Posts tagged as:

art

“A Fire in my Belly” Censorship Protest, NYC

by Viviane on 12/17/2010

12/19/2010
1:00 PM

Organized by Art Positive.

A version of “Fire in My Belly” may be viewed on Youtube (you must be signed in).

For more info about other protests, visit Hideseek.org (Chronicling responses to the “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture” exhibition and the removal of David Wojnarowicz’s film “A Fire in My Belly.”)

Tagged as: aids, art, censorship, David Wojanarowicz, Events

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Sexuality in Modernism: The (Partial) History (NYT)

by Viviane on 12/16/2010

in art,gay,queer

Holland Cotter:

WASHINGTON — With the exhibition “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” one of our federally funded museums, the National Portrait Gallery, here in the city of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” has gone where our big private museums apparently dare not tread, deep into the history of art by and about gay artists.

Over the last few years there has been plenty of speculation as to how this show would shape up, and when a copy of the catalog arrived, I felt a bit let down. All the artists were well known — stars — as was most of the work. The whole enterprise looked like an exercise in Hall of Fame-building, rather than like an effort to chip away at the very idea of hierarchy and exclusion. We were getting a “pride” display, an old model, very multicultural 1980s.

Then, when the Catholic League and several members of Congress demanded the removal of a piece — a video by David Wojnarowicz (pronounced voy-nah-ROH-vitch) that included an image of ants crawling on a crucifix — and the gallery, which is part of the Smithsonian, said O.K., we really were in the 1980s, back in the culture wars. Which led me to understand the show in a somewhat different way.

On reconsideration, it seems more purposeful, as if specifically designed to avoid any controversy that might distract from the major point it was trying to make: namely, that work of gay artists was fundamental to the invention of American modernism. Or, put another way, difference had created the mainstream.

But how was the presence of difference defined in art? By subject matter? By style? By the sexual orientation of the artist? And isn’t gayness, the most familiar form of such difference, a period concept, inapplicable to life and art of a century ago? Today the very word is used for convenience rather than categorically, with “queer” often used. (One way to think of it: gay is something you are; queer is something you choose to be outside of the heterosexual norm.)

Clearly the exhibition covers a lot of ground and raises many questions. It also has wonderful art, and the art stays wonderful whether you ask the questions or not. Again this seems part of the plan devised by the curators, David. C. Ward, a historian at the National Portrait Gallery, and Jonathan D. Katz, director of the doctoral program in visual studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo. They have assembled a historical show with a very specific slant, but with rewards for everyone.

Link

Tagged as: art, censorshop, David Wojanarowicz, gay, queer, Smithsonian

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Bookmarks

by Viviane on 11/15/2010

in del.icio.us,sex

Crimes of the Art? | Culture | Vanity Fair – Eight years after Larry Rivers’s death, both his pioneering art and his hypersexual private life are getting fresh attention. In the 70s, he filmed his adolescent daughters topless for a documentary, Growing, that the younger one, Emma Rivers Tamburlini, says is nothing less than child pornography. With battle lines drawn between Emma and those who guard Rivers’s legacy, the author asks whether the artist was shattering taboos or destroying innocence.
Women Who Like to Be Dominated in Bed: Talking to BDSM Submissives | AlterNet – Outside of the BDSM scene, there are many misconceptions about submissive women. Non-kinky individuals might assume that submissive women are passive, indecisive or weak individuals who lack ambition—in other words, the anti-feminists. But spend some time around the BDSM community, and one encounters plenty of submissive women who describe themselves as card-carrying feminists. A female submissive might be a corporate lawyer or an emergency room physician, or she might be signing a major book deal. The fact that she is voluntarily submissive in the dungeon doesn’t mean that she is submissive outside of the dungeon.
Out Of The Closet … In The Pulpit Of A Megachurch : NPR – "There are two things in my life that are an absolute," the megachurch pastor told his flock. "I did not ask for either one of them, both of them were imposed upon me, I had no control over either of them. One was the call of God on my life… and the other thing … was my sexual orientation."
NYC swingers sex parties are feeling the pinch of the tough economy |NY Daily News – DDeviousDelights is one of many venues that blame the economy for its 30 to 40% event attendance drop this year. The high-end roaming party One Leg Up said it has had about 20 percent fewer event attendees a year since 2007. And one stationary club — the 14-year-old Carousel Couples Club — reported a 60% attendance plunge from 2007 to 2009.
Young Women Chat About Porn, Sex Work, Blogging and the ‘F-Word’ With Beauty Myth Author Naomi Wolf – Speakeasy – WSJ – The panelists were Feministing.com blogger and author Courtney Martin, sex blogger and queer advocate Lena Chen, sex education activist Shelby Knox, and libertarian “free-market feminist” Allison Kasic.
For Gays, New Songs of Survival- NYTimes.com – In the wake of the continued legal wrangling over the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and same-sex marriage; harassment of gay youth in schools; and anger over the use of a gay joke in the trailer for the Vince Vaughn film “The Dilemma,” the top of the pop music charts has become a refuge of unambiguous support for gay rights.

