black iris, 2021

‘ORCHIDS, PENNIES, BUTTERMILK. A sphere made from sixteen miles of surgical gauze and a cube woven out of thin strips of copper. Sly arranged marriages between rubber and wood; leather and false eyelashes; sand, stone, and bark. Gossamer lattices and sheets of chain. Forms rendered in polyurethane, steel, and bronze; in found objects; in porcelain and ceramic. Viewers who have only encountered Los Angeles–based sculptor Liz Larner’s work piecemeal across her more than three-decade career might be forgiven for feeling a certain bewilderment in the face of the stylistic and material diversity that has characterized her admirably restless practice from its very beginnings. Now the subject of a welcome survey—the most expansive overview of the artist’s oeuvre in some twenty years, curated by Mary Ceruti, director of Minneapolis’s Walker Art Center, and currently on view in New York at SculptureCenter, where it was organized by interim director Kyle Dancewicz—Larner’s exhilaratingly heterogeneous works can finally be considered in relation to one another, and in ways that demonstrate the conceptual threads that have always united them.

‘Two early pieces in particular articulate the kinds of formal alterities that Larner has frequently sought out and conspired to hold in productive tension. Made within a year of each other, in the first phase of her career, Corner Basher, 1988, and Bird in Space, 1989, could hardly be more dissimilar. The former is an instrument of destruction—a small wrecking ball flung back and forth against intersecting walls by a motorized stanchion that owes a bit to both Jean Tinguely and Survival Research Laboratories—while the latter is an ethereal space-filling filigree of silk and nylon inspired by Brancusi. Both, however, diverge from their inspirations in crucial ways. While Corner Basher exerts the same sort of brute force that Mark Pauline’s chaotic mechanisms do, the critical difference is that its destructive energies are activated not by the artist but by the viewer—jettisoning hierarchical command and control in favor of a modality that privileges spectatorial agency. And if Larner’s Bird in Space echoes the elegance of the Romanian master’s signature work, it also strategically expands its field of engagement toward her preferred schema, from unidirectional regard to attentively multivalent, embodied encounter.’ — Jeffrey Kastner, Artforum

‘I came to being an artist after studying photography in the 1980s at CalArts. I had studied philosophy and transferred there in my third year, and what a lucky break that was. It was a very interesting time, that particular era, and what we were reading and discussing made me decide that what I wanted to do was make things. In some sense, I never had an education in being a sculptor. My work started with incredibly basic questions like What are materials? What does it mean to make something? I remember being at that stage in my life and thinking, Well, you know, I could be a photographer, but I think that would be bad for me, almost spiritually, for lack of a better word. I felt like I needed to engage with the physical world and not be behind the camera making images of things—not having that additional distance, but being in my body and making work about being embodied.

‘I didn’t have a “unified vision”—and I’ve stuck with this and have never considered it a detriment—because I felt that materials and forms have so many different potentials. That could be why I’ve never had an identifiable style. I think this is part of what has been confusing for people. In the beginning, I would do a show that was about something, and then I would do another show, and for me it was clearly the next thing to do, but it wasn’t really in relation to the last show for anyone but me. I wouldn’t say that there’s no throughline. I would say that there’s a throughline that isn’t recognizable because it’s not the kind of throughline that people have come to expect. Part of it is trying to come up with different ways of getting people to engage with sculpture—and sculpture is the best way for this to happen—with all their senses and movement. I’ve come to call it encountering, though I wish there were a better word. But it’s amazing how it happens. That means of reception is a lot of what I’m working with.

‘Obviously materials and color are important, as are concepts of reality and illusion. And I think pathos is something that runs through my work, and this goes back to some of the very first things I made, the culture works. This thing is alive, and it’s digging through layers of colored food. And then it makes its own bloom. And is resplendent. And then it starts to die in front of you! I had started making sculptures essentially as receptacles for the cultures; the way they were suspended in space was a big thing for me. Coming from photography, you take a photograph, you figure out how to frame it. But to put a petri dish in front of people, that’s a problem. And that rapidly spilled over into making these sculptures that were informed by what I thought the cultures were about. The sculptures have come in all manner of materials—rubber, chain, silk, wood, metal, leather, fabric, found objects, ceramics. The past decade or so with the ceramics is one of the most sustained engagements I’ve had with one medium. And one reason for that is that ceramics let me do things that I always wanted to do but that took too long, specifically to get to the color part. It seems to bug people that I won’t say if the ceramic pieces, because they’re on the wall, are paintings, sculpture, or ceramics. I don’t know what they are. I don’t think it really matters, and they probably have a little bit of all of those forms in them. I wanted to work on the wall and still consider it to be part of my sculptural practice because I’ve doggedly persisted with the idea that I’m a sculptor. Hey, walls are spaces too.’ — Liz Larner

