Thursday 25 July 2013

Ballsy

I first saw Cary Kwok's work in BUTT Magazine, and it gave me one of those "thank-god-someone-did-this" sensations (see the series "Cum to Barber").
Now Cary is part of the ICA's group exhibition "Keep your Timber Limber", where his sharp ballpoint pen drawings make jaws drop and steal the show hands down, including from Tom of Finland and Georg Grosz.


You see why. 
Muscle Toss, 2010

Cum to Father, 2010

Buddjism, 2010

To see more of Cary's spunk, check out his website, or visit the ICA until 8 September. 

Wednesday 17 July 2013

A Quick Threesome

Things that tickled me this week. 

1. Bon Appétit

Plates by Berlin-based Tulip collective. The tricksters take old granny crockery (see how the flowers were there before?) and add nudes and naughty wisdoms.




They make me think of the scene in the Birdcage where a dinner guests find "young men playing leap frog" on the china. Picnic with Auntie? Dinner with the in-laws? I want.      


2. The Power of Queer

Speaking of vintage: the sacred band of thebes was an elite fighting troop in the 4th century B.C. consisting of 150 pairs of male lovers. The idea, attributed to Plato, is simple: when with boyf, you'll be courageous.

"And when fighting at each other's side, although a mere handful, they would overcome the world. For what lover would desert his beloved or fail him in the hour of danger?

You wish

Band Of Thebes also happens to be the name of one of the finest blogs on the world wide web. Every day, publishing executive Stephen Bottum writes about famous queers throughout the ages, with an emphasis on writers and creatives. Rewrite your history books.


3. Twenty Years Ago

Are you old enough to remember this? In 1993, Benetton put a massive condom over the Egyptian Obelisk at the Place de la Concorde in Paris. AIDS was the topic of the day back then. Need for a refresher?


Marketing or not, kudos to Benetton for raising awareness. And they haven't stopped since. Did you see the gay kiss campaign that was banned by the Vatican? 

Friday 12 July 2013

The Mausoleum of Lovers

This week my friend, illustrator Iris Hatzfeld, introduced me to the multi-talent that was Hervé Guibert. Raised in a Parisian bourgeois family, Guibert made a name for himself as a photographer, novelist, and critic.

Jeanne d'Arc, 1983

Major influences were proto-Beatnik Jean Genet and close friend Michel Foucault. This is visible in much of Guibert's work, which is permeated by shadows (in all the senses of the term) and fragility. His is creation fuelled by an obsession with love and that curiously gay penchant for abjection.

"The secret of the other shall be my secret. And this face which stares at me can very well decompose: it is already dead."




Guibert died of AIDS in 1991, shortly after writing "To The Friend Who Did Not Save My Life" which changed France's opinion of the epidemic. Read an extract from his posthumously published journals The Mausoleum of Lovers here. It's like his photos: notions of happiness, obscured. 
Thanks for that, Iris. 

Tuesday 2 July 2013

RAF

Men's fashion week in Paris, and Raf Simons does the unthinkable: making the biggest names in fashion take a bus to a banlieue. Suzy Menkes, Alaïa, Jeremy Scott (to name but a few) were packed into a tiny van that bore Raf's name, and driven to the drab outskirt of Le Bourget to the latest Gagosian gallery - a massive masterwork by Jean Prouvé. Inside, beautiful manorexic models strutted their stuff amongst Calder mobiles.






Worth the trip? Love it? 
See the full collection here