Tagged as: art, cyberbullying, feminism, gay, harassment, incest, jim+swilley, lgbt, mollena+williams, music, nyc, rachel+kramer+bussel, sex, submission, susan+wright, swinging, women

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Bookmarks

by Viviane on 10/18/2010

in del.icio.us,sex

Follow That Story: Lara Jade Won Her Lawsuit | violet blue ® :: open source sex – Way back in May 2007, young female photographer (and aspiring fashion photog) Lara Jade Coton put a plea for help up on Flickr. One of her photos (that she had shared on DeviantART) was being used as an American porn boxcover — reprehensibly, it was not only used without permission but it was also a self-portrait she’d taken on a family vacation when she was only 14.
Sexual ‘thesis’ deserves zero out of 10 | Zoe Margolis – Perhaps her lack of self-awareness and her inability to provide a social critique are what has led to so much criticism, and the fact that she named people publicly is an obvious violation of others’ privacy, which clearly highlights her naivety. What worries me, though, is the widespread “slut-shaming” the author is now receiving from the media: her sex life is being routinely condemned. Were a man to have written this, he’d be getting slaps on the back (or have a movie made based on his life) for being a “stud”. Women who talk about sex instead attract newspaper headlines chastising them for their actions and have moral judgments cast on their behaviour which men do not have to endure.
Yale Fraternity’s Chant Reveals Depth of Our Culture’s Misogyny | Will Neville | RHRealityCheck.org – The problem isn’t that a group of young men at yelled something stupid, over and over agian. The problem is that I’m no longer sure we’re shocked by people who turn rape and sexual assault into some kind of a joke. It’s embarassing for those involved, sure. But the sentiment they expressed is shockingly — and terrifyingly — mainstream.
Jeff Koons’s “Made in Heaven” Series: A Critical Compendium | ARTINFO.com – Works from Jeff Koons’s “Made in Heaven” series — paintings and sculptures that depict the artist with his then-lover, Italian porn star Cicciolina, in a variety of romantic situations — have returned to New York, where many were first displayed in 1991 at the Sonnabend Gallery in SoHo. (Some pieces — of the slightly less hardcore variety — were shown at the 1990 Venice Biennale.) New York critics, with perhaps only one exception, have lambasted the current “Made in Heaven” show at the Upper East Side townhouse of Luxembourg & Dayan, following in a rich lineage of writers that have panned work. Over the past two decades, the series has earned near-universal scorn from most art critics and inspired some of the all-time-great takedowns in recent criticism.
My Mother And Her Vibrator | Pamela Madsen | Psychology Today – It lived in her closet for years. – until my mother turned 81. Every-time I brought it up. – mom would tell me that she was frightened of hurting herself. I would talk to her about this. “Come on mom – how are you going to hurt yourself?”.. She could never explain to me her fears, and in the end the vibrator remained unused…And then one afternoon my mother called me. I knew something was up at “Hello”. She had this cat who had caught the canary kind of voice….”Well, I used it!” She gushed.

Tagged as: art, copyright, Flickr, Jeff+Koons, La+Ciccolina, porn, sex, sextoys, socialmedia, society, vibrator, women

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Bookmarks

by Viviane on 07/22/2010

in del.icio.us,sex

N.Y.U. Doesn’t Want Film of Larry Rivers’s Naked Daughters – NYTimes.com – After it came to light last week that films and videotapes made by the artist Larry Rivers included footage of his two daughters naked, New York University informed his foundation that it did not want those materials included as part of the archive it was purchasing, said John Beckman, a spokesman for N.Y.U.<br />
<br />
That leaves the question of what to do with the films and tapes, which are now in the hands of the Larry Rivers Foundation and which Mr. Rivers’s younger daughter, Emma Tamburlini, wants turned over to her and her sister, Gwynne Rivers. Mr. Rivers died in 2002.
Buttman v. The Man: D.C.’s First Big Obscenity Trial in Decades Fails to Determine the Obscenity of Milk Enemas – The Sexist – Washington City Paper – But after the trial, jurors were more concerned with what wasn’t in Milk Nymphos: Violence. Rape. Bestiality. Kids. “These people were adults and they were willing. No one put a gun to their head,” Crawford said. “Had they brought a child out in pampers, then we would have been like, hell no,” Mordecai added. In opening arguments, the defense emphasized that the only entity forcing anyone to watch porn is the government. “The movies are not—and are not meant to be—distributed to these 14 strangers sitting in a federal courthouse,” defense attorney Paul Cambria said. The films feature “adults putting on a performance…for another adult, who would make that choice [to watch it] if that were his or her cup of tea.”
Stagliano Case: A Pyrrhic Victory? « Blogging Censorship – Not prepared to alienate anybody, Holder told a panel of congressmen that he will pursue, with limited resources, obscenity cases that have the “greatest potential for harm” while being aware of First Amendment considerations.
District To Pay Lesbian Teen $35K Over Prom Dispute : NPR – A school district in rural Mississippi that canceled its prom rather than allow a lesbian student to attend with her girlfriend has agreed to pay $35,000 to settle a discrimination lawsuit the ACLU filed on her behalf.

