A FOOT FETISH

Spotlight on the small bronze “The Rub of Love”

BRONZE, 2012

 

The Rub of Love is a reference to the Dylan Thomas poem “If I Were Tickled by the Rub of Love”.

...
If I were tickled by the lovers' rub
That wipes away not crow's-foot nor the lock
Of sick old manhood on the fallen jaws,
Time and the crabs and the sweetheating crib
Would leave me cold as butter for the files
The sea of scums could drown me as it broke
Dean on the sweethearts' toes.
...

It refers to the “problem” or the difficult nature of love. This is literally translated into the act of foot massage. This small kind act from one lover to another is a subversion of the abjection of the foot, the lower and base element of the human form. That is why the foot is “fetishized”. It is not unconditionally loved; and when love is given it is all the more intense and wonderful for it.