not nearly so close for Herrmann and his sexuality is still plugged in.


For those of us who like their art front-loaded and their sex objects on the used side, he’s not only plugged in, but turned on high.

by Ron Athey
"Erectus Abominas"
Published in Hotel V, 2007 - read more of Athey's take on Matthias here.

Read another LifeLube post on Matthias here.