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[NSFW] The 'Grandfather Clock' Dildo Is a Sculpture You Can Use

Dutch artist Bastiaan Buijs hand-crafts sex toys you'll want to put on display.
Images courtesy the artist

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There's an art and a science to designing sex toys, taking into account everything from pleasure, to how to either display or conceal it. But there's something alluring about the sexual art objects designed by Dutch artist Bastiaan Buijs, which you can't find in your average Pleasure Chest or Pink Pussycat Boutique. At Dutch Design Week, Buijs' Studio Cremaster showed a wind-up dildo called Grandfather Clock, the complimentary piece to a fleshy abstract sculpture, The Satyr, which doubles as a male masturbatory device.

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The Satyr is conceptually opposed to sex objects like the Fleshlight, which embodies the idea that pleasuring yourself should be hidden. A hulking, bright red, and aesthetically pleasing work of art, Buijs tells The Creators Project that his sculpture is a statement that the owner "has given up shame and the compartmentalized mindset" around owning a sex toy. "I tried to covert the image of a pitiful guy with his blow-up doll into a man who stands for his lust and passion, which may be accepted just as his hunger or thirst and lived up on his visible toy," Buij's writes on the product description.

Grandfather Clock serves a similar function by referencing the timeless craft of making clocks, which are both pragmatic tools and objects worth displaying in front your guests. Made from blown glass and brass clockwork, the design could potentially have been made centuries ago, were it societally acceptable. "In the beginning Grandfather Clock was only an idea how sex toys could get a non-sex toy feeling. What interested me was the fact that people keep their sex toys hidden in their night dresser and even feel ashamed about having a sex toy. I wanted to make something that people would not feel ashamed for but even proud for having it." It's also handy to have in case you run out of batteries.

Both toys are fully functional, with one Grandfather Clock currently residing at friend of Buijs' house. "Hopefully it will be in good use now," he laughs. From the public, he has gotten mixed responsed fromhis work, which is to be expected when you challenge the sexual establishment. "If you read the internet forums, I think people more find me a sick son of a bitch than a positive game changer," he says. "But I think it’s really good to show to the world we have different opinions about sex and sex toys, and we have to show this to accept the diversity of sexuality."

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Buijs recently graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven, where he began designing both Grandfather Clock and The Satyr. He's currently working on making a scalable version of the clockwork dildo that will be for sale on his website, and a new flesh sculpture because, well, "The Satyr’s hole is too small."

Keep up with Bastiaan Buijs' work on the Studio Cremaster website.

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