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oil paint has been reflected since the Renaissance in its subject matter � our national galleries overflowing with fleshy nudes and overabundant arrangements of food. What we find in Brogan�s work is this sensuality escaped from its external reflection and embodied by its own stuff, but now with the fetishistic quality of shiny plastic attracting the light to its folds and creases: a narcissistic reflection. Unlike vinyl fetish-wear, however, Brogan�s objects appear squishy, as if too physical a contact would not leave one unmarked by the work�s juice, protected within its skin. In this respect the pleasure here seems oral and anal, rather than phallic � an idiotic infant joy. The ironically glossy pastel is like a garish cartoon of gooey food and bodily fluid; shit the colour of baby food out of a blender, fetishized and hung in a gallery.

�Use your penis as a paint brush�
Paul McCarthy Instructions for Art Works, 1972

light to its folds and creases: a narcissistic reflection. Unlike vinyl fetish-wear, however, Brogan�s objects appear squishy, as if too physical a contact would not leave one unmarked by the work�s juice, protected within its skin. In this respect the pleasure here seems oral and anal, rather than phallic � an idiotic infant joy. The ironically glossy pastel is like a garish cartoon of gooey food and bodily fluid; shit the colour of baby food out of a blender, fetishized and hung in a gallery.

�Use your penis as a paint brush�
Paul McCarthy Instructions for Art Works, 1972

Brogan�s work most obviously refers to desire and impotence, and this is reflected in the titles. Reclining Nude 2 is in anything but a state of relaxed, dreamy anticipation. She has reclined too far and snapped her back; all potential vanished, like the broken springs of an old settee. Or else she is slumped over on her belly like a flaccid sausage, her two halves resembling the pert ears of a playboy bunny gone limp. All this is to say that what is really on display is the artist's impotent dick; his artistic creations nothing more than the sublimation of his failed desire. And this points to a third aspect of the work, what might be called its postmodern sensibility, taken to mean an ironic relation to the practice and theory of art. All the clich�d Freudian references are used as clich�s, so that any affective identification with the work as expressing the anxieties of sexu

more than the sublimation of his failed desire. And this points to a third aspect of the work, what might be called its postmodern sensibility, taken to mean an ironic relation to the practice and theory of art. All the clich�d Freudian references are used as clich�s, so that any affective identification with the work as expressing the anxieties of sexuality cannot detain us too long because they are too obvious and too ridiculous. Fetishization, fear of castration, sexual sublimation are no longer subjects of the work as markers of truth, but material with which to denigrate the idealistic pretensions of art in a playful way. We all know that painting is a combination of infantile regression, hysterical machismo and metaphysical delusion, and when we know it no longer works; so there is no point in getting upset about it, or critiquing it from a distance.

are awkwardly pushed through a hole and tied together. The dumb pleasure of rolling malleable matter and squeezing soft objects through holes is too Freudian for a Freudian analysis. Here, anal defiance and the gift of shit are rolled into one!

The Artist�s Hand is a much more pitiable state of affairs. A modest hardboard-backed wooden frame attempts to cover over several rolled paint-skins, the ends of which protrude form the edges of the frame like multi-coloured toothpastes squeezed from their tubes. This work was