What are you looking for?

© Photography by Rob Versluys

After long deliberation (see previous post), I chose the work ‘What are you looking’ for by Swedish Sofia Björkman. It shows a still-frame of an ultrasound, a western proof of fertility, a symbol of our focus on facts. This is countered by the questions on the bottom. “What are you looking for? What do you hope to see? Will you keep it? Who is responsible for your decision?” They are not the kind of questions asked when someone has an ultrasound. They make it a personal issue, a personal insecurity that comes with every pregnancy.

It is clear that it is a boy, because of his golden phallus protruding out of the picture, a beautiful way of dealing with the lingam. In Hinduism the lingam is an explosive energy, surrounded by the ongoing energy of its’ female equivalent. A clear plastic shape covers the picture, it suggests a uterus, a way of showing the female energy. But it goes further than that; the little thing in the ultrasound is her son, making it very precious, a result of love to be loved. To me, that is the true meaning of lingam.