Porn 2

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Anita Steckel Various, 1965 – 1974
‘In her work of the early 1960s, Steckel overpainted vintage photographs to summon wildly unexpected associations and narrative possibilities. In 1973, Steckel founded the Fight Censorship group in her New York apartment. Members included Louise Bourgeois, Martha Edelheit, Joan Semmel, and Hannah Wilke. Steckel read a “statement on censorship” she’d written that laid out the group’s mission. “We demand that sexual subject matter—as it is part of life—no longer be prevented from being part of art.” She concluded with this unforgettable argument: “If the erect penis is not wholesome enough to go into museums—it should not be considered wholesome enough to go into women. And if the erect penis is wholesome enough to go into women, then it is more than wholesome enough to go into the greatest art museums.”’

 

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Curt McDowell Short films, 1971 – 1974
‘Curt McDowell’s films have been called both experimental and explicit. But apparently, and most confusingly, they’ve also been said to have a great sense of humor. Evidence suggests a rare and perceptive openness, a kind of ribaldry that goes beyond mere camp because it seems less defensive. He really is a key figure in Bay Area film history, fondly described as “weird, anarchic, messy and often sex-driven”. His short films celebrate sex as well as genre riffing and autobiographical narratives (McDowell’s insatiable desire for seducing straight men is explicitly documented in his 16-mm works), and bear the influences of Jack Smith’s lush, DIY camp aesthetic, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s explosive melodrama, and Nan Goldin’s glimpses of countercultural bohemia.’

 

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Inside Flesh Various, 2014 -2017
‘Inside Flesh is a project founded in 2007 by artistic collective called SUKA OFF. Its members are Piotr Wegrzynski, the founder, visual artist, performer, and Sylvia Lajbig, classical philologist and performer. This collective presented artwork in many art festivals, theaters and galleries all over Europe, in the US, Japan, Brazil, and so on. In 2007, they launched the Inside Flesh project that ”has always been focused on human carnality in all its aspects.” These experiments in the field of art, theater and the possibilities of the human body eventually led them into pornography of its own kind.’

 

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Unknown Untitled, ?
Erotic Relief found at Pompeji.

 

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Paul P & Joel Gibbs Gay Goth Scene, 1997 – 2016
‘The Gay Goth Scene zine was a collaboration between painter Paul P and musician Joel Gibb, created when they held jobs at Coles Books and Sam the Record Man, under the pseudonyms Bones and Raven. Paul P (Bones) has subsequently exhibited in the 2014 Whitney Biennial, as well as in group shows at MoMA, and the Freud Museum, London. Joel Gibb (Raven) is the songwriter and leader of The Hidden Cameras, who signed to Rough Trade in 2002, have since released 5 studio records.’

 

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Kira Zeldin Various, 2018
‘One of the first questions I had to ask myself in order to breakdown this project is “What’s the difference between pornography and naked art?”. Defining the term Porn is a good place to start. Porn is defined as “sexually explicit content intended to sexually arouse.” According to this definition it makes sense why the nudes depicted in the Sistine Chapel are not pornographic. They aren’t sexually explicit, as they were not intended to sexually arouse and do not have that effect. If art never had the intention to sexually arouse, is it possible to blur the lines between art and porn? Through a feminist lens I try to literally and figuratively take on this challenge. By taking subjects from the media and the internet I want to tackle issues such as censorship and objectification. I use modern art and contemporary issues to create a linear progression. Influenced by old nude paintings I take digital pornographic images and appropriate them into an abstract painting that begs the question, is it porn or is it art?’

 

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Otto Muehl Two films, 1969 – 1970
‘These films combine cruelty, sexuality, defilement and visual shock for the purposes of purification and ab-reaction of sado-masochistic impulses’.’