 

____
Further

Liz Larner @ Regen Projects
Liz Larner @ Galerie Max Hetzler
Liz Larner: Don’t put it back like it was
LIZ LARNER: UNSTILL LIFE
Liz Larner and the Upcycling of Material
Liz Larner’s Corner Basher channels the helpless and hopeful rage of our day
The Horrific Beauty of Plastic Polluted Sea Foam and Asteroids Meeting on Earth
Liz Larner by Jane Dickson
Surgical gauze, false eyelashes, ceramics, bacteria, and steel
Liz Larner Makes Sculptures For A New Era
Liz Larner – Why I Create
From pedestal to petri dish
4 Questions: Artist Liz Larner
“Space is better than time, but time is okay”
Liz Larner and the Physical Power of Objects

 

___
Extras

Liz Larner – The Artist’s Studio

(At Home) On Art and its Ecologies: Artist Talk with Liz Larner

LIZ LARNER AT REGEN PROJECTS

Artists on Artists: Liz Larner on Chris Burden

 

_____
Interview
by Pac Pobric

Liz, I don’t think we know your work all that well in New York, but you’ve had seven solo exhibitions at Regen Projects in L.A., you show with Max Hetzler in Europe, and you’ve been making work for 30 years. I want to congratulate you on the show. It’s really impressive. One thing that struck me is that it could almost be a group show. You have all these very different kinds of things. How do you avoid falling into old patterns?

I have said that kind of jokingly, about the group show. But there are patterns, though they don’t always play out the same way. I would rather have an idea that gets put into different guises, and see what happens. I usually work in shows: I’m doing a show, and it’s about something, and then I move on to the next. But this kind of thing, where you’re taking stuff from 30 years ago and putting it together—it’s really a credit to [the show’s organizers, Walker Art Center director] Mary Ceruti and [Sculpture Center deputy director] Kyle Dancewicz. It was so gratifying to see their interpretation.

Do you remember Hands (1993), near the stairwell? When I made that, people were just so dismayed, because it was going in a direction they didn’t think I was going. It was disappointing to them; it threw them. People thought I was a post-Minimalist or something, but I never thought of myself as a post-Minimalist. I was working with forms and colors before, and it was abstract, but abstraction and figuration have never been areas that couldn’t blend. I wanted to do both. I wanted to include all of it.

And maybe there was a conceptual aspect to it. I was going to [show at] Sonsbeek [in the Netherlands], and they had me come over to Holland to look at some sites. I was at the Gemeentemuseum. There were two statues across this courtyard from each other, and both had their hands knocked off. It just made me think: it’s such a classic necessity in sculpture, to do the hand. And I thought people could follow along. When I first showed it, it was in Paris and the show was called “Possibilities of the Existence of Meaning, Without Words, Inside Disorder.” Then I showed it again in New York, and the show was just titled “Without Words.” It was about a gesture. There are only 10 hands in that group, but depending on how they’re presented, they read very differently.

You use a lot of wordplay in your titles.

I love language, and I’m in awe of great writers. I don’t know how they can do it. The most I can put together is a title [laughs].

But they’re very evocative titles.

Well, thank you, I am proud of my titles. They really help me to add another element, and I play around with it a lot. The “Cultures” are titled after what they’re cultured from. So Orchid Butter Penny (1987)—that’s from before, when I was just putting stuff in petri dishes. But I got an inoculating wand eventually, and I went to the Twin Towers and took cultures from the front doors, and to the Empire State Building and took an inoculation from the roof. That’s what’s in Primary, Secondary: Culture of Empire State Building and Twin Towers (1988).

It seems important that you live and work in L.A. Have you ever read anything by Mike Davis? I’m reading Ecology of Fear, I’ll just read you the blurb on the back. “The classic book on L.A. as a locus of ecological destruction—in culture and in reality.” What’s so fascinating about Davis is that he’s good not only with social and political history, but also ecological processes and facts. It does seem like you Californians are forced to confront the natural world more so than we do in New York.

I don’t know Mike Davis’s history, but I was born at the end of 1960. I grew up on a farm in the Sutter Basin, about 60 miles northwest of Sacramento. I grew up next to the Sacramento River. There were crop dusters that sprayed DDT on the field next to our house until I was seven. My encounter with nature and culture was impressive, even as a young kid. And then when I moved to Los Angeles—Los Angeles has changed so much [over the years], but it’s very wild. I’ve seen a family of raccoons running across the street and diving into the gutter. There are animals all over the place. I’m also super interested in Joan Didion. That’s someone who had a huge influence on me. It really tears down the mythos of California, which is this makeup on top of a corpse.

Since we’re talking about the environment, one of the questions I sent you before we spoke has to do with the fact that in the past, you’ve said that the built environment is the world of men, and you’re not interested in repeating those forms. Would you call your works feminist forms?

