Something else I’ve come across is the packaging and selling of erotic experiences.  Killing Kittens, the London-based sex party/community, is selling adventures, like a “film experience” (where you create or take part in a porn video), and a “kidnap experience” (where, well, you’re kidnapped). It’s a fascinating idea, and it’s interesting how they manoeuver around the sex laws.  Roleplay is a hugely interesting form of sex work, but it, like domination, treads very closely to the line that separates play from prostitution. Maybe in the UK the laws are more clearly defined.  If so, I should contemplate a move.

Update: On the subject of Real Dolls, a reader just directed my attention to the work of artist Anoush Abrar and his Realdolls series.

Update 2: Another reader pointed me in the direction of Elena Dorfman, who shot a series called Still Lovers. These images are particularly intimate.

Update 3: Love this: in the comments, drichmond includes a link to an article about Oskar Kokoschka’s lifesize replica of his ex, Alma Mahler, which he treated as a substitute for the real woman. Kokoschka writes: “I had hired a horse and carriage to take her out on sunny days, and rented a box for her at the Opera in order to show her off.” Man-Made Woman, by Jon Stratton.

The article mentions Bellmer’s dolls, which have always fascinated and disturbed me, much in the way the Details article did with its images of distorted and dismembered limbs.  Which reminds me of a video Susannah called my attention to called ‘Headache‘ by Aneta Grzeszykowska, in which disembodied limbs probe a woman’s torso.

I love receiving suggestions from readers.  I really appreciate them. (And as a sidenote, I’m not happy with the photo formatting with this particular template, particularly since it makes labeling very difficult, so I’m going to do some tweaking over the next few days.)

Leonora Oppenheim, of CoolHunting, writes, “Many believe Louboutin’s sexy red soles to be art forms in their own right, but he has taken this fetishistic view of footwear to a new extreme with this series that’s more sculptural than wearable. Lynch, in his signature darkly twisted and sensual style, shot images of women bound into these sadomasochistic creations.”

Via CoolHunting.

When your Lladro collection feels lacking…

Lucio Bubacco.

I loved this exhibition. It’s brave, smart, and thorough. After so many tedious ‘erotic art’ shows, this was the first I’ve seen that absolutely nailed it.

Instead of showing us another room full of reclining nudes and soft-pedaled eroticism punctuated by the occasional ever-so-shocking red-figure vase painting, they swept the centuries and laid bare the raw, obscene, candid, intimate, perverse, and honest subjects that so many artists have pursued. And it was dynamic. Among the shiny-smooth Classical nudes, they projected a Chris Cunningham video that explored the shapes and curves of intertwined forms. Over the Baroque gallery, visible from below but meant to be viewed from the mezzanine above, they screened Warhol’s fanfuckingtastic film ‘Blow Job’. They presented the censored books (18th & 19th c.) that are typically buried in the backrooms of our more venerable research libraries. There was a lot of cock, and lot of penetration, and quite possibly the hottest painted cunt I’ve ever seen, by Boucher no less (or perhaps a contemporary). The only room that felt weak to me was the Duchamp/Bacon/Bourgeois room, which felt a little uncomfortable and disjointed (to their credit, they needed ‘Etant Donnees’ and acknowledged this, but from what I understand, Duchamp’s great/terrible peepshow can never leave Philadelphia). My favorite was the projection of Nan Goldin’s Heartbeat, paced to a piece sung by Bjork (I don’t remember the composer). It was beautiful, intimate, and very human.

Eros in Modern Art

BA-CA Kunstforum (Vienna, Austria)”Exhibits range from French interpretations oriented on Paul Cézanne and Edouard Manet, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Auguste Rodin to the erotic pictures by Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele in Austria; from works by Classical Modern artists including Pablo Picasso, Kees van Dongen and Joan Miró to the Surrealist masterpieces by Max Ernst, Man Ray and Salvador Dalí. Rounding off the exhibition are the rich variations of art inspired by eroticism after 1945 – the pop art of a Tom Wesselmann, the objects of a Louise Bourgeois and the monumentalising of flesh in the paintings of Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon.”

When I try it out, I’ll let you know my thoughts.

I’m always interested in the development of haute-pervure. Thierry Mugler and Nathalie Elharrar have formed a high-end fashion label for fetishwear called LaRare, a bit along the lines of the luxury designs you’d find in boutiques like Coco de Mer. I hope they’re in touch with Betony Vernon, who is also based in Paris. Their ideas for a ‘black box’ sound suspiciously similar to her boudoir box.

I’ll be interested to see their work in the future.

Interview here.