As with many public sculptures, their visual language is shaped by the objective to be recognizable from afar, however only an up-close encounter reveals a curious yet important detail. The perspective of the flaneur on foot in looking up at the creatures from below will find the dragons oversized testicles exposed. A surprising attention to fictional detail paid by the creators one might think, yet if one considers that ‘the networks that dominate the financial sector are overwhelmingly male and often shockingly sexist’ as Pettifor states, this veneration of male power as an emblem and gate keeper begins to make sense.
Madejska focuses on these curious insignias of power through photographing the dragons from below using a close crop of the testicles in question. The perspective of the wandering observer is one that she has occupied herself on her many walks of the perimeters of the city, walks that she has been undertaking with increased frequency in the wake of the EU referendum, pondering the City’s stake and role in the pending divorce.
Text adopted from Anna Gritz (2017), Ballsy.In exhibition pamphlet for Technocomplex, Stuttgart, 2017
Instagram: @agata_madejska
Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, this walk has been postponed until further notice.