Okay, so I had to write this down. I’m just going to read it: “New forms look like things that we don’t recognize, that there aren’t yet words for. They are invisible to most of us. I try to see them but probably miss a lot of them, even though they’re all around. Maybe new forms aren’t made by humans. Maybe we only copy them when we see them. I’m not sure of this. I guess they emerge and someone says, ‘Look,’ and then they have to change.”

And then I have, “I think that some things that are currently being called assemblages can be considered feminist forms. Something that is together, but flexible and unfixed; linked, but free moving; mixed in a knot in a way that is together and emergent. Something that can accommodate its own indeterminacy. Something capable of adaptation.”

Let me ask you some specific forms. I know you’re really interested in corners. What’s important or interesting about corners?

You know what I just found out? My husband—he does music—and I are actually moving out of California. So we’re building a studio, and he’s been figuring out how he wants to make it. And one thing that’s fascinating and new to me about corners is that sound gets trapped in them.

I did not know that.

Yeah. And corners are places where things intersect, and start and end. Do you know the artist Eric Wesley? He’s a California artist. He’s going to be in the Whitney Biennial this year. He spoke on a panel last week at Sculpture Center about my work, and he brought up Corner Basher and said something that was really astute. He said, “Though that’s the name, it is not the action of the machine.” And that’s really true. The machine cannot quite get to the corner. I’ve made a number of works that address the corner, and none of them do the same thing. It’s a place to keep thinking about.

I should mention that with Corner Basher—I’ve never, not once, not for a second in my life, been afraid at a museum. And I was legitimately afraid! It’s not only extremely aggressive, it’s also remarkably unstable because it’s on wheels. And it spins really fast!

It could go on even higher. I turned it down because when I first got it, it really did get too unstable. I first showed it in L.A., but when I showed it in New York at 303 Gallery, it didn’t have attachments [holding it] to the wall. It was in a corner and the on/off switch was right by the elevator. This woman came in, turned it on, and turned it all the way up. But because it wasn’t chained to the wall, it started moving towards her. And they had to come out and save her, or it would have been bad. What I like is when you turn it off, it has this weird tetherball balance. It’s just—it’s so overly dramatic, that piece.

One final question on photography, because you have a photography background. How has it contributed to your work as a sculptor? Most artworks today are consumed through images. Is there anything you try to do to account for that?

You know, I honestly believe that sculpture cannot be photographed. It cannot really be conveyed. And that’s what I love. That’s what I wanted to deal with. That’s why I think people are happy with my show: there’s this other side to the thing, about walking around the show and being embodied, and really sensing the material. That’s not available on screens. It gives you a different kind of knowledge.

Your work really does seem to resist the culture of the image. Before I saw the show, I had just seen pictures of your work, and I didn’t understand anything until I saw it in person.

I take that as a compliment. To me that’s like, I’m doing my job.

 

___
Show

iv (inflexion), 2014–15

 

i (calefaction), 2014-2015

 

Liz Larner, Untitled, 2001

 

RWBs, 2005

 

Wrapped Corner, 1991

 

Corner Basher, 1993

 

Firestone, 2019

 

Copper cube, woven, 1988

 

2 as 3 and Some, Too, 1997-98

 

Two or Three or Something, 1998–1999

 

6, 2010-11

 

Asteroid (Spock), 2020

 

boney ridge, 2016

 

X, 2012

 

smile (alluvium), 2010-11

 

Guest, 2004

 

Devex Yellow, 1997

 

Hands, 1993

 

Tropicana Pool Water, Mercury and Guitar Strings, 1987

 

Fix, 2011

 

Every Artist Gave a Breath, 1988

 

Every Artist Gave a Breath, 1989

 

Ignis (Fake), 1999

 

Reflector Wizards , 1992

 

No M, No D, Only S & B, 1990

 

smile (abiding), 1996–2005

 

yes this too, 2015

 

yes this too, 2015

 

Untitled [Wall], 2001

 

Smile, This is a Pipe, 2006

 

Gone, 1987-1992

 

