How does one write an art history of testicle-shaped disco balls? Does one begin with the most recent iteration of disco balls and trace their way back, through the raucous hollers and blacklit rooms of a Southern Californian gay bar, and a fine-dining restaurant in Norway? Or does one draw a line from the first depictions of testicles in Paleolithic cave art to “the day disco died” in 1979 and the unrelated spate of humorous genital-themed art born in the decades since?
They say no time is like the present, especially in this case — because, presently, the Grammy-winning country music star Kacey Musgraves is perching herself on a giant suspended testicle-shaped disco ball night after night in front of tens of thousands of fans as part of her 36-date Middle of Nowhere Tour. Nearly two weeks after the tour kicked off in Chicago on August 20, Musgraves sat on the slowly spinning sculpture for two nights at Madison Square Garden, singing the starry-eyed, romantic “Rhinestoned” off her sixth studio album to a sold-out crowd of 20,000.
For Brooklyn artist Alexandra Rubinstein, the country artist’s take on the mobile, which quickly went viral via videos shared across social media platforms, uncannily resembled a sculpture that she made in 2020. On August 22, the artist posted photos of her work, titled “Disco Balls,” on Instagram with the caption, “It’s true I made them first (maybe, who knows it’s all been done).” Users made quippy replies in the comments, writing “Who said disco was dead?” and “Testicle spectacle.” Artist Mike Glier commented that Rubinstein’s work resonated with Louise Bourgeois’s testicular sculpture series Janus (minus the disco mirrors, of course).
Rubinstein told Hyperallergic that she quickly learned of Musgraves’s use of remarkably similar, albeit much larger disco balls in her tour, “as people often send [her] all these balls.” The artist made “Disco Balls” in 2020 from a mold that she had previously used to make a testicle-shaped piñata filled with “plastic babies, blue and pink candles, and condoms” for her 2020 solo show Dick Diaries at Established Gallery.
“The piñata was about bringing attention to the cis male role in pregnancy and reproduction at a time when Trump had filled the Supreme Court with conservative judges, while also playing on the trope of a ball-busting feminist,” Rubinstein said.
Much like Dick Diaries, and the artist’s signature paintings of oversized phalluses which she views “as stand-in symbols for traditional masculinity,” Rubinstein’s “Disco Balls” are a tongue-in-cheek response to the patriarchal establishment.