‘Koeck Scheiss’: watch it here

‘Sodoma’: watch it here

 

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Leonardo da Vinci Untitled, ?
‘Casual reminder that in one of Leonardo da Vinci’s many notebooks containing innumerable artistic and scientific sketches and notes of incomprehensible important, there is a sketch of two penises with legs and tails walking towards a crudely drawn anus. The sketch was most likely done by Leonardo’s apprentice Salai, who was not only very likely one of Leonardo’s lovers, but who was also infamously mischievous. Better yet, the anus is literally labeled “Salai.” So either Salai drew these while Leonardo wasn’t looking just to annoy his boyfriend, or Leonardo himself put actual time and energy into drawing these. Either way, the human race is truly blessed to have made such a discovery. There are dick drawings like the ones you see on desks in school in Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks. Please cherish this information.’

 

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Leiya Arata Various Sex Doll Funerals, 2020
‘Leiya Arata, who is in her thirties, holds funerals for sex dolls. The photographer, who set up the fantasy studio at the start of the year in Osaka in western Japan, charges up to £630 for the funerals. She says her customers at Love Doll Funeral are all looking for a place where they are loved, accepted and approved. Among the services she provides are elaborate funerals for sex dolls which are directed by a transgender porn actress turned Buddhist monk, Lay Kato. Leiya said of her assistant: ‘I don’t know anyone who understands sex, dolls and their owners, and offers an appropriate ceremony better than her.’ The ceremonies see the life-like figurines placed in coffins, wrapped in burial clothing and decorated with garlands. Other ‘mourning’ sex dolls watch on during the bizarre service which also has undertakers, candles and prayers.’

 

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Vivienne Maricevic Various, 1975 – 1993
‘Since 1975, as a fine-art photographer, my specialization is exploring different aspects of erotica, sexuality and gender. I am interested in photographing subject matter that offers many challenges, obstacles and difficulties dealing with the pathology of our times with references to sociology. All series are photographed for two years or more and all subsequent series evolve from the previous one.’

 

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Elisabet Stienstra Virgin of Light, 2011
Oak and Brass 95x70x120

 

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Mike Bouchet Untitled Video, 2011
‘A four channel projection with a running time of 10 minutes. The video was created by compositing 10,000 separate adult videos into a mosaic. Each individual video runs for 10 minutes. The original artwork can be projected up to 60ft in diameter.’

 

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Zanele Muholi Being (T)here, 2009
‘Documentation of intervention, red light district, Amsterdam.’

 

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Matt Crabe Castrate & Destroy, 2016

 

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Alfred Kubin The Death Jump, 1902
‘Two of Kubin’s most frequent themes are death and the eternal wanderer. Paul Klee once remarked that Kubin interpreted the world as ‘poison’. Kubin’s style reflects a distorted world, unsure of its bearings and stupefied by reality. His lines are quick and seemingly frantic, signs of impending violence.’

 

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Elke Krystufek The Best Sex I Ever Had, 1998
acrylic on canvas

 

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Movement of Porno Art Pornograms, 1981 – 1982
‘The attempt here is to literally use the body itself as a writing medium. In some cases that is literal. For example, when I perform upside down and naked, repeating the letter “U”, the letter U is the phonetic unit for the sound of booing. So when you see that repetition and you see that face laughing back at you, the form of the body and what it’s doing, it produces a tension, an apparent contradiction, but in reality it is expanding, multiplying meanings. So the intent of the “Pornograms” was to use the body as language, as a writing medium to use space as the environment in which the text is inscribed, and to use the photograph as the medium for publication. So, in analogy with the book, you have a situation in which the body is the text, the space is the page, and the photo is the publishing equivalent to a book. It’s a way to allow the “Pornograms” to circulate, to materialize a different linguistic economy than that of the book, a way to effectively use the body as a writing instrument. My ultimate goal, then as now, was to embody liberating alternatives to received practices that are passed on as inevitable.’