Lux Interior (Platinum), 2012

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. As you may have noticed, my blog is suddenly requiring me to moderate the comments and approve of them individually before they can be posted. I have no idea why, and I’m hoping to get rid of this nuisance/ glitch today, but, in the meantime, just know that I’ll obviously give my approval to all the comments, and no worries. ** David, You know what, I’m not surprised, ha ha. Yes, I’m not sure if the words ‘Kip Noll’ are on Facebook’s watch list, which would be very strange, or if my designation of [NSFW] is newly a red light to Facebook or what. How annoying. Cheers in return. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Glad you dug it, pal. I know, scary. When I first moved to Paris, not that long ago, we used to get a few serious snowfalls and coverings every winter. It’s true there are some shades of blue that are completely unacceptable. Good eye, love. Love explaining to me why milk is sold in France only unrefrigerated and why milk in the United States is only sold refrigerated, G. ** David Ehrenstein, The age of yellowed porn! A friend of mine back in the day was the cameraman on ‘Pacific Coast Highway’. ** Misanthrope, Kip would never become a huge star today. But then neither would Frankie Avalon. Okay, very vague memories of Jack Hannah now. Those kinds of shows weren’t really my TV scene. Genetics are mysterious, for sure. I mean, not only have I never gotten Covid, I haven’t had so much as a head cold ever since the pandemic started. Fucking weird, man. Big up on the lessening of your cigarette intake. How much do you smoke per day du jour? ** Steve Erickson, Hi. Yeah, I’m curious to see if my blog wil get that Facebook warning every day now or whether it was Kip Noll-specific. Stress will totally do that. Have you ever done yoga or anything like that? I used to do yoga years ago when I used to get especially stressed out, and it did seem to make a real difference? ** Tosh Berman, Hi. Like I said to Steve, I’m curious to see if my blog will now be permanently stuck with that Facebook trepidation thing. I hope fucking not. I complained, but we all know what complaining to Facebook results in: zip. Counterpoint, yes. I don’t know Alias Books East. Cool, I’ll hit next time time I’m in LA. Thanks, sir. ** Verity Pawloski, Hi. Oh, horror. Have you managed to dry out? I have a neighbor upstairs whose toilet (directly above mine) likes to overflow once or twice every year and turn my bathroom walls into an ugly abstract painting. ** Maria, Isabella, Camila, Malaria, Gabriela, You’re most welcome. He could try a penis pump? Happy day! ** Bill, Ha ha. I had Kip in one of my pieces too. A poem. Not a good poem, but it wasn’t his fault. My friend the artist Richard Hawkins made a number of pieces that incorporated Kip’s “brother” Scott. What’s up with you, bud? ** Colin Herd, Hi, Colin! How very, very lovely to see you! I just recently found an old post wherein Kevin Killian introduced one of your books, and I’m going to restore it soon. That was big fun: Glasgow in general, and of course the pizza munching. I don’t know what Muay Thai, but I’ll go find out. Cool, and … ouch! That’s a serious commitment. Brenda Frazer: Oh, that’s very interesting. I didn’t recognise the name, but I just did a search and found out she used to be Bonnie Bremser. I did read poems by her under that name ages ago, maybe in an anthology (?), and I remember being very taken with them. Thanks for the link to the Kickstarter campaign. I’ll go chip in a little. What a fantastic project. I really hope it comes to pass. I’d love to read her work more thoroughly. Thanks, Colin. You sound great! I hope somehow I’ll get to see you ere too long. As ever, please come visit Paris! We’re all up and running over here again. Love, me. ** R Y /\ /\/ / angusraze :), Hey, dude. Oh, wow, yeah, definitely birds not of a feather or whatever they say: you and your bro. I’m with you on trashy TV. Even people talking animatedly about that shit on social media makes me fear for the world. Interesting about your parents. Yeah, my artistic bent came out of seeming nowhere too. Well, my grandmother was a ‘Sunday painter’, so I guess there’s that lineage. Mishima’s great, yeah, as a writer. Have you see the Paul Schrader film ‘Mishima’? I haven’t. I’ve meant to. Some people swear by it. Anyway, cool research. Big up to you! ** Brian, Hey, Brian. It was fun to make that post. Took me into realms I normally don’t traverse when building posts. Ah, you all get the same script. Well, I hope it’s minimal and malleable. Do you know what it generally is? Like, is it a bit of an existing film, or did your prof write it? You probably don’t know yet. Interesting. I remember thinking ‘Festen’ was the best Dogme 95 film. Although I would imagine ‘Julien Donkey Boy’ gives it a serious run for its money. Those two classes do sound dreary. I’m glad you’re over their hump until at least next Tuesday. I hope your life raft weekend comes complete with all the amenities. Interesting plans? ** Okay. Today I give you a galerie show by one of my very, very favorite sculptors, Liz Larner. If you happen to be in/around NYC, there’s currently a retrospective of her work at the Sculpture Center, and I seriously envy you. Enjoy the show, hopefully, and see you tomorrow.

 

‘Kip Noll, also Kip Knoll, is an American gay pornographic film actor-magazine model in the 1970s and 1980s.

‘Born in Greenwich Conn 7 Aug 1957, stripper, go go dancer, young Kip Noll became the first twink gay porn star ever. He was an inspiration for director William Higgins, he made of him a superstar of his time, creating the Noll brothers.

