Spinning the Wheel (2018) is a three-part installation consisting of ceramic sculptures which are coated in bitumen and connected by black rope. The work comprises of a two-legged goat which is trying to escape from rope to which it is bound. The rope is connected through a pulley (which is suspended from the ceiling) to an abstracted and broken spinning top. The title of the work comes from the George Michael song of the same name which depicts the worries of a man whose partner is promiscuous during the AIDS epidemic in America. There is a supposed sexual freedom in contemporary gay culture that is hedonistic, fearless and proud and though sexuality can be explored in beats, bars, saunas, sex clubs and online, gay spaces are often still dark and windowless, hidden. The work seeks to examine the impacts on sexuality (collective and individual) formed amidst fear, shame and risk and asks the question: when early experiences of lust occur alongside darker emotions do they mutate and become entwined?
patrick mcdavitt artist art