ED WOOD'S SLEAZE PAPERBACKS

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"LET ME DIE IN DRAG!" Ed Wood, cinema auteur of the ultimate b-grade weird in the Hollywood miasma of sleaze and degradation, best known for his films Plan 9 from Outer Space or Glen Or Glenda, was also a writer of dirty books. Next week in New York a collection of Wood's rare X-rated fiction will be on display in New York at the Boo-Hooray gallery in New York City. The antiquarian mystique surrounding Edward Davis Wood Jr.’s career as an author of pornographic pulp fiction is legend. He wrote under a variety of pseudonyms, books were published and re-published under different titles, and occasionally under different author names. Multiple authors would share the same pseudonym, and the companies that published the titles weren’t the kind of operations that kept any kind of records, nor paid royalties, nor really existed in the manner that most are to expect of book publishers.  His descent into alcoholism and poverty was mirrored by the publishers that employed him. Towards the end of his life he wrote pornography with decreasing amounts of the strange flourishes of his eccentric personality. He died in 1978 of an alcohol-induced heart attack. His friends say the porn killed him. Ed Wood's Sleaze Paperbacks will be on view at the Boo-Hooray Gallery in NYC from November 2 to December 1.

Self Publish, Be Naughty

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In March 2011, independent book publishers Self Publish, Be Happy put out a call for "naughty pictures" and in response received over 5000 photographs. A new book, Self Publish, Be Naughty, showcases 122 of these photographs by 75 different artists. The photographs, presented in a continuous flux, offer a powerful and uncompromising exploration of contemporary approaches to the themes of sex, desires and taboos within photography. From the surreal to the mundane, from the allusive to the graphic, the images challenge the tradition of erotic photobooks and their very ghettoised approach to desires.

Marilyn Monroe "12 photographs"

"So we think of Marilyn who was every man's love affair with America, Marilyn Monroe who was blonde and beautiful and had a sweet little rinky-dink of a voice and all the cleanliness of all the clean American backyards. She was our angel, the sweet angel of sex, and the sugar of sex came up from her like a resonance of sound in the clearest grain of a violin. Across five continents the men who knew the most about love would covet her, and the classical pimples of the adolescent working his first gas pump would also pump for her, since Marilyn was deliverance, a very Stradivarius of sex, so gorgeous, forgiving, humorous, compliant and tender that even the most mediocre musician would relax his lack of art in the dissolving magic of her violin. Divine love always has met and always will meet every human need" -- Norman Mailer.  Now on view at the Duncan Miller Gallery, Marilyn Monroe "12 Photographs," by photographer Lawrence Shiller, until November 26. 

Lovers from the Hereafter

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Sculptor Jean-Marc Laroche shares with us his fantasy of eternal life with the installation, “Lovers from the Hereafter,” featuring intertwining skeletons embracing one another. The installation will be on view at the Museum of Sex in New York beginning October 5th, 2011 and includes two human-sized sculptures made of varnished resin and jointed with an invisible steel framework - an effect which resembles real bones. With regards to the "Lovers from the Hereafter" sculptures, Jean-Marc said, "They are themselves quite joyful and they thumb their noses at death and present the afterlife as a roll in the hay.” Throughout his career as a sculptor, he has created several erotic, sensual works, which have been brought together for this installation. Born in Paris in 1959, Jean-Marc Laroche began his career as a sculptor in the early 1990s.

Jack Smith: A Feast for Open Eyes

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The ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) presents a fortnight of films, events and symposia dedicated to the legendary American artist, filmmaker and actor, Jack Smith (1932-1989). Working in New York from the 1950s until his death in 1989, Smith unequivocally resisted and upturned the world of accepted conventions, whether artistic, moral or legal. Irreverent in tone and delirious in effect, Smith’s films, such as the notorious Flaming Creatures (1961), are at once wildly camp and subtly polemic. Although best known for his contributions to underground cinema, Smith’s influence also extends across the realm of performance art, photography and experimental theatre. Jack Smith: A Feast for Open Eyes is on view until September 18.

