Nein Brotman Nein, 2023
Lorna Mills' artistic approach revolves around repurposing visual content she discovers on the internet. Her work serves as a commentary on the overwhelming abundance of images and videos readily available online. These creations possess a peculiar and often whimsical quality, highlighting the inherent absurdity within the digital imagery landscape.
What distinguishes Mills' art is its deliberate divergence from sexual themes. Although her pieces may bear the hallmarks of the traditional male perspective, they undergo a transformation through her unique female viewpoint. This inversion of the conventional male gaze narrative introduces a compelling layer of complexity, prompting viewers to reevaluate their assumptions about imagery, gender, and societal norms.
Nein Brotman Nein draws from a scene in the 2009 gay adult film Pizza Cazzone, in which Danny D, credited as Matt Huges Pizzabäcker, penetrates a ball of pizza dough. Mills isolates this absurd gesture—detached from its original erotic context—and loops it into a visual non sequitur. Mills’ reframing of this material neutralizes its original intent, replacing erotic charge with absurd spectacle. By looping a moment of exaggerated physicality, Nein Brotman Nein transforms pornographic source footage into something closer to slapstick, undermining its original narrative logic.