Erotica '08 exhibition

by Parsley on Sun, 2008/11/30 - 9:23am Post to Twitter

PARSLEY'S COMMLOCK
Exhibition Review: Erotica '08 Olympia 21-23/11/08
I remember being staggered that the Webby Awards in San Francisco considered News websites to be in the 'lifestyle' category, along with Fashion and Cookery. I was similarly surprised to find the Erotica '08 show describing itself as the UK's biggest 'lifestyle' exhibition.

In the UK we have a traditional inability to talk about sex ("no sex please, we're British") and often manifest a bizarre hypocrisy when dealing with it (newspaper page 1- cabinet minister sex scandal, page 3 - model shows readers her body). This hypocrisy has become more complicated over the years.

In the sixties it seemed that more and more sex would be shown on TV. In the seventies and eighties political correctness made it an insult or harassment for sexual desire to be exhibited in public. In the nineties, with the dawn of the internet, pornography was the hidden driver of technological innovation, raising quality of webcams, high speed instant messaging, ability to watch films online, virtual reality. Sex was also the villain of paedophile photographs, internet 'grooming', and said to be part of the funding world of organised crime.

In recent years burlesque has experienced a resurgence, sitting alongside lounge music and comedy at venues around London. It has been unclear whether it is supposed to be 'ironic' or represent the liberation of its - usually female - performers.

Of course the irony of a lot of sexual 'performance' is that it can be deeply unerotic. Furtive tiny moments of sex in otherwise clumsy comedies were a trademark of British sex films of the sixties and seventies. Some people found themselves trying desperately to use 'art' as a defence for sex in films like 'Emmanuelle'. For me they were as sexy as Jonathan Ross is funny i.e. barely at all.

Actual eroticism sometimes lay in understated moments of films. Like when Courtney (Sue Lloyd) asks Palmer if he ever takes his glasses off. Palmer says 'only in bed' and she proceeds to take them off of him. At the age of 8 I remember being giddy with excitement when James Bond (Sean Connery) used his wrist magnet to unzip a girl's dress in You Only Live Twice.

Recently there is a euphemism of 'research' when people are observing sexual things of questionable morality for money. I could, for instance, suggest that I attended this show as part of 'research' for my ArtRocker blog. Perhaps my real intention was to be titillated by the sexual displays at the show, but if so I would likely have been disappointed. The aim you could most easily satisfy here was that of describing your personal sexual behaviour with strangers (mostly from the Midlands) who would be able to talk about it as if it was extremely mundane and would offer you practical assistance and products to help you.

On arrival I was delighted to find that the stage show that was part of the exhibition began with a performance by the Satanic Sluts, starring the now famous Georgina Baillie, granddaughter of comedy actor Andrew Sachs. Perhaps in a parallel universe their show might involve them calling up Jonathan Ross's grandfather to say lewd things, but in this universe it did not. I would like to be able to say that their act was sexy and erotic. Whilst they seemed a very nice, attractive group of girls, I'm afraid it did nothing for me. The experience drove home to me that like love, eroticism is in the eye of the beholder. Some may wish to see acts of brazen sexuality, whilst others may prefer to be teased.

If you followed the logic of the rest of the show, featuring acts arranged by 'Torture Garden', you would suspect that the circus was a deeply erotic place, as all the acts seemed to have a 'circus' feel to them. Fire-eaters rubbed flame over their bodies. Ballet dancers and elaborately corseted girls danced and posed. The show climaxed with a transsexual revealing their apparent mix up 'downstairs'.

Elsewhere on a stall promoting cosmetic surgery you could feel the synthetic breast material that women are having placed into their skin these days. Whilst interesting to look at, these translucent blobs felt decidedly unnatural. The fact that they apparently go a putrid green, after having been inserted under the skin for some time, seems highly unpleasant.

Opposite them was a stand suggesting that we 'make menstruation fun' with vaginal inserts to stop it interfering with sexual activity. Other stalls included bed linen, fetish clothing, and holiday homes that came fully equipped for sado-masochistic behaviour. There seemed to be several people with crutches, and I wondered if any of them had pursued their sado-masochistic fantasies too enthusiastically. There were also a fairly large amount of stands devoted to erotic art, which included sculptures, large paintings and photographs. Seminars showed how to make your own erotic films, and upstairs in the gallery the Fantasy Boys gave a display for women including semi-naked breakdancing and fire-eating.

All in all a friendly interesting show that managed to avoid sensationalism and catered to a surprisingly normal looking clientele.

parsley@gardenrecords.com [www.gardenrecords.com]