The Sleeping Hermaphrodite

Conceived as a confined interior within this small window, the work shows a miniature room displaying a sleeping Hermaphrodite. The installation introduces the audience to a voyeuristic dynamic, in which they are allowed to peer through the window but are denied entering the space or approaching the sleeping figure in any way. This impossibility of moving around the body or of accessing more than the visible fragment, imposes a deliberate limitation of perspective. What unfolds is a nearly dichotomic dialogue between the viewer and the figure on display, inducing a tension between the desire for closeness and the structural barriers that prevent it. 

The Sleeping Hermaphrodite becomes a figure suspended between visibility and silence. Sleep, here, does not represent rest, but rather becomes a stage. The body lying on the floor, aestheticized and composed, is displayed to the viewer as an object for contemplation. This form of sleep emphasizes an almost sculptural stillness—one that society often imposes on bodies existing beyond the gender binary. While the body may seem at peace, its fixed immobility turns it into a spectacle, a decorative object on display. 

Drawing influence from Paul B. Preciado’s book The Sleeping Hermaphrodite: Waking up From a Lethargic Confinement, the the figure’s lethargy results from a social rather than a natural cause. For instance, medical, legal, and artistic systems frame gender ambiguity as something to be classified or mythologized— through naming, categorizing, and displaying it— until its immobilization appears voluntary, transforming it into a strategy of control. It becomes a means of neutralizing what might otherwise challenge established norms. 

This project lingers on the threshold between the sculpture’s stillness and its (potential) awakening. 

Thus, while our intellect, driven by the need to categorize, finally engages in conflict, our corporeal forms and souls harmonize seamlessly. 

Photo: Lisa Folschette