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.

Matthias Herrmann Has a Very Photogenic Cock

Bio - Matthias Herrmann [pictured right and subject of his photos, below] is this old fart taking photographs of himself, dividing his time between Vienna/Austria and Riparbella/Italy.

He is Professor for Photography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (the school that is famous for not accepting Hitler as a student in the 1920s...)

He has a very photogenic cock."


See more of his subject matter that you can see here.

Matthias on MySpace

[note from LifeLube - "old fart" in the mind of Matthias means he is all of 44]

Photographs featured here are from his newest work - "Toscana."

Check out this article on Matthias...

The Penis Mightier
Dustin Cosentino
Published in DNA #93 (Australia), October 2007

Photographer Matthias Hermann teeters in the twilight between fame and obscurity. He is notorious but appreciated in the art world, and yet only the fewest of connoisseurs outside a limited circle would be able to place him. Perhaps as a result of this, his work is endowed with the youthful cheek of an enfant terrible, the bulk of which consists of self-portraits in the buff that deal, perhaps unsurprisingly, with the topics of sex, sexuality and gender. Since 2006 he has been the Chair of the Institute of Art and Photography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.

Before I meet Hermann, we share a brief exchange via email. Once we have arranged to meet he asks me, “What do you look like? Or will you have a red rose in your left hand?”

We meet in the late afternoon at the Café Eiles in Vienna, near City Hall. As soon as I walk in I spot him cowering at a small table opposite the entrance, wearing a grey shirt, green slacks and sneakers. The waiter arrives and I order a small beer. Matthias orders juice. He eyes me and levels with me, anticipating my question.

“A couple of years ago, I wanted to quit smoking,” he says. “It didn’t do me good and when I drank, I always wanted to smoke, so I decided to give up both – and I am a very happy not-drinker and not-smoker.”

Matthias has piercing blue-grey eyes which are set inside a stubbly, trim face. His body is lean and relaxed. He’s been compared to an action figure and it’s evident from his photos that he is attentive toward his appearance.

Read the rest.