Gang-Bang Society, installation, 2010

In nature, hyenas hunt in packs. They obtain their kills by jointly attacking the predators (usually lionesses) that originally hunted the game. In other words, they “steal” the food hunted by another animal for its own subsistence. The Hyenas in Adi Nachshon’s Gang Bang Society likewise live in a pack. They inhabit a space strewn with military equipment and facilities designed to train soldiers for battle. Does the artist allude to the despicable actions men perform in wartime once protected by the anonymity of the “group” which exempts them from the sense of individual responsibility? Perhaps the title of the work, which denotes a group-committed violent sexual act, hints at something else? The menacing aspect of the wild hyenas, coupled with their conspicuously phallic-looking organs (which do exist in real-life male and female hyenas) may invoke various interpretations. In this context, it is interesting to note that in nature, the leader of the hyena pack is always a female. Female hyenas have the highest levels of male sex hormones compared to other female mammals, and therefore are the most masculine-and possibly among the most aggressive-females in the animal kingdom.