 

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Jean-Xavier Renaud Le Pontet, 2010
aquarelle, 70 x 10 cm

 

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Anna Uddenberg Various, 2018 – 2020
‘Through the feedback loop of consumerist culture, Anna Uddenberg investigates how body culture, spirituality, and self-staging are intertwined with the mediation and production of subjectivity by new technologies and circulation forms. Her practice integrates approaches to gender theory while acting as a space for reflecting on taste and class, appropriation and sexuality, pushing these questions into new material territories. Based on Judith Butler’s idea of performing gender as a rehearsed act, Uddenberg’s work continues to confront feminine identity in consumer culture and to explore performativity, by using sculpture and performance as visual platforms.’

 

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Daniel Edwards Signed, SEALed, and Delivered: The Porn King of Pakistan, 2011
‘Titled “Signed, SEALed, and Delivered: The Porn King of Pakistan,” the sculpture features a naked Bin Laden with a bullet hole in the center of his forehead and a pair of crabs crawling through his beard – his wrists and ankles are manacled and chained to a cement block embossed with the U.S. Navy SEALs emblem. “As soon as it was announced that Washington would not release actual death photos of Osama Bin Laden, I went to work, motivated by patriotism,” said Daniel Edwards about the sculpture, which started out as a Facebook friend request. “I was sure some of the general public still needed the closure those photos could bring, so I felt that providing a carefully rendered image of a dead Osama Bin Laden could be a meaningful supplement for those having difficulty creating their own mental picture.” The Bin Laden representation also displays crustaceans mating on his pelvic region and hanging from his nipples in reference to the discovery of his secret stash of pornography, according to the artist’s representative.’

 

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Suzzan Blac Various, 2013 – 2016
‘As a victim of many abuses, and as a survivor who never had a voice ~ My Art Is War. Please visit my blog in which I expose the porn industry.’

‘Madonna and Child’

‘She Likes It’

‘The Domestic’

‘The Stiletto Shoe’

‘I’ve Killed Bitches Before’

 

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Unknown The Warren Cup, c. 5 – 15 AD
‘An example of a work not radical in its time but seen as too explicit for later audiences, The Warren Cup was most likely proudly displayed in a Roman home, but then was considered too deviant for audiences right until the 1980s. Depicting a Greco-Roman practice called pederasty, where young men would take older men as mentors and sexual partners, the what would later be considered homosexual acts depicted on the cup were hidden from public display for centuries before their exhibition, after which they inspired countless gay artists and writers into more radical artworks.’

 

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Peter Bismuth Collages for Men, 2002
‘In Collages for Men, Bismuth has re-clothed pictures of naked women from pornographic magazines. By cutting white paper in the shape of clothes to fit over their bodies, the transformation is so misleading that it is hard to imagine these women were once naked. It is as if Bismuth misunderstands the purpose of pornography, suppressing any sense of lust that these pictures may have originally communicated.’

 

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Julius Poncelet Manapul Cabinet of Queeriosities, 2014
‘Butterfly Animation, Queer pornography, Digital Collage animated from Photoshop.’

 

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Jimmy De Sana Various, 1982 – 1987
‘The bodies in Jimmy DeSana’s photographs are posed with objects. These objects are not simply props for human eroticism: rather, it seems as if the object is using the body for its own satisfaction, as if the bodies are not there for the sake of our enjoyment as viewers but rather for the things that are the agents of their poses.’

 

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Ingrid Berthon-Moine i Touch, 2011
‘i Touch questions the evolution of the dissemination of pornography and its consequences on the representation of sexuality. i Touch raises questions of accessibility and the way this is shaping our sexual behaviour, it also engages in issues surrounding gender representation, the real, culture and commerce.’

 

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ねこねこさん Various, 2016 – 2019
‘一応トランプなのでタイトル“ハートのＡ”とかにしようかと思ったけど、
マークを描き入れる予定もないので、ただの連作ってことに。’

 

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Casual Teen Sex Art as a ground for sex, 2020
‘It seems contemporary Art has a magic depraved influence on hot teenage girls’ minds. This guy invited a cute chick he met right on the street to come check out his paintings and photos and before she even managed to look through half of his Art collection she was all wet down below and hungry for fuck. Watch this curious sex-addicted teeny as she sucks and rides big creamy cock, gets fucked to orgasm and takes a messy cumshot on her lovely titties from a guy she barely knows.’