Tagged as: art, discrimination, john+stagliano, legal, lesbian, obscenity, sexuality

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SMOOTH HOTEL show held over for the summer

by Lolita Wolf on 07/22/2010

in art,nyc,photography

1 SMOOTH HOTEL show held over for the summer

SMOOTH HOTEL features Barbara Nitke‘s provocative photographs of chic people misbehaving in anonymous hotel settings. The photography series is in collaboration with New York fashion designers Tom and Linda Platt. You can see it at 69 Gansevoort Street, NYC through August 22, 2010.

Update 7/28: Barbara emailed me to say 69 Gansevoort has closed. But Season Two of the acclaimed SMOOTH HOTEL fashion/art soap opera photo series begins shooting this fall with an expanded cast of actors, models and wonderful clothes from Tom and Linda Platt.

Tagged as: art, Barbara Nitke, nyc

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Tom of Finland and then some (Feature Inc.)

by Viviane on 06/25/2010

in Events,gay,sex

06/25/2010 6:00 PM

07/31/2010 6:00 PM

toff8901 m Tom of Finland and then some (Feature Inc.)

TOM OF FINLAND : Untitled (preliminary drawing), 1989; graphite on paper; 11.75 x 8.25”

Location: Feature Inc. 131 Allen St. NYC 10002
Phone: 212.675.7772

Hours: Open Wednesday through Saturday 11AM – 6PM, Sunday 1 – 6 PM (closed 4-10 July)

Sketches from the archive of the legendary Tom of Finland will once again – it’s easily been ten or so years – hang on the walls of Feature Inc. Tom of Finland, the artist who took masculine to macho and big to XXX large, clocked the butch gay clone phenomenon at its onset and blew it out. His super hung studs, with more t&a than any cheesecaker could aspire to, are packed for action yet also deliver knowing glances and looks that are full of the camaraderie and humor that his vision of a utopian man to man culture was based on. This exhibition is made in cooperation with the Los Angeles based Tom of Finland Foundation.

Partnering Tom of Finland is and then some, sexual imagery by a number of other contemporary artists who frequently use sexual imagery in their work. The range is wide, tho less poser/genital display and more twist. Participating artists are: Richard Kern, Judy Linn, Bastille, Jerry Phillips, Martin of Holland, Joe Brainard, Fred Esher, Larry Clark, Robert W. Richards and Brian Kenny, Sean Landers, Richard Prince, Robert Fontanelli, GB Jones, Jeff Burton, Mie Yim, Raymond Pettibon, Catherine Opie, Carl Ferrero, Kevin Larmon, Jared Buckhiester, Judy Rifka, Jeffrey Pittu, Scooter Laforge, Tyler Ingolia, David Frye, The Hun, Kinke Kooi, Juan Gomez, Rex, Gengoroh Tagame.

Tom of Finland, Touko Laaksonen by birth, was born on the south coast of Finland on May 8, 1920. He trained and worked in design and advertising and in 1973, left his job to work full time on his drawings. Between 1978 and 1988, Tom of Finland split his time between Helsinki and Los Angeles; he died of an emphysema–induced stroke on November 7, 1991. This exhibition is made in cooperation with the Los Angeles based Tom of Finland Foundation.

