i got a flyer for a show in the mail the other night. initial response: why another show with porno figures/vignettes? why? it brought to mind the pornbroidery i think, which really sets me off. and I am not declaring my response fair. it's not. i will see this show and I may feel differently once i am able to determine how the figurative choices function within the rest of the formal and material choices, etc. but I am very suspicious. why? well because it seems one-dimensional and easy. a tactic i have seen so many times before that always leaves me uninterested. depictions of sex - well, fine, ok... but to somehow capture desire in paint in a way i have never seen is what I am looking for(or to do both simultaneously). Does that make sense? it's like picturing versus the real thing.
it's not accurate to make generalizations. it's not that every porno figurette scene is always lame. it depends on the context. i can really dig narrative work sometimes. it's case by case. but i WAS interested in my initial response - how using 'hot button' subject matter can immediately turn me away. It's like writing pussy on a painting. i think my response comes from a sense that the artist is trying to shock, trying to manipulate, and it just annoys me sometimes.
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I'm suspicious too of this tactic, as someone who sometimes has sex and always has narrative in their work, for me it's part of a greater story, or something. I agree that the paint needs to be transendent and say something in it's own right. I never liked kara walkers work, find it repetitive and pedagogical. Some people use porn as a way of critisizing porn and out porny culture, but instead the work ends up just putting more images of sexualized woman on to the giant shit-pile of difiled woman that exists in our culture alreaty. Then again, theres work like Hans belhmer who is outrageously psychosexual and whats great about his work is the sheer inventivness and the delicate beauty of his drawing style.
It's case by case. Me likes Mike Kelly and he's definately out to shock but it's so over the top FUNNY. Maybe humor is the mitigating factor in these cases.
I have a friend who does "pornbroidery". I love her but her work makes me cringe. Too obvious or something, it seems like every other grad program I've visited has their resident pornbroiderist.
http://www.subversivecrossstitch.com/
toods, i love those. esp. pussy got me dizzy.
corny, case by case is right, and i think you are completely accurate in humor being a mitigating factor. if there is humor then it is ok with me. why? huh.
I like pornbroidery when it is actually stitched on naked couple during a porn flick. Really, otherwise what's the point?
OR... when embroidery is central to the porn plot. like a knitting circle.
pincushion.
Yes, a knitting circle--much better than pornbroidery. I saw one called "Knitty Gritty with Titty: A Porn-Craft Film"
I know this is off topic, but I just want to point out how much I love the shit shoe in the header of your blog.
i'm drunk.
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