‘Noll, who is a lean-muscled, shaggy-haired, free-spirited surfer type, achieved iconic status in the newly liberated gay culture of the late 1970s and early 1980s. After he was introduced into the gay pornographic film industry, he became closely associated with director William Higgins who first had Kip appearing in a few silent film loops in 1977 [Noll’s first films were in 1975, when he was just 18]. Noll was cast as the supposed younger brother of actor Bob Noll, and rapidly became the popular “Noll”. After his video success, several other unrelated models were presented as his brothers: Scott, Jeff, and Mark Noll. By the early 1980s Kip Noll had become one of the first superstars in the gay porn industry, as well as being a regular performer at [several strip clubs; in these performances, he was famous for having sex with the patrons, out in the audience].

‘While he was working in the business, his private life was, as far as one can tell, completely masked, and then he dropped out of sight entirely.

‘His public work persona, however, was sexy-wild, hungry for adoration. He liked to chat with fans, and also to have flagrant sex with them, in public. In any case, he was certainly a dance hall boy, and it would be a surprise if he didn’t hustle mansex for money (almost everybody did, to survive in the business financially). So he was (in a sense) a gigolo twice over.

‘It’s one of those harsh truths that no one really wants to accept: vintage porn was kind of terrible. Films had the herky-jerk motion of old Charlie Chaplin movies, soundtracks all sounded like they were pulled straight out of failed sitcoms, and grooming was non-existent.

‘But porn back in the ’70s wasn’t just a means to an orgasmic end; it was an art form meant to empower and to sexually satisfy a group of people society had rendered voiceless. It was as much a tool for arousal as it was a refuge of sorts for a disenfranchised group forming a collective identity. Pornstars like Kip Noll weren’t just pretty people we could project our sexual desires and frustrations on; they were sexual revolutionaries.

‘Kip passed away in 2001 [May 21] of a heart attack at the age of 43. His last days were spent in the Salt Lake City Mission.’ — collaged

 

___
Stills

 

___
Further

Kip Noll @ IMDB
Kip Noll @ Wikipedia
On the boulevard of broken dreams with Kip Noll
Remember the first twink pornstar?
Kip Noll @ MUBI
Hugo Villanova as Kip Noll for ODDA 9 icons
Kip Noll signed autograph auto 3×5 index card
Kip Noll Death Fact Check, Birthday & Date of Death

 

____
Extra

Kip Noll – The Legend

 

_______
His Name was Kip Noll
by tim1965

 

‘Even in his very first film, he was a star. Trademark Studios issued a small magazine, “The Kip Noll Story,” along with his very first hard-core loop. Kip was only 18 years old. He jacked off while wearing a yellow silk high school athletic jacket trimmed in blue. The words “Waipahu High” appeared on the chest. The jacket has become one of the most famous pieces of clothing ever to appear in adult film. (Director Mark Reynolds purchased it in a second-hand clothing shop in Los Angeles, and it was owned by the studio. It later disappeared.)

‘Kip Noll almost never made it into film. Mark Reynolds says that when he first met Kip Noll, the actor barely registered. Kip had unkempt hair and a mustache. He was so nondescript, the director almost missed him in the crowd. Kip had flown in from San Diego, and Reynolds almost told him to go home. But after shaving the mustache and getting a haircut, Reynolds realized Kip Noll had something ineffable about him that was startlingly attractive.

‘Kip was supposed to be the brother of Bob Noll. Bob Noll was a beefy, curly-haired blond with piercing blue eyes who had done loops for Trademark. They looked alike, and shared similar masturbatory techniques. Kip soon eclipsed his “older brother,” Bob.

‘Soon, Kip Noll had other “brothers.” There was brother Jeff Noll (“Jeff Noll’s Buddies”), cousin Marc Noll (“The Adventures of Marc Noll”), brother Scott Noll, brother Chris Noll (aka Scott Noll) and brother Chris Noll.

‘In his second film, “Double Your Pleasure,” he has hard-core gay sex for the first time. He 69s with a boy (Steve Parker) while being fucked doggie-style by another (Mark Lester).

‘In his first four films, Kip is missing one of his front teeth. But by his fifth film, “I’ll Do It If You Will,” the tooth has been replaced.

‘Kip filmed his sixth film, “I’ll Do It If You Will,” on a farm during the 4th of July weekend. Kip comes home from school to find two other boys on his daddy’s farm. He teaches them the joys of sex before they daisy-chain. Kip then sits on a bench and masturbates to orgasm. It’s mind-blowing. His whole body flexes and writhes, and he can barely keep his grip on his penis because he’s lost all control over his body. It is perhaps one of the most awesome orgasms ever captured on film. (It is also one of the rarest: For reasons not explained, Falcon pulled the loop from its library in 1980. It is now a collector’s item.)

