Actual Size Los Angeles is pleased to host the release of Gold Los Angeles' Pleasure Principle, a limited edition box containing eight artworks investigating Surrealist theories of desire, repression, and Eros. Borrowing its name from Freud’s proposition that civilization is based on the subjugation of desire, Pleasure Principle engages 20th century thought surrounding the Erotic towards a new approach to politics and sexuality in the 21st century.

In 1911, Sigmund Freud presented his theories of sexuality in an attempt to define and thus control it. Shortly after, the Surrealists made it their mission to release sexuality from the shackles of language, unleashing it as a revolutionary gesture. The 1960s birthed the Sexual Revolution and Free Love movements, which enlisted sexuality for anti-war demonstrations. Later, Michel Foucault, in The History of Sexuality, hypothesized that only when Western society began to taxonomize sexuality did it become a repressive culture. He claimed that sexuality necessarily exists outside of language, and by articulating our desires, we unmask them, thus rendering them no longer erotic.

Surrealists latched onto Freud’s ideas about dreams and repressed desire in favor of the theory that art could, and necessarily would, challenge reason. Considering Eros the truest form of radical thought, Surrealism intended to release the Erotic onto society, but not to diffuse its power. Instead, Surrealism attempted to use the visual language of sexuality to uproot the repressive forces of Freud’s civilization.

In our contemporary moment—where gender and sexuality are as contested as ever, and the political climate is shaky at best—we may find the Erotic just as repressed as it was during the time of Freud, The Surrealists, and Foucault. Eight artworks are enclosed within a box, an object whose form can only exist by way of civilization; a perfect cube, a mass produced shape, meant to contain and conceal. The box cloaks these objects from the world, keeping them in their most civilized state, but when released, they may offer a more radical theory of our time. To identify and codify the Erotic is risky to be sure, but at a time that is so ripe for revolution, we can learn from Surrealism by revealing our own desires in order to propose a new theory for revolution.

Pleasure Principle is published by Gold Los Angeles and is produced in an edition of 25 with 10 Artist Proofs. It will be available for sale at a special discounted rate during the release event.

Gold Los Angeles is a publication studio operating out of Echo Park in Los Angeles, CA. Visit gold-la.com or actualsizela.com for further information.