Permission to explore
Pornography, sexual exploitation, abuse – as human beings living and loving in a modern world, the language and expression of sex can leave us feeling alienated and out of touch with the actual joy of sexual exploration/expression – in our sexual relationships with others and with ourselves. To be invited to engage with giant models of a vagina and phallus inside a toilet takes some doing – for both photographer and subject(s). It is testament to the lyrical beauty and gentle compositional style of Claudio Ahlers that he allows his subjects the spiritual space and silence in which to pose/praise/sit/stand/caress/address these super sized sexual sculptures encouraging visitors to pay homage, in their own individual way, to the parts of our bodies that we often do not permit ourselves to explore or even acknowledge. The truth of the beautiful two is exposed in the most positive of ways by Claudio Ahlers poignant photographic portraits which reveal so much about our reactions to ourselves and our otherness.