A History of Sex a Feature by Phip (Phip Murray) "An artist is the creator of beautiful things" Oscar Wilde writes, but Christians campaigning against the work of contraversial New York artist Andres Serrano say sometimes it just ain't so. Serrano talks about the shennanigans art can provoke. Bound Priest Andres Serrano (submitted by Phip.) ìAn artist is the creator of beautiful thingsî Oscar Wilde tells us, and Christians who went to see Andres Serranoís photo of a crucifix bathed in glorious golden light would have told you the same. On reading the title ó Piss Christ ó the realisation soon hit the unfortunate Christians that their sacred emblem was actually submerged in an admirable and perspex-bound collection of the artists urine. And thus began the fight between good and evil: The Christians mobilised, sent out thousands of leaflets via the American Family Association denouncing Serrano as an incarnation of the devil and Piss Christ the downfall of morals. Lawyers had a field day. When right-wing fundamentalist Jesse Helms ripped up images of Piss Christ on the Congress floor and succeeded in getting government run National Endowment for the Arts funding ó already bestowed on the artist ó withdrawn, the earth was restored to goodness and light. Amen. The irony is that it was the monster mailout by the American Family Association campaigning against Piss Christ, which plummeted the little known Serrano to art star status and qualified Piss Christ for a position in the art hall of fame forever. Madonna couldnít have dreamt up better publicity. Serrano admits he is still surprised about the furore: ìThat was one of the most startling events of my life and it was totally unanticipated. Generally people were confused by the image but, of course, it was all partially due to the fact that the American Family Association ó which is this right wing fundamentalist group ó sent out a huge mail out. Thatís how the controversy started in the first placeî. When questioned whether America really is the land of the free, home of the brave Serrano replied a little cynically ìWell, I was always taught to believe that . . . but in actuality this country is not as liberated as I thought it wasî. Serrano has incited some crazy shenanigans at the normally staid National Gallery of Victoria which has (sadly) ended in the closure of the exhibition and Jeff Kennett pleading with Serrano to ìgo homeî. What began as Christians staging relatively quiet prayer vigils and rallies ended with two teenagers forming their own Godsquad and running at Piss Christ with a hammer. Serrano has written off Melbourne arts representatives as a bunch of cowards, many Melbournianís are mourning the death of free speech and Christians are stocking up on hammers now that theyíve found a way to fight the good fight that works. Serrano has also inspired some good reading in The Ageís opinion page with the offended of Melbourne campaigning against ìsuch depravities . . . openly [being] encouraged to be thought of as reputable art?î (Jane Price, 30/9/97) and attempting to ensure that the ìdecency codeî (Michael OíCallaghan, 30/9/97) of Melbourne remains intact. ëWhat is art?í is back on the agenda too, with Serranoís work acting as the catalyst for sections of the community to reappraise the boundaries of art and pornography and art and blasphemy, and also the Governmentís role regarding artistic funding and freedom of speech versus its duty of care over the electorate. People expect Serrano to be provocative: he has in many ways become the artists that people love to hate or love to love. Whilst still life is still there as a big art theme, Serranoís choice of subject matter is a little more unexpected; in a way he makes a living out of representing taboo subjects. With past exhibitions including The Morgue (portraits of the inhabitants of New Yorks morgues), Objects of Desire (lustrous, gleaming images of guns) Body Fluids (colour fields of piss and cum), Nomads (portraits of the homeless) and now A History of Sex Serrano is firmly placing IN the frame what most middle-class Americans would prefer to place outside. And not only does he represent the usually ignored, but he represents them in glorious technicolour. Using the pictorial techniques usually reserved to aggrandise American politicians and Hollywood big-guys, including pure, high colour and I-wannabe-Rembrant compositions, Serrano portrays that which is often regarded as dirty or ugly ó dead bodies, body fluids and extreme sex ó in a beautiful, classical way and allows it some dignity. As he says: ìI was at an opening in Miami a couple of days ago and someone came up to me and said ìIíve decided that what your work is really all about is beautyî and I agree. I totally agree with that. More than provocation I want to make it beautiful whatever it is. I think