Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 15, 2003)
ART ▼ Queering the Biennial It’s the same old same old at Portland A rt Museum’s Oregon showcase—save for two EVERY BOOK OF GAY EROTICA ALWAYS W8T0CK! <@> Premiere. Photos of French men using their m issiles for more welcome purposes. $40. <@> Latin Boys. So hot, they burn going down. Erotic short stones to warm your nights. $15. C@> Jay Wiseman Teaches Rope Bondage. 2-hour video. Great for boyfriends, pets. $50. DOWNTOWN @ 9 2 7 SW OAK - 2 2 6 -8 1 4 1 Ü T ria n g le R e c re a tio n C a m p B *nd« r C re e k , W A S e r v in g N o r t h w s s t G a y M a n a n d L e s b ia n * s in c e 1S79 The campers of TRC present: A u g 1 6* Salm on C h a n te d Evening A fabulous W ast C o a s t BBQ A u g 2 9 - S a p t 1 st Underw ear/M ardi G ras W eekend L a st Big Party W eekend o f the Season! w w w .c a m p t r c .o r g by G ary M o rris ortland Art Museum isn’t necessarily known as a haven o f radical art. Respectability is the byword here, with emphasis on dusty textlxx>k classics or art that was new decades ago. Occasionally, though, PAM ’s curators throw a hone to the arguably avant-garde. Such is the case with the museum s Oregon Biennial. This every-other-year event showcases recent art by Oregonians, which is supposed to at least flirt with the cutting edge. Unfortunately, there’s very little flirting and not much edge in this year’s show. As several observers have noted, a more accurate title would he the Portland Biennial, given that the vast majority o f artists are from this area. T he Predictable Portland Biennial T hat Includes Paintings and Photography and a Couple of Assemblages But No Sculpture or Video would he an even better name. Expect the expected this go-round. Fortunately, though, two artists— one a straight photographer creating tantalizing large- format images of male nudes, the other a queer painter memorializing a love affair between two male Chihuahuas— bring some much-needed power and whimsy to this otherwise tired affair. Erik Palmer’s two large photographs on can vas are part of his series called Bang Comics! His previous work documenting Oregon Ballet Theatre must have prepared him for this more mature, wonderfully evocative project. Palmer’s subjects are abstracted, sardonic “superheroes.” T h e two examples in the show are titled “Superman Number O ne Hundred and T hree” and “T h e Power of W arlock.” P “Nearly all o f the images in the series are made using a camera that sits at a fixed location and fires at a specific inter val. . .or using a wireless remote control,” explains Palmer. “So the intention- ality o f the photography is really involved in arrang ing a hit of choreography or performance in front o f the camera rather than pointing the camera and making a decision.” These “choreo graphed” subjects are two friends of the photograph er, shot in the wixxls sans capes and masks hut re endowed with a different kind of power as they are caught, frozen, in balletic- heroic poses. The Portlander’s work has been compared to award-winning New York photographer Richard Avedon’s, but there’s an obvious, dramatic differ ence: His subjects are not celebrities; they’re ordi nary people made at once larger than life and vul nerable. They exist as both physical and abstract creations— strikingly athletic figures shot against a wcxxlland backdrop that dissolves into splendid, transporting patterns of light and shadow. Palmer credits Avedon and Hungarian-born fashion photographer Martin Munkacsi, along with painters Egon Schiele and Amedeo Modigliani— no surprise given the painterly quality of these images. oving from the sublime to the funky fringe, Cynthia Star is represented by three paintings from a series of seven called Boys W ill Be Boys. Star’s “boys” are two Chihuahuas of the artist’s acquain tance, Pee Wee and Tyco. T h e images are at once kitschy, whimsical and vaguely unset tling— reminis cent o f outsider art in their por trayal o f tiny, ner vous dogs with big hard-ons giddily humping each other. In one painting, a stimulated Pee Wee looks grim as Tyco attempts to have his way with him; in another, both pxxx:hes appear in the apex of ecstasy as passion overtakes them. Another shows a third, female dog (a Maltese named Gabby) who, standing alone with string on her head, appears cxitside the antics of Pee Wee and Tyco in every sense— perhaps a lonesome fag hag to her homy canine queens. (Star more or M Starts Sept 19, 2 0 0 3 Ends June 4 , 2 0 0 4 Only $ 1 6 per Week All Members go to the Jrip to San francisco fride 2004 for 4 days & 3 nights Hotel & air included Northgate Bowl-Salem, OR Call (5 0 3 ) 5 8 1 - 1 6 3 4 Ask to speak to a manager Cynthia Star: kitschy, whimsical, vaguely unsettling Erik Palmer’s images call to the homo erectus in us all less verifies thus in her artist’s statement, calling poor Gabby “the wallflower at their party.”) Maybe these images can reignite the debate about animal analogues for human homosexu ality. After all, if Pee Wee and Tyco are doing it, it must he natural. O r maybe they’re just wacky tableaux. Star says she originally had no intention of painting these particular subjects. “I went into the studio with the intent to paint riot cops,” after a bad experience with three at a President Bush protest. Instead, she painted Gabby, then the other two. “T h e dogs took my mind com pletely off the riot cops.” R eaction to these literal homdogs has been varied, according to the artist, from embarrass ment to “whispered compliments” to prudish discomfort. But are the dogs really gay? “W ell, Tyco has always reminded me o f Truman Capote,” muses Star. “These dogs are very queer. They live with a girl Chihuahua and don’t include her in their games. Pee W ee and Tyco’s displays of affection are about getting attention from the humans. T heir approach to attention-getting is very free and self-satisfying, whereas Gabby’s solo approach seems to make her worried and confused. If I were to translate this to the human world, embracing one’s queemess and being tm a to oneself creates a charismatic con fidence, overcoming prejudice by having an irresistibly good tim e!” T h a t’s what we thought. JT1 Portland Art Museum’s OREGON BIENNIAL exhibit runs through Sept. 7 at 1219 S.W . Park A ve. G ary M orris is a Portland free-lan ce writer.
