Sexhibition
as it appeared in The Ottawa Citizen, September, 1996
article written by Virginia Howard
Please see the easy to read text version below.
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press clipping for Sexhibition as it appeared in The Ottawa Citizen, September, 1996 article written by Virginia Howard Please see the easy to read text version below. |
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| Some hard
reflections on bizarre bazaar of sex Sex-hibition Where: Creative Outlet Gallery, 332 Cumberland St. When: Until Nov. 6 A well-meaning neuroscientist wanting to show the relative importance that the brain accords the five senses might draw a startling grotesque called the "Sensory Homunculus." Because a large part of the brain function is devoted to sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing, the scientist would draw a figure with over-sized hands, exaggerating the size of the head and all of its orifices. Sex-hibition put me in mind of this creature, but with a couple of embellishments. The show's 42 artists have made it a sexually intoxicated hermaphrodite, and given its well-upholstered lips a gleeful twist. Penises abound in the Creative Outlet Gallery. Two were notable for their nodding acquaintance with a subversive kind of humour Louis Joncas' Highsticking andTripping photographs are black-and-white closeups of a man's erection and subsidence. Off the ice and out of costume, a hockey player may look a little pretentious, with only his fleshy swagger stick to brandish in a ferocious game of life. Kenneth Emig has suspended an eight-inch dildo at crotch level in front of a mirror, inviting the viewer to engage in some Hard Reflection. As I took up a bemused pose behind it, I became aware of masculinity's tragi-comic dimension. I saw a sad ideal in this plastic toy the colour of Cheez Whiz, with enough veins to keep a dozen Mr. Atlases pumped. Ah, but somehow I managed to choke back the tears, my brothers. In Les bijoux dans la chaire, Chantal Gervais has vignetted small chromogenic photographs of a bivalve's pursed and pinked flesh. To Gervais, the vulva is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. Two breasts and a penis have cameo roles in a painted tableau called Dynamite! Eliza Griffiths' gamin-faced couple are having a showdown in a bathroom setting. She's giving him a pointed look, while he gives her the sidelong glance of a Boy Vamp. The couples' retro clothing and bravado posturing make them so cool that they're hot. In fact, her breasts have burned holes through her frothy yellow top, while his plaid pants are open for display. Griffiths has enchanted the inhabitants of her glamour-pop world, so that everyone's sexual motives are exposed. A kind of Jules Verne story lies behind Chantal Dahan's Le musée du condon au bord de la baise. Dahan has built shrines for three explorers of the Dark Sexual Continent. In their hand-tinted portraits, the heroes are shown wearing tight little hoods, suitable for scaling the heights and plumbing the depths of some strange world. The proud trio has brought back trophies in the form of three grotesque French ticklers, with enough knobs and spike to knock an eye out. Even art history books pack a thrill, according to Alexandre Castonguay. He has found Ecstasy in the faces of Bernini's St. Theresa and Michelangelo's Slave, and captured it on video tape. You can watch these famous sinners and saints on Castonguay's cheap, coin-operated TV, as each gives up the great, self-forgetting sigh. As a bazaar of body parts, Sex-hibition will jangle some nerves, but I found it oddly comforting. Cybersex hasn't eclipsed the wetware yet, and wit still roils the bubbles in the jacuzzi. Other exhibitionists: Sex-hibition includes work by the folllowing artists: John Barkley, Margie Barkley, Richard Blais, Carol Breton, Geoffrey Brown, Donna Brown-Hebert, Michelle Casey, Alexandre Castonguay, Chris Coultish, Beth Coultish, Beth Cumming, Chantal Dahan, Tim Dallett, Reuel Dechene, Geoffrey Derry, Josee Drouin-Brisebois, Kenneth Emig, Chantal Gervais, Adrian Gollner, Gary Goodacre, Lesya Granger, Patrick Greene, Vera Greenwood, Eliza Griffiths, Dave Hill, Diane Hiscox, Louis Joncas, Sarah Joyce, Gayle Kells, Mark Marsters, Anna Moffat, Rob Nelms, Juan Carlos Noria, Patti Normand, Jenna Oldham, Robin Ramah, Erin Robertson, Denise Robichaud, Jennifer Ryder-Jones, Darcy Schmidt, Yvon Villarceaux and Teresa Waclawik. Virginia Howard is an Ottawa freelance writer. Her Visual Arts column appears every two weeks Penises, breasts and vulvae abound in erotic displays that will titillate some and disturb others. |
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