‘Kip took a break from gay porn, and did not make another film until 1979. He did it for William Higgins, a former Congressional staffer who had left public life for adult film. The scene with Emanuelle Bravos not only marks Kip’s first scene as a top (he also bottoms), but it marks his first speaking role. (His words, spoken in a deep, masculine voice, are, “I want you to suck my cock.”)

‘In 1980, Kip starred in the first hot tub scene ever in a gay porn film, in “Kip Noll and the Westside Boys, Zip Code 90069” (the “Zip Code 90069” would later be dropped from the title).

‘Kip was involved in a motorcycle accident in 1980 which prevented him from appearing in “Rear Deliveries” (Catalina, 1980). But later that year, he was better enough to do a due with Lee Marlin for Trademark called “Roommates.”

‘In late 1980, Kip filmed “Grease Monkeys.” He, Lee Marlin and Derrick Stanton fuck on Pismo Beach. Kip later said it was the most difficult shoot of his life, because the water was freezing cold and a huge crowd of onlookers kept cheering them on from the cliffs overhead.

‘Kip helped promote “Grease Monkeys” by appearing in a live stage show at the Eros Theatre in New York City. He, Lee Marlin and Nick Rodgers did a number of dance routines each night. One of them involved Kip coming down into the audience and straddling the armrest of each patron’s chair, rubbing his balls and asshole against the armrest.

‘In 1981, Kip let his hair grow out. It became long, fuzzy and bushy, and marked Kip’s transition away from the urban disco-boy and more toward a hippie-ish wild man. In “Pacific Coast Highway,” Kip engages in docking — rolling Jack Burke’s foreskin over the knob of his own cock. Kip reunited with “PCH” co-star Jeremy Scott for “Class of ’84, Part 2.” Scott is the last man to fuck Kip Noll on screen.

‘In 1981, Kip fucks Derrick Stanton in “Brothers Should Do It.” It’s not a well-lit scene, but Kip is clearly having fun poking Stanton with abandon. Noll reunited with director Mark Reynolds and super-hung Steve York for the incest-themed “Cumming of Age.” The two are joined by Kip’s “brother,” Scott Noll. Kip teaches Scott how to masturbate while watching the loop, “Kip Noll.” They start to fuck when York walks in on them, and joins in. Kip later told friends that Scott Noll was completely over the moon for Steve York, and York was difficult to work with due to his struggles with his homosexuality. Kip said he felt shunted aside, and the scene shows it. But Reynolds says this is his favorite film of all time.

‘Kip joined with Al Parker at Surge Studios to fuck Scott Noll again (this time, Scott appeared as “Chris Noll”). A second scene with Parker intercut with shots of Scott Noll jacking off in the shower become a surreal set of still photographs that turn into live-action shots. The film is notable because it originally contained a third scene (“We Tarzans, You Boy, Oh, Boy!”) with Noll, Noll and Parker having sex on a hammock. It eventually was sold as a stand-alone loop by Mustang Studios prior to that studio’s purchase by Falcon, but the loop has since been lost.

‘In 1981, Higgins collaborated again with Noll — this time to do new footage with Jon King for “Kip Noll, Superstar, Part 1.” (A second segment was planned but never made. The “Part 1” has now been dropped from the film.) Noll is interviewed (apparently legitimately) by Jon King. Clips from “The Boys of Venice,” “Kip Noll and the Westside Boys,” “Pacific Coast Highway” and “Brothers Should Do It” are shown. After the last clip, King and Noll smoke a joint and then have scorching sex. Kip loses control during his orgasm, almost collapsing.

‘Also in 1981, the Follies Theatre opened in New York City. Kip appeared there in September. Every single one of his performances was sold out. The reaction was unprecedented. Crowds stood in the aisles, the back the of theater and the lobby. Some audience members obtained tickets for seats on the floor of the stage. Lines for the show backed up into the street.

‘Noll became famous for having sex with the audience. He often would put his erection into patron’s mouths and fuck their faces for 10 or 15 seconds. Once, Kip Noll pulled a patron out of his seat and up on stage, where he proceeded to suck the man for several minutes. The two eventually performed a live 69 sex show for the crowd. Another time, two lovers who had come to the show night after night had a small argument in the theater. Apparently, one man had always sat on the aisle, getting Kip’s prick in his mouth. “Look, tonight I’m going to sit on the aisle seat!” the other lover loudly said. Kip overhead. When he came to their seat, he stepped into the row, allowing both lovers to slurp on his prick at the same time.

‘After each show, Noll often came back into the theater to shake hands with fans and chat. He signed hundreds of autographs each night.

‘Kip Noll returned to the Follies for their New Year’s Eve Roman Orgy. The audience was encouraged to strip and sit in their seats with only a towel over their crotches. Kip danced all night.

