Vox is
a 2-screen synchronized DVD with Dolby 5.1 surround sound, commissioned
by Gertrude Conemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne and the Institute of
Art, Brisbane as a joint project in 2007. Deliberately employing
a flat/graphic style of animation, two heads - one male, the
other female - face each other. Each takes turn to sexually intimidate
the other through a series of contorting biomorphic growths sprouting
from his/her head. The
active agent in this sexual change is entirely transformed while the
passsive agent remains entirely fixed and unmoved.
Devised by Philip Brophy, this 2-screen work characterises his general approach
to gender propositions. On the one hand, clear binaries are set up between 'male'
and 'female'; on the other hand, these binaries are blended, fused, morphed and
ultimately dissolved. The male head grows a series of penile extensions which
eventually abstract into something entirely 'post-phallic', after which the
female
head grows a series of vaginal extensions which eventually abstract into something
entirely 'post-uterine'. That 'post' realm is the universe of the
body. Humans - symbolised by the male and female heads in this animation - are
mere pollops.
This
idea is in keeping with Brophy's ongoing 'body' explorations (as in his ongoing
project The
Body Horrible instigated in 1988, and directly
referenced in Vinyl
Fantasy, 2002).
In Brophy ’s
world, "the body is a blob and gender is but a glob within it". Vox phantasmagorically
visualises such an enticing mess.
Concept & direction - Philip Brophy
Design & key animation - Philip Brophy
Sound design - Philip Brophy
Inbetweening - Steve Whatmough, Idora Alhabashi, Dom Evans, Teishan Ahearne
Technical advice - Phip Murray, Martine Corompt, Dominic Redfern
Production assistance - Chris MacKellar
Digital print advice - John Bilan
Thanks - Alexie Glass, Emily Cormack, Robert Leonard, RMIT Media Arts