Watch it here

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‘A Chinese artist has been sentenced to 12 months’ re-education in a labour camp after he performed a live sex show as part of an exhibition. Sources in China revealed that 57-year-old Cheng Li was detained after his lewd public show in Songzhuang, in eastern Beijing. The artist’s show, which featured Mr Cheng having sexual intercourse with a female in front of a carefully selected small gathering, reportedly caused ‘chaos’ and a ‘public disturbance’ and he was arrested four days later. Officials deemed that the exhibition was a flagrant attempt to cause a disturbance in the capital.’

 

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Monica Majoli Rubbermen, 2001 – 2007
‘In her ongoing Rubbermen series, begun in 1999, Majoli loosely renders men donning multilayered rubber fetish suits. These garments function as a kind of second skin, a prosthesis that both envelops and redoubles the countours of the bodies they contain, implying at once protection and suffocation, restriction and pleasurable abandon.’

 

 

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p.s. Hey. ** Ian, Hi. Um, okay weekend. Not shabby, not remarkable. Summer? Long, long awaited trip to the States/LA, work on new Gisele Vienne theater piece and Zac Farley’s and my upcoming film, praying for not insanely hot weather, and things like that. What about you, i.e,. where are you vacationing? You got the second vax shot doldrums too. Weird effect, right? I hope your last carpentry learning week goes well, better than well. So, you have a work place set to go upon your return? Something you’re at least a little excited about? You take care too and doubly. ** Misanthrope, But you always read my big blog posts start to finish, right? Ha ha. That can’t be a real list. Or maybe. I was trying to figure out what age one would be to have those five as your fave bands in that order, and I couldn’t untangle an answer. ** _Black_Acrylic, I was very happy to find it. And save it. And it was a hit, even! Well, it’s good that people are looking after you, And at least it’s the summertime if you have to lay low on your body’s behalf. Spoken obviously as the summer hater I am. ** Bill, I think I’m going to have to catch the Sparks doc in States, although it’ll probably be long post-theaters by the time I get settled in. Alas. I can totally imagine, re: seeing Caja’s work optimally. ** Dominik, Hi to you!!! Wasps are scary. I never thought they especially were, but I read something recently about what hot headed little monsters they are relative to bees and other stinging types. So, that’s some love right there. Love as long as an early 1970’s street prostitute’s head hair and as messy as his eyes, G. ** David Ehrenstein, It’s been so long since I saw that Hitchcock film that saying I’m familiar with it would be really pushing it. ** Jeff J, Hi. Thanks much about the recent postage. I think the Sparks doc shows up in theaters just after I split, so it’s a Stateside screening or nothing, I guess. Sure, about Zooming. I’ll go find your email and answer. Thank you, man! ** T, Hi. I know, _B_A’s post was a kind of gotcha thing. Clever. I don’t mind being grossed out. It’s interesting. On occasion. I can imagine. I forget, have you seen that documentary about the ‘world’s most dangerous water park’? ‘Class Action Park’. You might really dig it, if not. I think I’ll try to devirginize myself water park-wise when I’m in LA. Fuck knows it’ll be hot enough to. Or maybe your Tuesday wish for me will take care of my virginity today, although Paris is not exactly full of water parks, and it’s raining. May your Tuesday turn you … presto change-o … into every form of pleasure’s locksmith. xo. ** Dom Lyne, Hi, Dom! Really nice to see you, buddy! Jesus, man, I’m rendered a bit speechless by the awfulness of your recent past. Good god. And during Covid’s shenanigan’s even. Well, wow, I hope somehow you get a righted as possible as quickly and painlessly as possible. That sounds facile in language, but I do mean it, as helpless as hopes and wishes are. Oh, shit, I need to get your book from Rebel Satori. How did that escape me? That’s great news at least. And I’ll soundtrack my life with the new Red Devil Incident album. Very