Cast of Jimi Hendrix’s penis to be unveiled at museum in Iceland
PETALING JAYA, May 25 — Legendary rockstar Jimi Hendrix ― or rather his penis ― is set to be immortalised at the Icelandic Phallological Museum.
Announcing the news on Twitter with “sadness and pride”, the museum said a plaster cast of the musician’s body part was donated by the late artist Cynthia Albritton.
Albritton, who passed away in April at the age of 74, was notoriously known as Cynthia “Plaster Caster” for her phallic casts of rock stars including Buzzcocks’ Pete Shelley, former lead singer of Dead Kennedys, Jello Biafra, and Zal Yanovsky of the Lovin’ Spoonful.
Her work began as an art class assignment where she was told to make a cast of something “that could retain its shape,” Albritton said in an interview with Rock Scene Magazine.
Hendrix was said to be Albritton’s first celebrity cast, made in 1968.
Albritton was often called a “super groupie” for her work and involvement with rockstars.
She reportedly told The Evening Standard that she saw the exercise as a “great ruse to divert rock stars from other girls.” “Only by accident did it become an art form. I take it seriously, though there is an absurd side,” she said.
In her later years, Albritton turned her attention to breasts, making casts of singer Peaches, Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeah, and Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier.
Albritton’s Hendrix piece ― reportedly one of her finest ― is a unique addition to the Icelandic Phallological Museum, which houses “282 specimens from 93 different species of animals.”
Founded in 1997 by retired headmaster Sigurður Hjartarson, the museum also contains 350 “artistic oddments and practical utensils.”