[via Thornyc]

Tagged as: art, erotic, erotica, gay, men, nyc

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Bookmarks for March 16th

by Viviane on 03/16/2010

in del.icio.us,sex

CDC Releases New Data on HIV and Syphilis Rates Among Gay Men and MSM (Siecus) – The rate of diagnosis of new cases of HIV for MSM was 44 times higher than for other men and 40 times higher than for women.
How to Have Sex in Texas –
Sexuality & Social Networking: Review of Nina Hartley: Porn Star, Sex Educator, Social Networker – SXSW on Lunch – Nina Hartley is launching a new online community called Sexwise.com (Sexwise.tv to come – every pun intended), a platform that creates a conversation about sex, when our society as a whole is not really talking about it. Not a "how to" but about educating and having a convo about sex, sexuality and sexual expression.
Session Leaders : Sex 2.0 – The call for session leaders is now open! Sessions will be hour-long, informal conversations organized by people attending the event. Session leaders with some knowledge in a subject area facilitate discussion among the participants.
Andy Warhol Museum hosts ‘Playboy Redux: Contemporary Artists Interpret the Iconic Playboy Bunny’ – This year Playboy Enterprises is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its Playboy Club and the Playboy Bunny, and a sexy new show at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh is bringing nearly two dozen contemporary artists together to reinterpret the Playboy Bunny icon for the occasion.

Tagged as: art, Events, gay, health, hiv, nina+hartley, Playboy, sex, Sex2.0, sexblogs, socialmedia, sxsw, Texas

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Bookmarks for March 9th

by Viviane on 03/10/2010

in del.icio.us,sex

‘Whip Smart’: Memoirs Of A Dominatrix | Fresh Air – Terry Gross interviews Melissa Febos.
Whip Smart: A Memoir – Google Books – Melissa Febos’ new memoir, Whip Smart, details the four years she spent working as a dominatrix.
Spencer Tunick nude Sydney installation | Pictures – Volunteers removed their clothes to participate in Spencer Tunick’s installation Mardi Gras: The Base on the steps of the Sydney Opera House…
March 19 ‘Sex’ art auction | Sexaminer – Phillips de Pury & Company’s Sex auction in London on March 19 features 221 nudes and sex-related works, with heavy emphasis on photography among a who’s who of contemporary artists and some 20th century masters
FetLife Latest Activity Organizer for Greasemonkey – The FetLife Lastest Activity page leaves much to be desired. A couple busy friends and all your other friends’ activities are blown right off the page. This script will organize all the latest entries in the Everything, Group Activity, and Writing tabs by user and place them into collapsible menus. Now you can actually see what your friends are doing, even if they only make one update a week.
Sexuality Information Access in U.S. Public Libraries – We are investigating the use of content filters on public library computers with Internet access. The priority research areas are access to information about sexuality and sexual reproductive health. We need help with this work, and request that people all over the United States visit their local public library and do some simple searches using the computers provided by the library.
Multigenerational Experiences with & Attitudes About Casual Sex Survey – I’m doing this study to try and gather data on multigenerational experiences and attitudes with/about casual sex so as to discover and present a more diverse, realistic and non-prescriptive picture of people’s sex lives and ideas about sex. The data will ideally be used for publication, but your answers are completely anonymous and will only be used anonymously.

Tagged as: art, bdsm, fetlife, greasemonkey, heather+corinna, libraries, London, melissa+febos, memoir, photography, research, sex, sexuality, socialmedia, spencertunick

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Bookmarks for November 30th

by Viviane on 12/03/2009

in del.icio.us,sex

The Sex Doctor Is Out / Violet Blue: Talk to your doctor about sex? You’re better off asking Twitter – Picking out a new doctor that you'll feel comfortable talking to — and hope to get accurate answers from — is a challenge with a health care system that is not consumer friendly, nor awake to the concept of sex-positivity.
YouTube – NYS Senator Diane Savino speaks on the Marriage Equality bill –
13-Year-Old Girl Commits Suicide After Classmates Spread Nude Photos : The Curvature – Hope Witsell made the decision to end her own life. A whole lot of other people seemingly decided that keeping women in their place was a lot more important than protecting a 13-year-old girl, and than stamping out sexual misconduct. A whole society backed that second decision up.
Female Sexologist Awaits Pawtucket Zoning Board | Womens eNews – A sexologist in Rhode Island is trying to open an adult-ed center focused in part on the female pleasure principle. Her battle has been complicated by the recent passage of a ban on indoor prostitution, which she opposed.
The Hunt for Porn-Virgins | Carnal San Francisco – A study that set out to examine male subjects who had never been exposed to pornography was foiled by a lack of porn-virgins.
Good Vibrations Magazine » Blog » Sex-Positivity and Judgment – When I started putting these two simple and elegant concepts together, I came to see just how much I was letting my judgments come out. As I learned to pay attention to how my reactions arise, I began to be able to own them and take responsibility for them. When I learned to use language that reflected the fact that my emotions were internal feelings rather than statements of identity or descriptions of the world around me, they became much less likely to take over my experiences…I think that this has major ramifications for sex-positivity. Speaking from a sex-positive place means that we can take responsibility for our judgments.
Speaking to Las Vegas in the Language of Las Vegas — Kickstarter – This is going to be an art installation that combines sculptural elements, performance, audio, video, photo documentation, and illustrated portraits of Las Vegas sex workers. The purpose of this show is to investigate the connections between the Las Vegas economy & the legal & illegal sex work that happens there.
Hand Holding vs. Hand Held – All Tech Considered : NPR – Can you love your partner and your cell phone?

