| Is an x-rated film clip still porn if watching doesn’t make you horny? What the hell is the working definition of smut anyway?
So, there I am sitting in TRUCK Gallery’s CAMPER exhibition in front of the Uptown Plaza for Spread the Love: An Army of Video Lovers Cannot Fail as part of the Calgary International Film Festival. The exhibition is a XXX rated video pin-up salon and workshop presented and organized by local artist Anthea Black. The CAMPER (Contemporary Art Mobile Public Exhibition Rig) project is a series of events put together by TRUCK Gallery. Art is shown in a Dodge RV in select locations throughout Calgary. During these shows, participants collect a patch for attending. The concept is simply to bring art outside the traditional space and limits of the gallery. Like I said, there I am, sitting in a very crowded camper, watching dirty videos with a group of strangers. I’m not sure my grandmother would approve.
Anthea Black proposed the idea of Spread as a sex-positive, inclusive and challenging exhibition that gave the video artists free rein to explore the meaning of pornography.
"This was not meant to be like mainstream pornography, but experiments by local artists of what is sexy or smutty," says Black. "There is not a lot of dialogue in Calgary’s art community about sexual politics. There is a whole sexual culture that people aren’t talking about. The project is about what erotica is, what smut or pornography could become, how people could reinterpret it and giving them an opportunity for creative expression."
The exhibition is 45 minutes long, consisting of 14 short videos from a variety of artists and views. After signing no less than six legal releases, basically saying, yes, I’m an adult, and I am here to watch porn. However, it’s for art that I am herded into a tiny camper trailer with nine other strangers looking suitably both nervous and slightly bored. It’s strange. I think the part that is actually artistic is the studied ease/unease the audience is trying to portray. How smutty are these video shorts? Am I comfortable with this? Am I a sophisticated art lover or just a dirty pig looking for cheap thrills? What if I get a hard-on?
The short films are an uneven lot. Running the gamut from titillating, to funny, to playful, to boring and pointless, the videos are more about what can be sexy or fun about sex. There is also a fair amount of boobs and at least one cock shot.
"I was looking for stuff that was sexy and funny and smart and political," says Black. "I was looking for videos that were straight, queer, feminist or sex-positive or aware of the issues surrounding sexuality. I have a pretty open definition of what is sexy – not every one of those videos would turn everyone’s crank, but I really appreciated where everyone was coming from."
The best film shorts involved a sense of humour, such as Keith Murray’s "The Afternoon," a gender queer fast-forward fuck-fest done in the old black and white what-the-butler-saw style porn of the 1930s. Megan Mormon and Cindy Baker’s "The Nice Lady" has a plus-size woman posing in a variety of sexy and sometimes naughty ways, while cats wander across the screen, another testament to the DIY feel of the project. But some of the short videos are lost in translation, and others are just tedious or pretentious. I do not have to worry at all about pitching a tent.
"The reaction to the show has been very exciting," says Black. "People are very excited by the project. Many of them are curious about making their own short films involving sex and porn."
As a first time project, Spread is not quite as racy or as challenging as I had hoped. However, Anthea Black and Truck Gallery may be putting on another show for Valentine’s Day, this time with 90 minutes of submissions, with more time for the video artists to create something smutty as well as arty. |
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