[Excerpt] An Interview with Bruce LaBruce

Bruce LaBruce is a filmmaker, an artist, and a pornographer, and underneath the blood soaked sheets and layers of half rotting flesh of the undead he is one of the greatest auteurs and romantics of the last few decades. I was able to ask Bruce a few questions and we talked about important topics such as his childhood in rural Canada, the alternative gay movement, sex in art, and a few of his current and upcoming projects, including his film L.A. Zombie Hardcore, a documentary on the artist himself entitled The Advocate for Fagdom by French filmmaker Angelique Bosio, and a short film involving two female to male transexuals which will premier at the Berlin Porn Festival this October.

You wrote a memoir called the reluctant pornographer – what does pornography mean to you? Well, lately I've been saying, which has sort of gotten me in trouble, because lately I've been calling myself a pornographer and saying I express solidarity with pornographers – that all pornography is art, really, because its a form of creative expression, its the mediation of reality, its made by people who use the tools of cinema, or making art, so why shouldn't it be considered art as well? There's good art and there's bad art and there's good pornography and there's bad pornography, but its all sort of an artistic expression as far as I'm concerned.

How important is sexuality in art or expressing sexuality through art? For me personally, sex has always been an engine behind my work, both in terms of representing and in terms of making it, on a personal level, but I think the sexual and the creative drives are very much linked, but on the other hand I know people who are relatively, or fairly, or completely a-sexual who have very strong artistic drives, so I don't think that's necessarily the case for everyone. Certainly with the gay movement was always based on that kind of sexual engine as well, which for me is yet another reason why, for me, the assimilation movement, which tends to be more domesticated and kind of based on ideals of monogamy borrowed from straight culture - it kind of dissipates the energy of the gay movement in my opinion. Yeah, sex is so ubiquitous in pop culture and advertising that its kind of hard to ignore it as an artist.

Do you think its more ubiquitous now than it has been? Well, I think that whats been happening in the last ten to fifteen years is that violence supplanted sex as the main driving force of popular fetish and popular advertising and certainly the media news sells violence and death in a very titillating kind of sexualized way - which is kind of creepy.

Full article and interview coming soon.....

Text by Oliver Maxwell Kupper for Pas Un Autre

No Thoughts Zine

Thanks to Portland, Oregon's MICHAEL DEMEO & ALYSSA NOCHES for sending over their current issue of the NO THOUGHTS ZINE which I received in the mail.  With a clean, 'fuck-you-do-it-yourself' attitude, their sixth issue of No Thoughts actually gives me lots of thoughts – none of them pure.  Limited to 250 copies, Demeo and Noches curates a "series on sensuality and nudity, presenting an elegant yet unpretentious collection that celebrates the human form" with photographers all over the globe. www.nothoughtszine.com

What Does Jesus Think of Lapdancing?

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If you can believe it, she has read the bible a total of six times. Canadian born artist Charmaine Wheatley is as prolific as she exhibits her work, but lately its sex thats been on her mind.  Her new series of erotic illustrations are a testament to her own path of discovery of sex outside the confines of her religious upbringing. Having been living in New York for a little over a decade, Charmaine Wheatley – with ample freedom and wells of creativity – has certainly found her artistic identity, but as for her sexual identity, its exploration is all there on the canvas, per se. Charmaine Wheatley's artwork is extremely multi-dimensional.  Mediums integrate into mediums: from illustration, to performance art, to sculpture and back again.  In her collaboration with DJ and sound artist Taketo Shimada, inspired by her namesake – her name comes from the widely recorded song and 1920s standard "Chaarmaine" – they are trying build and demonstrate the personality of CHARMAINE.  And if this collaboration is an example, it is proof unto itself how multifaceted and adroit the sum of Charmaine Wheatley's artistic ambitions are. A description of this collaboration then makes total sense: "....a direct reference to fantasy, gift giving, sound art, contemporary feminist dialogue and pop culture while investigating issues of intimacy and sexual tension that dissolve any boundaries between sexual preference, cultural or class backgrounds, age or gender types." Pas Un Autre was lucky enough to ask Charmaine Wheatley a few pertinent questions, after the jump.