Tagged as: art, health, IloveNewYorkequality, judgment, marriage, perception, politics, porn, relationships, research, samesex, sexuality, sexwork, society, technology, zoning

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A Call for Bisexual Artists

by Viviane on 07/08/2009

in art,san francisco

Bisexual Artists is seeking artists who identify as Bisexual (or with a label inclusive of bisexuality, such as Pansexual, Fluid, Omnisexual, Ambisexual or Queer), to submit paintings, drawings, photographs, prints, or sculptures relating to their experiences of living as a bisexual person. This project is an opportunity for artists to represent what being bisexual means to them and to help promote the wide variety of people who are bisexual.

Hangable works will be limited to 8′ in height and 6′ in length. Sculptures will be limited to a base of 2′ by 2′, with a height no greater than 8′. Works may be either pre-existing work or work created specifically for the event. There should also be a paragraph description of the content of the work and how it relates to issues of bisexuality, bisexual identities and/or bisexual visibility (no more than 500 words).

Deadline for submissions is August 1st 2009. Please click here for complete information, submission guidelines, etc.

Artists selected for the exhibition will have their work on display in the San Francisco art gallery of Good Vibrations on Polk Street from Thursday October 8th 2009 thru Thursday, November 26th 2009.

Tagged as: art, bisexual, san francisco

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Baltimore Erotic Arts Festival: Call for submissions and performers

by Viviane on 06/07/2009

in Events,submissions

10/09/2009

10/10/2009

THE BALTIMORE EROTIC ARTS FESTIVAL
#2: PROFESSIONAL SEX: Sex at Work and Sex as Work

CONTACT: Curator, Suzannah Gerber (email: BaltimoreEroticFestival@gmail.com)

WHEREâ€™S THE BEAF?

The Baltimore Erotic Arts Festival (BEAF) showcases international, national, local and emerging Sex Positive artwork and educational programming for all lifestyles and sexualities, including workshops, film screenings, literature and distributing safer sex supplies. BEAF aims to provide a safe, friendly atmosphere for all communities to comingle, while providing a relatively uncensored, rare opportunity for artists to show works that otherwise would may not be shown to the public.Â The Baltimore Erotic Arts Festival is the region’s largest festival of its kind, giving visibility to artists of alternative lifestyles and alternative expressions. It is our belief that artists and performers working in this field or who represent sexual minorities are not given adequate voice or representation in the arts- and here is their chance.

Charity/Beneficiary: A large percentage of proceeds go to Non-profit organizations such as The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF). In the interest of supporting our communities, BEAF is looking for organizations in addition to the NCSF to benefit from BEAF 2009.

Submissions: Visual Art in all media, Performance, Installation, Film and more!

Submissions are requested to be under 10 images, not required. For performances, links to video are preferred, but short video clips and images are also accepted, and a CV of recent performances required. For installations please send examples of previous work, a description of the installation desired for this event, and expected dimensions and material/equipment needs.

Vendors: Space is limited.Â One vendor per type (eg. One toy vendor, one video vendor etc). Sponsors/Advertising: Different levels are available for different needs and budget levels.Â Previous sponsors include Sugar, Spinster Yarns and Fibers.

Interactive performances: We’re looking for performers for the following: Sponge bath nurse, office lap dance, human statues, Strip-o-grams, and bondage sculpture

Last yearâ€™s festival had over 800 attendees, and over 150 participants, featuring artists such as Annie Sprinkle, Maria Beatty, Midori, Shine Louise Houston, Julie Simone, Lee Harrington, Gallant Studios (Liberty In Restraint), Atomic Cheesecake, Laure Drogul, Liena Vayzman, Jim Duvall, Justin Credible, Stephanie Crabe, Sacred Marks Sanctuary, Klawdya Rothschild, Greggy Glitterati and 9th Life.

Potential artists this year include: Lydia Lunch, Charles Gatewood, David Lachapelle, Nina Hartley, Carol Leigh (Scarlot Harlot), Lochai, Tristan Taormino, Carol Queen, Barbara Carellas, and many others.

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For more information contact Suzannah Gerber (email: suzannahgerber@gmail.com)

Tagged as: art, baltimore, Events, submissions

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