Jasper Johns

Jasper Johns has turned to printmaking throughout his career as part of a rich investigation into the distinctive properties of different media. Printmaking uniquely suits his interest in repetition and the idea that when something is done once, it can be done again differently. In the 1970s, Johns was engaged with mirror images and duplication. This work is composed of two distinct halves. If we are tempted to see in one a copy of the other, the relationship between the two in fact remains one of endlessly fascinating disjunction. The elusive title (which may refer to a sexual aid used by sailors while at sea) provokes the desire, though unfulfilled, for a narrative or concrete representation.