LINGAM. Fertility Now

Phalli to Wear

Fertility symbols are a major motif in the history of art: figurines with enormous breasts, broad hips and pronounced genitalia as well as male sculptures, often in the shape of a phallus, already existed in the Stone Age. Today the phallus is considered a symbol for lust and sex in our Western culture. Meanwhile, in Buddhist and Hindu tradition the lingam is self-evidently integrated into everyday public life. There it stands for forces like fertility, strength, energy and creativity as the artist Ruudt Peters learnt on his journeys in South Asia. “Lingams represent deep symbolic and religious values,” says Peters.

The founder of the Opere International Jewellery school and professor at Konstfack University of Arts and Crafts in Stockholm took the discovery of the lingams as an opportunity to call up 122 artists, designers and jewellers from 24 countries to give shape to their personal associations concerning the lingam and to transform them into jewellery. The new publication from ARNOLDSCHE Art Publishers takes a close look at the works of Ruudt Peters, Peter Skubic, Johanna Dahm, Volker Atrops, Gijs Bakker, Ted Noten or Marcel Wanders.

The immense diversity of the results can not only be explained by the individual personality of each artist or their different cultural backgrounds; thanks to the aforementioned polarities of meaning, the jewellery oscillates between two extremes: striking innuendos on the one hand and highly abstract works with deep meaning on the other.


122 artists, including:

Volker Atrops | Gijs Bakker | Manfred Bischoff | Sara Borgegård | Helen Britton | Sigurd Bronger | Monika Brugger | Johanna Dahm | Paul Derrez | Iris Eichenberg | Christiane Förster | Warwick Freeman | Thomas Gentille | Andi Gut | Daniel Kruger | Esther Knobel | Helfried Kodré | Kadri Mälk | Nanna Melland | Evert Nijland | Ted Noten | Ruudt Peters | Peter Skubic | Graziano Visintin | Lisa Walker | Marcel Wanders | Norman Weber