‘In 1983, Kip Noll made one last film. It was “Kip Noll’s Casting Couch.” The film was produced and financed by Kip himself, and shot entirely on video. Unfortunately, the quality of the video is very low. The film is notable because it features an auto-fellatio segment by straight porn star Ron Jeremy. Kip appears in all the sex scenes, even introducing a new “Chris Noll.”

‘In 1984, Kip Noll re-appeared at the Follies one last time. The club had lost its license and closed for a time, but had recently re-opened. Kip appeared on stage with mega-hung uncut blond Lance and mustachioed leatherman Daniel Holt.

Throughout his career, Kip Noll was truly a superstar. He appeared on the cover of “In Touch” twice, and on the cover of “Stallion” once. He had two magazines devoted solely to him: “The Kip Noll Story” and “Kip Noll Cocky.” The artist Nico once drew a picture of Noll and Lance in an erotic embrace for the cover of “Meatmen.”

‘In “Kip Noll, Superstar,” Jon King asks Kip Noll why he got into gay porn. “The sex…the enjoyment of it,” Noll responds.’

 

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Kip Noll’s films

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Ken Green High Riders (1974)
‘Those hard young studs with their huge hot rods! Featuring superstars Kip Noll and Jack Wrangler, plus a whole gang of hard-riding young studs. Film was later broken apart into shorter films for home sales, then compiled back together with the title Hot Rods (1980) for Nova. Again repackaged/re-edited into High Riders (2007) for Gentlemen’s Video and also into Bareback Riders (2009) for Golden Age Media.’

 

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Unknown Double Your Pleasure (1977)
With Mark Lester, Kip Noll, Steve Parker

Watch it here

 

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William Higgins The Boys of Venice (1978)
‘Taking the form of a sexual travelogue, THE BOYS OF VENICE was truly a breakthrough film that helped usher in a new look and style that would come to dominate the all-male screen for years to come — and introduce a new stable of superstar performers including Kip Noll, Eric Ryan, Derrick Stanton, and Scott Taylor.’

Watch an excerpt here

 

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Monroe Beehler The Grease Monkeys (1979)
‘Three blue-collar employees of a Glendale California Texaco station in the late 1970s have sexual adventures at work and in their leisure hours.’

Watch the entirety here

 

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Mark Reynolds Room Mates (1980)
‘Porn legend Kip Noll & Lee Marlin have a sexathon of sucking, rimming, fucking & cum eating. Kip Noll’s first full film, although not the first one released.’

 

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Sid Roth Cuming of Age (1980)
‘It’s Scott Noll’s 18th birthday. Before it’s over, his brother Kip and their friend Steve show him what it really means to be a man.’

 

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William Higgins Kip Noll and the Westside Boys (1980)
‘While his parents are out on vacation, Kip Noll is left at home alone — but not for long. The boys just keep on coming!’

Watch it here

 

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William Higgins Pacific Coast Highway (1981)
‘Take a trip down the Pacific Coast Highway with Kip Noll and Jeremy Scott, and along the way join in their outdoor summer sex-fest of cock munching and rump busting. When Kip, Jeremy and the guys aren’t at the beach or taking long hikes in the hills, they’re gettin’ naked and gettin’ down to some man-nasty sex action. The all-male film event of 1981!’

 

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William Higgins Brothers Should Do It (1981)
‘This vintage adult feature makes no pretensions of having a linear story, because there is none at all. And yet “Brothers Should Do It” is considered one of the Greats,for one main reason : director Will Higgins has captured on film, some of the most intense couplings in Adult Film history. The “actors” aren’t acting, but rather giving themselves entirely over to their basest animal desires. Covered with sweat, the couples go at each other with a truly savage intensity . I have seen my share of smut but I have never witnessed such genuine passion on film. From the first scene featuring porn icon Kip Noll and his “brother” in an outdoor hot tub, this is simply a collection of vignettes that suggest an incest theme. Of course it is only fantasy as the actors aren’t really related, but the final segment features a very believable pair who truly look like twins. Quite honestly this is one of the hottest sex movies of all time with a level of true intensity and hedonistic abandon that you will never find in modern internet sex clips.’

 

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William Higgins The Class of ’84 Part 2 (1981)
”These college students are exploring their curiosity with a non-stop barebackfest that you have to see to believe! Whether they’re getting their tight holes pounded by a teacher, flip-fucking with a hairy, chiseled doctor or getting ballsy during a passionate dickdown in the wilderness, there is nothing that these hot and horny guys won’t try! With an all-star cast led by Jeremy Scott, Derrick Stanton, Kip Noll and more, this ‘80s Catalina classic is a must-see!’

Watch it ‘pay per view’ here

 

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Al Parker Flashbacks (1981)
‘Yep, it did happen, Al Parker and Kip Noll in the same feature film. Setting is a porn agency recruiting models and all that this entails. “Al Parker’s FLASHBACK” from 1981.’

