Coctus

72” x 18” x 24”
Commissioned for Funny Stuff, a 2023 group exhibition exploring the intersection of sculpture and comedy, Coctus was later included in a 2024 group show at Andrew Logan Projects, A Season in Ecstasy. Occupying a space where humor becomes a conceptual strategy and referencing the erotic charge of minimal forms and the exaggerated symbolism of desert iconography, the work invites viewers into an encounter that is as much about bodily response as it is about sculptural form.

Blurring the boundaries between the organic and the artificial, Coctus reimagines the iconic form of the majestic Saguaro Cactus of the Southwest, juxtaposing it with the material and aesthetic language of latex kink. A glossy black body punctuated with floppy phallic “spines,” Coctus is activated by proximity - when approached by a viewer, it begins to shimmy wildly, the unexpected motion breaking the piece’s initial stillness and introducing an element of slapstick anticipation.