The Extraction Before Us

An automatic dispenser has become widely recognised as an object that, by spreading its content, disinfects and regulates bodies. Rather than sanitising gel, this one dispenses watery hand lotion, a substance associated with male masturbation. The smell of the lotion is a combination of toiletry scents that contain endocrine disruptors which confuses the body into thinking it has produced enough hormones, thereby curtailing human fertility. The object is an expression of how compulsions to both procreate and create have become controlled and commodified capitalist functions; extractions of life and creativity from our bodies and earth. It is one outcome of ongoing research into notions of fertility, toxicity and desire.