that this is part of the dilemma ó which should not be a problem at all. There is a sort of push and pull effect where people are seduced and horrified ó or at least disturbed ó at the same time . . . One of my roles as an artist is to find beauty where we didnít think it existedî. A History of Sex is comprised of larger-than-life, full colour images of sex, none of which could be described as missionary. Serrano makes tableaus picturing non-Melrose sex; sex between young and old, sex between mixed races and homosexual sex. Through this representation of non-mainstream sex, it seems that Serrano is interested in challenging peopleís perceptions of ënormalí. His pictures suggest that love does not just happen between men and women, desire is not just the jurisdiction of the beautiful or the young, gender is not where you think it is and sex does sometimes involve animals whether you like it or not. Serrano is asking his viewers to reconsider their categories and perhaps intends to blow away a few prejudices in the process. He outlines one of his interests as: ìChallenging whatís normal, whatís beautiful ó and investigating it. These are all things that I am trying to explore with the work . . . The subject matter that I am interested in doesnít feel taboo to me. I mean there is no reason why these things ó death, sex ó should be considered taboo. It is all naturalî. There is also a satirical element to enjoy in the work; Serrano has placed his subjects, whether they are masturbating horses or fist-fucking, in oh-so-wholesome environments capitalising on the cliches of ëimpossibly blue skiesí, ëfields of greení and ëboundless oceansí. The overall effect is of a corrupted Sound of Music or Norsca ad with a twist. But whilst Serrano can seem like the champion of the marginalised ó making mainstream society confront their prejudices ó in another way he seems like the sensationalist. The emphasis is firmly on sex: when asked why ëA History of Sexí and not ëA History of Loveí his reply was ìbecause it sounded better . . .î. Serrano does indeed get his rocks off ó and his bills paid ó by playing the provocateur: ìIn Holland the work became very controversial because of the poster that was going to be used which was Leoís Fantasy [showing a woman pissing into a manís mouth]. Eventually 90 000 people went to see my shows in Groeninger because of all the attention in the media which was focused especially on the sex pictures and I think that was good. That is the ultimate goal for me: to get an audience.î An audience, huh? The imagery does, in many ways, seem gratuitous. When I asked him if there was a danger of his curiosity for a subject becoming exploitation Serrano conceded ìThere is always a fine line between exploration and exploitationî but added ìI don't think I've crossed it yetî. When I asked him if A History of Sex was pornographic Serrano came up, quite shirtily, with the following gem: ìAbsolutely not. Pornography is what you buy in the porn storeî. Huh? He went on: ìIt has a totally different function from art. Thatís not to say that one is better than the other, I just think that what I do is meant to operate on a different levelî. When questioned about the relationship between erotica and porn in his art Serrano quite confusingly and hypocritically replied: ìI hope itís not erotica because when I think of erotica I think of nice black and white nudes . . I think erotica is something somewhere between art and pornography, but often times itís soft . . . I didnít want my images to be soft, I wanted to go for the hard edge . . you know the stuff which is usually associated with pornography . . . itís a fine line you have to walk sometimesî. Sometimes too fine. As the debate around porn and art became more confused so did my trust in Serranoís motive. Confusion climaxed (pardon the pun) when a male journalist friend of mine asked Serrano: ìWhatís your favourite sexual fantasy?î and the reply was ìMe and two women ó (hehe) ó thatís the standard heterosexual fantasy, I think, of most men . . . Iím always hoping for it, and some day Iíll probably get the full treatmentî. Rather than champion of the marginalised, Serrano just seemed like a standard heterosexual fuckwit. Especially when asked where dyke sex figured in his cornucopia of sexual acts he answered ìIt didnít become a top priority shoot for me until I realised I should have done it, and then I didnít have time to do it any more . . . I didnít get a chance to. I tried, but it never worked out. So, you know, there are glaring omissions in the seriesî. So, roll up, roll up people and see Serranoís freakshow amongst the comfort, safety and clean white walls of your own national galleries. Phip Murray Created on Thu, 16 Oct 1997 and last modified on Fri, 27 Feb 1998.

LOUDonline - http://www.loud.net.au - Wed, 8 Jul 1998