This museum offers a sensitive area of human sexuality and is located within the heart and busiest spot of Amsterdam. It’s name of Sex Museum constructs to the literal meaning of “The Temple of Venus”, to which a plaster figure of Venus greets you at the entrance of the museum (pictured below).  This museum is jam-packed with a rich and interesting 5 and more floors/rooms of sex, in all different kinds from wax works, dated pornography, hilariously over-sized sculptures of explicit bodily parts and lots more sexually explicit and charged sources. Each little room of the museum being entitled with different names from Mata Hari, Marquis de Sade, Rudolf Valentino, Oscar Wilde and so on.

The Sex Museum throughout it’s 20 years and more of existence, not only educates it’s visitors but enables us to witness a collection of hundreds of interesting pieces of art, unique objects and rare old photographs, avoiding the blunts of pornography and managing to present it to be within an organised and interesting way to be experienced.

Whilst in the museum, there is so much to take in, everywhere you look your gaze will atlas meet with sexualised imagery, objects and so much more. In particular, when walking up the stairs to proceed to the other floors and rooms, you are greeted with a plastic tacky sculptures that situate all the way up the stairs of women’s torsos and arses. In particular one arse has eyes on it’s bottom, with eyelashes, the works and is hilariously censored that when you walk past it, it will fart. Not only is this hilarious, it’s crude to, but you’ve entered to witness a sex museum, what do you expect?

There are various sculptures, figures and wax works that are throughout the entire museum. Educating the visitors in dildo’s, condom’s, sex idols such as Marilyn Monroe and so much more. Hilariously a big attraction to some tourists as I witnessed within being in the museum was these enormously over-sized penis sculptures that construct as seats – to which visitors found a great opportunity to take a photograph of themselves amongst. Not only do they look hilarious due to the fact they are more than human sized, the visitor doesn’t even realise that they are actually putting them self within a sexual situation of sitting on a penis, get it? Obviously harmless, but the more I looked at these sculptures, the more I thought how hilarious that people were and reacted over them. The pun of course, is intended and nothing less is expected.

Another hilarious, yet quite substantially epic sculpture that constructed within the same space is a plinth that is covered in endless erect penis’s, which could be suggestive to formulate as a bowl when gazing upon it. Witnessing the public, stand around it, taking photographs of themselves with open mouths at the penis’s… again, only mimics it and creates another great pun of pornographic behaviour.

A part of the museum which took my great interest and as to others, is pornographic images that is dated from different era’s and is great to have a glimpse at how sophisticated it once was in comparison to pornographic imagery today.

This museum offers so much in hilarious humour to the seriousness of how certain aspects of sex where, educating it’s visitors but at the same time supplying them with endless giggles at what lays within.

Above presents the hardcore BDSM room.

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Due to my interest of my work being around the idea of sex, voyeurism and pornographic sources this museum liberated this and oozed with sexually charged and sexually stimulating aspects. Some could consider it to be desirable, some disgust and the flux between the two was of great interest. Hearing the other visitors whilst I was there with the occasionally “ew, that’s gross” or “wow, that’s what pornography used to be like” showed me that people do have variation of opinion and to what some think is lustful and easy to look at, to others it’s the opposite. Take for instance, an strictly no under 18 section of the museum was the extreme pornography, BDSM and hardcore room located almost hidden at the back of the museum, displaying a range of disturbing pornography that pushes the limits. In particular, this room featured fetishes and the essence of power that could be shown through the imagery and mannequins all dressed up in the gear. But for some, it was almost as if they had dared themselves to enter, not knowing what would be on the other side resulting into such hardcore-ness that some walked in and straight back out. For me, it was interesting, a room dedicated to such extreme pornography that exploded with explicit imagery everywhere, in your face, consuming you, with no where to escape from it other than leaving but to stand and gaze upon it all like a voyeuristic perverse being.

I have taken so many inspirational moments from this museum that to me constructed as an exhibition, but of course it’s permanent and is there to be able to visit all year round. It not only made me see the humorous side of certain things, but enabled me to see how others reacted to such also. The audience participation is something that constructs within my own work massively and this museum brought this to my attention on how the audience is and always can be a mixture of reactions dependant on the viewer and their preference. The fact that this building was once probably an old town house and how is converted into a raunchy, sex-ozzing museum is fantastic and offers so much. Of course, most visitors probably attend to see what it’s all about or even consider it is as a tourist attraction but for me I saw it to be one of the best exhibitions / museums that links directly to my own practise.

Critically speaking there are most certainly context themes of voyeurism, objectification, fetishism, identity and empowerment that construct amongst this museum. Due to all the above being of my interest this museum really was an all round enjoyable experience throughout, exposing me to a completely new look at sex, sexual identity and sexually charged works.