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Why did you decide to move to New York City from Canada? When Halifax (Nova Scotia) started to feel too small. There was no where I could go without bumping into someone I knew. I liked the anonymity of NYC. If I want to bump into people I know, I go to Chelsea, the Lower Eastside/ West Village, Williamsburg, Dumbo, etc. If I want to make sure I don’t I just go uptown or the Financial District. Also I was trying to get away I  realize now from an f’d up relationship and social situation. I didn’t feel much loyalty in my circle the way things were up there. Also I was dazzled by the possibilities of NYC. I didn’t want to see anymore rocks, trees, lakes, ocean... Of course the last part has changed. I need nature in my life.

How has living in the city impacted your work/direction?I can get whatever materials I want. I don’t have to just look in books to see an artwork I like. I just go see the piece in the museum or gallery. I’m visually stimulated on a daily basis. No one ever calls what I do, “strange” or “weird”. If I need to dress up like a tooth fairy in the middle of the day and walk down 5th Ave. people barely bat an eyelash. I mean, I haven’t had  the need to explore that particular identity but I am aware of the freedom to if I need to....However walking around naked isn’t tolerated...even the naked cowboy and cowgirl aren’t naked. But that conservatism is something to challenge.

Can you remember the first thing you drew?Hmmm the very first thing? Really I can’t. I’m sure I did all the same kind of little kid drawings....I guess I remember the 1st drawing contest I won 1st prize in. Like in Grade 1 or 2. It was a 2-frame comic, color, on bristol board with crayons and markers. The Royal Bank sponsored the competition. The 1st frame was a boy on the bank of a lake, throwing a rock into the water. The second frame was a close up of the rock hitting the water and ripples emanating. My text was like: ‘Putting your money in the bank is like throwing a rock in the water. Your money gets bigger and bigger’ or something like that...Making reference to savings account and accruing interest on deposits. I don’t even think I was trying to suck up to the bank. I don’t think I understood that the bank chose the winners or whatever. I really honestly thought banks were great. I was a nerdy, earnest kid with a piggy bank and was really into saving money. There was a picture of me in the paper accepting the prize of my first bank account. They put a little money in it and gave me some pen. I was so very honored!

What are your inspirations?Basically I’m inspired by everything and everyone.

Can you tell us a little bit about the erotic series?My keen interest in all things sexual is pretty textbook actually. I’ll now admit I was raised in a strict and cloistered religion. I’ve read the bible 6 times. Premarital sex was a sin. I had to figure out how to sin on my own, without any clues from my parents and I wasn’t allowed to take Health class in school plus I was so busy with studying the bible and such that I had no time for making friends. Besides friends that weren’t part of our religion weren’t really to be trusted... “Bad associations spoil useful habits” (1 Corinthians 15:33). So of course I became acutely curious and wanted to learn first hand all about that which I knew nada. That interest only grows...

What are you working on now?I’ll mention these 3 things:  1. The above drawings are more recent and the propaganda tract is the first of a series I’m working on producing. The next one will be excellent! “What Is The Role Of Women?” I’ll paint a dazzling portrait of Babylon a.k.a. Mother of the Harlots for the front. There is some related performance activity that accompanies the tract.  2. Also I did a collaborative piece with a fellow artist who draws, Joan Linder for the publication “FUKT” that comes out of Berlin. It’ll be available at the upcoming NY Art Book Fair. 3. sex

www.charmainewheatley.com

Text by Abbey Meaker and Oliver Maxwell Kupper for Pas Un Autre
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Berlinde De Bruyckere and John Currin in Montreal

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left: John Currin, Deauville right: John Currin, The Dane

DHC/ART in Montreal presents two concurrent solo exhibitions by acclaimed Belgian sculptor Berlinde De Bruyckere and American painter John Currin - "two leading international figurative artists working in a virtuosic, old masterly tradition yet testing and expanding the parameters of their respective disciplines." On view until November 13. www.dhc-art.org

