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October Contents Articles: New Speed Indie Revenge Columns:
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Stripping is art. Strippers are artists. Of course not all stripping is art and not every stripper is an artist, but more often than not, the girl bent over in front of you at the rack, her eyes half-closed and her mouth half-open, has got a lot more goin’ on than is immediately apparent. And chances are that if you, the customer, are at the rack, mouth dry, eyes bulging out of your head, transported away from your gritty Pornland workaday life, every atom of you focused on some abstract fantasy, your thoughts suspended in a sort of meditation on one of the most stimulating visceral experiences ever available to mankind–the female nude....indeed, chances are that you are experiencing art, like it or not. It’s a much-hallowed word: ART. Some people–mostly over-educated, under-experienced white people–take offense when I say, after every song, “Thank you for supporting the arts!!” For them, I will write my 2000-page manifesto. For the open-minded, generous readers of Exotic, let me say simply that: 1. I am an artist who desperately needs and appreciates your support. 2. I believe that what happens in a strip bar is the best, most potent art the late 20th century has to offer. In a recent lecture I gave to a PSU philosophy class on this subject, I arrived at this definition of art: “Art is communication between an artist (doer) and an audience through an abstract form (the ‘work of art’).” Good art happens when the artist’s feel for form and nuance is presented in such a way that no matter how abstract the work, an emotional response not unlike that which the artist intended is elicited from the viewer. The best art does all the above and simultaneously reaches towards the spiritual core of existence. In other words, it’s provocative. Late 20th century art has become so self-referential and warped by the tenets of post-modernism championed only in academia that much of it is nearly incomprehensible to the average late-20th-century viewer. Call me a commie, but I believe that art should communicate its message, its “reach towards the spiritual core of existence,” to Everyman/Everywoman. To the best of my knowledge, nothing is as effective in this respect as a naked woman, dancing slowly to music under red lights so that every muscle is articulated and the curve of the spine becomes nothing short of a religious experience. If your hands start to shake or you break into a cold sweat, you can be sure it’s art. Women in art have often been confined to the role of the muse, their entrŽe into the world as artists limited by social conventions. However, woman’s body has been glorified, vilified, deconstructed and reconstructed ad infinitum throughout art history. Sex is ubiquitous in art, the bind between the two as old as it is indestructible. Sex workers have also figured prominently, as many of the most famous paintings/ writings/ sculptures/ etc. are of prostitutes dressed up as ladies, dressed up as prostitutes, or simply not dressed at all. These works were undoubtedly contentious and often banned in their times; now they are worth millions. At long last, women artists are being taken seriously in the art world. Keeping with history, much of the work they produce is concerned with issues of sex, gender, bodies, misogyny, etc. However, too much of their work is caught in the pervasive late-20th-century trend that dictates art is more about discourse and less about feeling. WHY is it that only women with expensive PHDs who produce works that refer to sex in very sterile, asexual, ironic, and even hostile ways get grants and endowments while your average bump&grind-ette gets only disrespect? I honestly believe that strippers are among society’s most cutting-edge artists. And the price of admission to see some of the finest, most intensely personal art of our time is often just the cost of a beer and a few $1’s. The point, folks, is don’t miss the Sex by Sex Workers Art Show this October at Fellini Restaurant in Puddletown. See what we do outside of work, then come see what we do at work. And once again, THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING THE ARTS. |