cool and surprising to have them/you back. So, all is not lost. Good old artist identity. Hang in there, my friend, and much, much more. Love, me. ** adam r., Hi, Adam! Yeah, a friend Stateside found it, loved it, knew I would, and, hence … Word of mouth + passion is the key. I’ve always believed that because, well, most things I love seem to reach me that way. Anyway, yes, crazy and wonderful coincidence. I don’t have a cassette player. I always wish I did, but I never seem to make the leap. Awesome you’re doing that. I was going to ask you what you’re working on, but you answered. Great, I’m excited to hear the new release. I’ll watch out for it, or let me know when it’s ‘real’, or something. Rivette is great. If you feel like a marathon, ‘Out One’ is incredible. ‘Duelle’ and ‘Noirot’ are really great. Well, he’s pretty consistently fascinating. Great to interact. Thank you again, and see you soon, I hope. ** politekid, Hey, O! Everything you say about ‘It’s A Sin’ makes me shudder, so I will do the whole plague avoidance thing with it. Yes, RIP Lauren Berlant, ugh. Three months?! Sorry to spout predictable outrage, but that’s so bonkers. There’s a 6 week in-between wait here in France, and I thought that was absurd. I’m going — well, with Zac too — to Orlando for three days so we can blow out our mutual theme park obsessions after the year+ deprivation, and then to LA for a visit and to do early work own our next film. I’ll go to NYC and other US spots in September when my book comes out. I think it’s possible to be romantic about the US and have that romance consummated depending on the wheres and sheer luck or not. Very weird place. And never weirder than now. It does seem like Paris <-> London travel is in the immediate future, assuming … you know. Come visit. I think you’d like it. I could try to coax out its good side. I have heard of ‘Pepsi Cola Addict’ and its legendary and legendarily good status, and I keep forgetting about it. Okay, I wrote that down, and I’ll see if I can ferret it out. Seems like someone would have uploaded a pdf out there somewhere. Thank you, buddy. Enjoy the matinees and coffee. That’s basically my life by choice too. xo. ** Steve Erickson, I’ll be there for about three weeks. Brief time in Orlando then Southern California for the bulk. I’m going to give the blog a summer vacation while I’m away. First time I’ve done that since I went to Antarctica. ‘Fathom’ isn’t awful, it’s just kind of dull and doesn’t amount to very much. Eli Roth? Weird. ** alex beaumais, Hi, Alex! Well, I really loved your novel — well, and I  still do — so it being there was a no brainer. Thanks about my blog, and of course about my work. The whole mutual admiration thing is the best things get. So that’s so nice to hear. I don’t know ‘Crisis Actor’. I’ll find it. I like what’s on your nightstand. I don’t know those particular tracks you mention, and I too love that musical area, so thank you for giving me things to hunt. We have the same birthday? Wow. Mm, I think I’m okay with the 10th. I have a couple of friends whose birthdays are on December 24 and December 26, poor guys, so I’ve always mostly felt relief that there’s at least a couple of weeks between b’day and Xmas. You okay with yours? Ha ha, that’s a very good meme right there. Nice. Thanks a lot, and it goes without saying it’d be swell to get to interact with you anytime you want to hang out inside here. What are you working on? Take good care. ** Brian, Hi, Brian. _B_A was asking for it. Probably on purpose, knowing him. ‘Fathom’ is … dull. As well meaning as hell, but … dull. Ha ha, I remember thinking ‘Celluloid Closet’ was dated the day it was released. Obviously, its priorities are kind of general, I guess. ‘Snowtown’: news to me. I’ll find out what it is. I haven’t watched anything, but I have to try to watch some stuff on Criterion Channel that gets vacated in a couple of days, so I’ll be off to that race hopefully tonight or something. Figured I was overshooting with the Big Bang hopes, but, hey, better to have … err, whatever that old saying is about ambition’s upside. And now we both have today to contend with? Was yours suitable? ** Right. You get a sequel today. Go nuts. Or don’t. Or neither. Or all three simultaneously, if that’s possible. See you tomorrow