Baculum

Artist list

Helena Lehtinen, Eija Mustonen, Karen Pontoppidan, Miro Sazdic, Nelli Tanner, Tarja Tuupanen

The baculum (Os penis or Os priapi) is the penile bone possessed by all mammals except human beings. It is thought that the purpose of the baculum is connected to reproductive strategies and the preservation of species. The bone makes it possible for extended periods of mating. Even human-like chimpanzees have penile bones. The bone is a mythical object that holds magical significance. In Finno-Ugrian folkloric traditions, the penile bones of bears were worshipped. When a piece of jewellery is worn as an amulet  on the body, it’s significance changes again.

Jewellery made by Helena Lehtinen, Eija Mustonen, Karen Pontoppidan, Miro Sazdic, Nelli Tanner and Tarja Tuupanen open new significances for baculum by exploring general meanings or inventing totally new interpretations. Meanings are symbolic, everyday and archetypal. Bone can be looked at as an object with aesthetical value, as a material for jewellery, or just as a bone.

Helena Lehtinen's pieces include references to the reproductive capacity of penile bones, not only as a tool for aiding reproduction but also as the enabler of the birth of new families and new growth.  Similar reproductive themes are used by Miro Sazdic but from a different point of view. Puppet like figures pose questions of our possibility to be chosen. Where do those who aren’t selected end up? Supremacy of life and death is the most crucial question with these pieces.

The pieces done by Eija Mustonen are connected to themes of life and death. The penile bone exists on the border between the two, by making life possible but also referencing the death that is always present in life. Similar contrary themes are present in Nelli Tanner's pieces as well:  absence and presence, sulek-burcu-emptiness-2015 and completion. Bone is only bone without the penis that belongs to it. At the same time, penile bone is only a relic.  Probably due to evolution human beings do not need it any more. In Mustonen's and Tanner's pieces, the baculum is transforming into something else. Their pieces are like tools but in a different way. Tanner's pieces are a sort of reminiscent of hunting knives longing for a sheath. Emptiness is present in Mustonen's pieces as well, the medallion is just an empty envelope missing something.

Karen Pontoppidan’s pieces are connected with the mythical conception of Adam's rib from which Eve was created. The baculum is connecting traditional sexes by combining them. The border between male and female fades out:  male is female and female is male. The lack of the bone in human beings has become part of the female mythologically and it underlines women's possibilities in giving birth.

In Tarja Tuupanen's pieces the penile bone is in touch with the penis, the flesh that has pink colour and split form.  The penis has lost its power when it is only an empty form. The mythology connected to the penile bone has disappeared: bone is only bone and flesh is only flesh. The power of the penis has vanished.

Text by Päivi Ruutiainen