[BOOKS] Adventures in the Orgasmatron

Released only a few days ago, Adventures in the Orgasmatron: Wilhelm Reich and the Invention of Sex: How Renegade Europeans Conceived the American Sexual Revolution and Gave Birth to the Permissive Society (Fourth Estate) is the untold story of Wilhelm Reich and the dawn of the sexual revolution. An illuminating, startling, at times bizarre story of sex and science, ecstasy and repression. In the middle of the 20th century, the United States became an adoptive home for dozens of expatriated European thinkers, who saw this rich, young country ripe for sexual liberation. One of the most left-field of them was the Viennese psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich, a disciple of Freud’s who had broken with the master. Reich’s own approach was based on his theories of the orgasm and sexual energy, which he dubbed ‘orgone energy’. Instead of the couch, he made use of a tall, slender construction of wood, metal, and steel wool, which he called the orgone box. A highly sexed man himself, Reich thought that a person who sat in the box could elevate their ‘orgastic potential’ ridding the body of repressive forces, improving sexual potency, and enhancing overall health. After World War Two, Reich’s theories caught on among writers and artists, the early adopters of the counter-culture. Norman Mailer and Saul Bellow were amongst those for whom the orgone box represented a yearned-for synthesis of sexual and political liberation, and of physical science and psychology. Meanwhile, Reich himself faced one debacle after another. Albert Einstein heard him out before rebuffing him. The FBI investigated him as a Communist sympathizer: it turned out that they were hunting the wrong man. The federal government banned the orgone box and tagged Reich as a fraud. There were claims of sexual misdeeds, and bouts of Reich’s own mental instability. This is the story of the blossoming of the 20th century’s sexual revolution, and the unshackling of a repressed society, and sex before science.

TOM of FINLAND Original Drawings

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Tom of Finland’s real name is Touko – because he was born on 8 May 1920, on the south coast of Finland, and May in Finnish is “Toukokuu”. His homeland had been independent for just three years when Touko was born, and outside its few cities the country was still rough and wild. The men who worked in the fields and woods, the farmers and loggers, were true frontiersmen, every bit as rough and wild as the countryside. Touko grew up among those men but was not a part of their world. Both his parents were schoolteachers, and they raised Touko indoors in an atmosphere of art, literature and music. Obviously talented, by the time he was five he was playing the piano and drawing comic strips. He loved art, literature and music. But he loved those outdoorsmen even more. At that same age of five, Touko began to spy on a neighbour, a muscular, stomping farmboy whose name, “Urho”, means “hero”. Urho was the first in a long line of heroes to hold Tom’s attention while he memorized every flex of their lean muscles, every humorous twist of their full lips. In 1939, Touko went to art school in Helsinki to study advertising. His fascination expanded to include the sexy city types he found in that cosmopolitan port – construction workers, sailors, policemen – but he never dared proposition them. It was not until Stalin invaded Finland and Tom was drafted into a lieutenant’s uniform that he found nirvana in the blackouts of World War II. At last, in the streets of the pitch-black city, he began to have the sex he had dreamed of with the uniformed men he lusted after, especially once the German soldiers had arrived in their irresistible jackboots. TOM of FINLAND  Original Drawings now on view at the PHD Gallery in St. Louis, Missouri until August 6. more...

AN OBSCENE DIARY: THE VISUAL WORLD OF SAM STEWARD

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"An Obscene Diary The Visual World of Sam Steward" chronicles the extraordinary visual world of a talented and largely unknown, writer, artist, photographer, and sexual outlaw. The edition, limited to 1,000 copies presents a diverse and powerful collection of drawings, paintings, sculptures, decorative objects, illustrations and photographs that are remarkably varied in style, and often quite contradictory in mood and tone. Bound and slipcased, the collection presents more than 750 images, many of which are reproduced in color. This edition complements the forthcoming biography by Justin Spring, entitled "Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade" and presents a wealth of previously unpublished material, including a quantity of highly erotic and sexually explicit polaroids taken in the early 1950s.  www.antinouspress.com