 

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William Higgins Kip Noll Superstar Part 1 (1981)
‘Scenes are from The Boys of Venice, Kip Noll & the Westside Boys, Pacific Coast Highway, The Class Of ’84 Part II, Brothers Should Do It, and the new Jon King sequence The Interview.’

Watch the entirety here

 

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Ken Yontz Kip Noll’s Casting Couch (1983)
With Mark Forest, Ron Jeremy, Gary Wilde, Chris Knoll, Kip Noll

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** Brandon, Hi, Brandon. I only saw your comment from Tuesday yesterday after I posted. My blog is suddenly making me have to approve of every comment before it can appear, I don’t know why, so I missed yours, but hopefully that bug or whatever will be fixed today. The guy who made ‘Angels Not Angels’, which I haven’t seen, made another, similar documentary called ‘Bodies Without Souls’, which I have seen, and which is quite harrowing and good, if you can find it. How’s your week working out? ** David Ehrenstein, Yes, I got it, thank you. I’ll post it the week of the 21st. I’m not sure what day yet, but I’ll let you know. Ixnay on a Roy Cohn post, obviously. ** _Black_Acrylic, A good surprise? Something challenging in an interesting way for you? ** Ry / ANGUSRAZE, Hey, R! Superb about the pay sorting. Do your brother and you have similar tastes? Does he like your work? Will do about the EP. I’ll get to it ASAP with bells on. Seething and unhinged sounds yummy. Do what needs to be done until further notice. That goes for me too. xo. ** Tosh Berman, Hey, T. Hm, I’m not sure if the Univ. of Nebraska is still concentrating on that. I’ll check. Exactly, about Brand. I’m  not even sure which used LA bookstores I liked are still extant. I remember that one across from the Scientology Celebrity Center could be fruitful at times. I think that one is still around. There was a pretty good though very jumbled store just around the corner from Nuart. Yeah, that stretch of Brand in Glendale was really great, and, last time I drove there, it did nor look like its old self whatsoever. Glendale is one of the most visibly and even extremely gentrified cities in the LA area. Night and day, or the opposite. ** Dominik, Hi!!! I can’t wait, SCAB-wise. I’d watch love’s youtube channel. I like the idea that love would have a youtube channel and it would be just him whining. How love-like, ha ha. Your love of yesterday was very benevolent. We didn’t get a single snowflake the entire winter. Not one. First time ever, and pretty depressing. Love finger-painting a huge anarchy sign on the surface of the moon using the surface of the sun as his paint, G. ** Verity Pawloski, I remember bike rash. It wasn’t as bad as horse saddle rash. Slap some calamine lotion or whatever on yours, and I hope you’re smooth again lickety-split. Thanks about Redonnet/post, man. ** Maria, Isabella, Camila, Malaria, Gabriela, Hi, pals. Nice. Third time was the charm. And thank you. ** David, Oh, you’d be amazed at how shit my so-called ‘art’ was. Luckily it was the late 60s at the time, and everyone (and I) were too high to know the difference between good art and crap. We were very easily wowed. ** Steve Erickson, Hi. I’m an optimist, so I’m holding out hope that the Bandcamp buy doesn’t mean destruction, but we’ll see. Everyone, Mr. Erickson has reviewed Sebastian Meise’s GREAT FREEDOM right here. Oh, I watched ‘Hellbender’. I liked it. I thought it was charming. I did have a hard time with how they just slapped that cheap gloomifying filter on everything. I think the premise and to some degree the script deserved to be visually thought out rather than just being given the lowest common denominator look. Being imaginative in post-production isn’t necessarily expensive. But, that aside, I liked the movie. ** Brian, Hey, Brian. Well, I guess that’s why it will always be the vast minority of films, books, music, etc. that end up being great. The way of the world or something? Oh, okay, about the assignment aspect. I just hope it’s a situation where you can have some fun and learn something useful for your future endeavors. In my memory, the only kind of mid-period Araki film that didn’t totally annoy me is ‘Nowhere’, but I don’t remember why. Zac and I are conferring about the faux-revision today. Hopefully we’re at least close. Yes, our new film will be in English. It’ll be our first film in English with native English speaking performers. ‘LCTG’ was in English, but part of the experiment with that film was that a lot of the performers barely spoke English and didn’t really understand what they were saying. I really liked ‘Festen’ too. I haven’t liked the subsequent films by Vinterberg so much though. I hope your long haul day isn’t too, too long. You survived? ** Right. Recently someone off-blog challenged me to make a post about the quintessential gay proto-twink porn superstar of the late 70s/early 80s Kip Noll, and I didn’t think it would be possible, but I took up the challenge, and I managed to do it, and now someone out there owes me a free dinner. That’s your day today. See you tomorrow.