Women In Love
Atelier E.B - Beryl Cook - Lucille Groos
Leigh Ledare - Lucy McKenzie
Elliott Jamal Robbins and Aura Rosenberg
August 31st - November 10th 2024
Image - a dogging map of Denmark taken from www.dogging.dk
Women In Love
In a recently unearthed video from July 2006, George Michael took the decision to speak to the press about paparazzi photos published of him leaving a cruising area in Hampstead Heath in the early hours of the morning. Naturally, the tabloid discourse that surrounded these images came from a place of acrid homophobia that this sort of media so loves. In this unedited video, Michael is passionate, radically clear and composes himself with a level of articulation that pierces any potential thatthe interviewer may have as collateral.
He is furious that lies about his own relationship are being printed and at one moment he says that it is heterosexual women who are the worst when it comes to judging his non monogamous relationship; in fact straight men, much like gay men, understand this act of cruising whether they admit this or not. Women are jealous and therefore as a side effect they spurt homophobia.
But - what if this accusation of homophobia is in fact misguided and comes from a place which Michael is seemingly blind to - that sexual adventure is an arena for men to enjoy and explore and this freedom is not available for women. For women, as Michael so aptly explains (as straight culture), just going to a bar comes with the risk of being drugged where cruising is a non violent space. Cruising gives Michael joy.
In another TV interview from 2019, Emiliy Maitlis interviews The Duke of York about his friendship with serial paedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. At one moment when Maitlis questions His Royal Highness about the accusations against him by Virginia Giuffre, who at the time was seventeen years old, that she had been trafficked to have sex with The Duke of York, an adult male, multiple times in various countries, his response is odd.
He explains in dry, strange, almost textbook psychological terms that for men having sex is considered a positive action and positive actions are things that are remembered.
To be precise - his words were:
If you are a man it is a positive act to have sex with somebody (sic) if you try to forget it's very difficult to try and forget positive action and I do not remember anything.
A very interesting allegory for rape.
Popular notions of female sexual pleasure live in consumerist worlds of the worthy, holistic, manageably subversive and even worse- the spiritual. Vegan leather whips, organic lubricants and pastel pink dildos are seen as friendly ways for women and queers to be sexual. I want more than this.
Sex for us does not have to be sanctimonious - perhaps masturbation is the only wild place for us and I am a woman in love with it.
Reba Maybury, 2024.
References:
George Michael Heated Interview on Cruising, Homophobia, and the Press (2006)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVJPY3dpA38&t=427s
Prince Andrew & the Epstein Scandal: The Newsnight Interview - BBC News https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtBS8COhhhM&t=1944s
With thanks to the New Carlsberg Foundation, Danish Arts Council, Municipality of Silkeborg, Augustinus Foundatio, 15 June Foundation and the William Demant Foundation.
DA:
Women In Love
Forelskede Kvinder
I en for nyligt offentliggjort video fra juli 2006, besluttede George Michael sig for at tale til pressen omkring publiceringen af en række paparazzi billeder af ham, der tidlig morgen forlader et krydstogtsted [cruising area] i Hampstead Heath. Den tabloide diskurs, der omgav billederne, havde naturligvis rødder i en stærk form for homofobi, som denne medietype elsker så højt. I den uredigerede video er Michael passioneret, fuldstændig klar og formulerer sig på et niveau, der bryder igennem potentialet for enhver form for kritik, intervieweren måtte sidde inde med.
Han er rasende over, at løgne omkring hans eget forhold bliver trykt og på et tidspunkt siger han, at det er heteroseksuelle kvinder, der er de værste, når det kommer til at dømme hans ikke-monogame forhold; faktisk forstår heteroseksuelle mænd, meget ligesom homoseksuelle mænd, denne form for cruising uanset om de står ved det eller ej. Kvinder er jaloux og derfor, som en sideeffekt, spyr de med homofobi.
Men - hvad hvis denne beskyldning om homofobi faktisk er fejlagtig og kommer fra et sted, Michael tilsyneladende er blind for - at seksuelle eventyr er en arena for mænd at nyde og udforske og at denne frihed ikke er tilgængelig for kvinder. For, som Michael så passende forklarer (som heteroseksuel kultur), hos kvinder indeholder blot det at tage på bar risikoen for at blive udsat for drugging, hvor cruising er et ikke-voldeligt sted. Cruising er en glæde for Michael.
I et andet TV interview fra 2019 interviewer Emily Maitlis hertugen af York omkring hans venskab til den serielt pædofile og sexhandlende Jeffrey Epstein. På et tidspunkt, hvor Maitlis spørger Hans Kongelig Højhed om anklagerne rejst af Virginia Giuffre, som på daværende tidspunkt var sytten år, om, at hun var blevet solgt til at have sex med hertugen af York, en voksen mand, flere gange i forskellige lande, er hans svar sært.
I tørre, besynderlige, nærmest psykologiske lærebogs vendinger forklarer han, at det for mænd betragtes som en positiv handling at have sex og positive handlinger er ting, der huskes.
For at være helt præcis lød hans ord:
Hvis du er en mand, er det en positiv handling at have sex med nogen (sic) hvis du prøver at glemme, det er meget svært at prøve og glemme en positiv handling og jeg husker ingenting.
En meget interessant allegori for voldtægt.
Populære forestillinger om kvindelig seksuel nydelse eksisterer i konsumeristiske verdener af det værdige, det holistiske, det medgørligt subversive og endnu værre - det spirituelle. Veganske læder piske, økologisk glidemidle og lyserøde dildoer anses som venligsindede måder for kvinder og queers at være seksuelle på. Jeg vil have mere end dette.
Sex for os behøves ikke være selvretfærdigt - måske er onani det eneste vilde sted for os, og jeg er en kvinde forelsket i det.
Reba Maybury, 2024.
oversat fra engelsk af : Synnøve Thau-Moltsen
Elliott Jamal Robbins, Horseshit (2022) Graphite, glitter, mod podge, metallic leaf and metal tacks on paper 191⁄4 x 18 in. 49 x 46 cm.
Beryl Cook, Ladies Night, (date unknown) print. Overall Mount Size 40cms x 40cms, image size 26cm x 26cm
Reba Maybury (with Lucy McKenzie), Quodlibet XXXX by small talk (2024) pencil on paper. 20x30cm
Leigh Ledare, The Gift (2007) Single channel video, audio 9 minutes, 13 seconds
Atelier E.B (Beca Lipscombe & Lucy McKenzie), Paperweight, (2018) Hand-blown glass paperweight 8x8x8cm
Aura Rosenberg, Head Shots (1991-96) (Bottom to Top) PN, 52x42cm
MK25, 46.5x36 cm
JB, 52x42cm
TO 2, 46.5x36cm
Lucille Groos, Emotion Rules Alone (2022), HD video and sound, single screen, 8:25 min
Leigh Ledare, Mom on top of Boyfriend, (2003) analogue C print 50x38cm
Lucy McKenzie, Olympic Dames, (2002) lithograph on paper, folded, in original envelope 79.8x118.9 cm
Elliott Jamal Robbins, Untitled (2022) Watercolor on Paper 43.2x35.6 cm.Photos by Brian Kure
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