With Master Dik, Mike Kelley has taken high school boys’ seemingly pandemic love of drawing penises on any surface that they can get their hands on and turned it into fine art.

The major flaw of this work is that it’s a little overkill to crown a penis. It’s like, we get it, the patriarchy is alive and thriving. You don’t have to rub our noses in it. But on the other hand, that kind of sarcastic overstatement may have been Kelley’s intention all along. He strips the penis of its patriarchal power via exaggeration. Another work in this series that displays a similar ridiculing process is a swastika with testicles hanging off of every arm. It’s hard to take anything seriously with testicles hanging off of it. Not to say that I don’t take men seriously… but Kelley disables the evil behind that symbol with the testies.

This banner as well as the 9 others in the series, Pansy Metal/Clovered Hoof, was part of a performance in which dancers did a dance choreographed by the famous dancer, Anita Pace. The dance was set to the blissful sounds of Motorhead and the performers wore nothing but their underwear and Mike Kelley’s silk banners, which looked a little chilly tbh.

All in all, Master Dik displays one thing: Mike Kelley was getting a little cocky. If he could put a dick on a silk banner and call it fine art, there was no stopping him and no telling what crazy stunt he would pull next.