tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953498166049915499.post-44998457481450867072007-03-21T22:04:00.000-07:002008-06-12T19:39:36.730-07:00<a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_GfMfoK-GcV4/RgIOdNcPluI/AAAAAAAAAAk/pIKrcNfqYqQ/s1600-h/346px-Moerser-und-Pistill.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_GfMfoK-GcV4/RgIOdNcPluI/AAAAAAAAAAk/pIKrcNfqYqQ/s320/346px-Moerser-und-Pistill.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5044610427595495138" /></a>The mortar and pestle are displaced eroticism, sexuality by proxy. <br /><br />Their combinatory power is both alchemical and reproductive. <br /><br />The etymological background of the constituent terms supports this notion. Pestle derives from the classical Latin term “pistillum,” meaning “pounder,” connoting the aggressive action of a phallic member. Its complimentary counterpart, the mortar, refers to “moratorium,” or the “receptacle for pounding.” <br /><br />Together, they do not collapse sexual difference, (the way Man Ray’s photographic image of the fedora in Minotaure contraposes the progressive swelling of the cap, with a final folding in on itself, creating a labial laceration above the rim) but accentuate sexual difference by an effectively symbolic function. The pestle penetrates the mortar with the objective of synthesizing at least two disparate elements, giving birth to a third element from out of their transubstantiation. <br /><br />The sperm inseminates the egg. <br /><br />The mortar and pestle are the utility of apothecary. By displacing the magic act of coitus, which is necessarily connected with the motion of the cosmos, upon two mutually dependent products (one passive and one active), the alchemical potential of sexual exchange becomes realized outside of the human body as medicinal. As such, the mortar and pestle are also a set of objects through which desire and libidinal energy are sublimated into a form of production that replaces the regulatory outlet for libidinal impulses. <br /><br />Their combination realizes the antidotal possibilities of eroticism. <br /><br />Independently of one another, their aesthetic value remains the same, phallic and vaginal, however their use-value is rendered impotent. The mortar becomes a reservoir, whereas the pestle remains silent, unless, by way of masturbation, it animates the heart of Venus and becomes a pleasurable “pounder.”AMIRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02500825281961813362noreply@blogger.com