NYAB Event - "The Sex Lives of Animals" Exhibition

Closes in 118 days
At The Museum of Sex
Media: Sculpture

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A male bonobo shrewdly soliciting sex in exchange for sugar cane. Two female bonobos blissfully engaging in genito-genital (G-G) rubbing. The strenuous coupling of endangered Panda bears. This summer, visitors to the Museum of Sex will encounter these creatures and others so vivid in their portrayal that they will likely feel as though they have unwittingly begun a voyeuristic journey into the wild.

Sex is more than the drive to reproduce. Our expanding knowledge of the natural world has revealed that animals participate in an astonishing array of sexual behaviors, where all conceivable sex acts and sexual partnerships exist. Animals engage in foreplay behaviors such as kissing, hugging, mutual and self-stimulation, oral sex and every kind of penetrative intercourse imaginable. Sex in the animal kingdom is just as complex and nuanced as it is for humans, and pleasure, it seems, is not restricted to the human realm.

The Sex Lives of Animals is a celebration of the diversity of animal sexual behavior. This emergent research has resulted in new interpretations, delving into the possible evolutionary benefits of non-reproductive sex, for both individuals and social groups.

Set to debut in this exhibition are life-sized animal sculptures custom-made by Rune Olsen. Composed of the “social materials” of newspaper and tape, these pieces explore the physical world with the immediacy and expressiveness of hand drawing. Through the incorporation of human-like glass eyes, the distance between human and animal vanishes, seducing the viewer into a direct interaction with the gaze of the animal.

In this “new natural history” the Museum of Sex is presenting an uncensored story of the natural world, moving animal sexuality beyond the confines of reproduction and mating, towards discussions of orientation and cognition. By exploring the most intimate part of life, where it is often said we are most animal like, we can appreciate the significance of research on animal sexuality and, perhaps, extrapolate these concepts to larger issues regarding sexuality in general.

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