Walking across the Chicago River last year, Rujanee Mahakanjana was struck by the masculinity of the skyline. Mahakanjana, a Bangkok-born artist who teaches at the Illinois Academy for Design and Technology, set out to explore the sexual implications of architecture in her documentary Man and His Erections, intercutting architect and psychologist interviews, urban landscapes and a parallel story about a porn star who can’t get it up.
Man and His Erections plays Thursdays 9/17 and 10/8 at the Center on Halsted, and Saturday 9/19 at the ELEVATE multimedia art exhibition.