Artist, sexologist and adult filmmaker Annie Sprinkle was one of the pivotal players of the 1980s Sex Positive Movement and the first porn star to earn a PhD. In the 1991 manifesto 101 Uses For Sex, Annie’s 33rd rule is ‘‘Sex as an art form”. In it, the self-described “multimedia whore” explains that sex “can be very creative” and “a great way to express oneself”. Hardcore, a new group exhibition at Sadie Coles HQ in London, is a response to this manifesto. Featuring 18 artists preoccupied with the sexually explicit and sadomasochistic, the show aims to provoke, examining the diverse nature of intimacy through photography, sculpture, leather, chains, whips and silicon genitalia. Bringing underground expression to a mainstream gallery space, it is at once revolting and revolutionary; a must-see exhibition. Excellent for a first date, less suited to a family outing.
The works in Hardcore vary from representational and figurative to symbolic and disembodied; the least explicit additions simply signifying the act of sex. In Monica Bonvicini’s 2023 work “Breathing (Calm)”, a large leather flogging device swings, like a metronome, from the gallery ceiling — carving a dramatic semi-circle in front of bemused visitors. While the object generates a nervous, excited atmosphere, its movements are gentle. The hypnotic lull of Monica’s installation recalls the feeling of Le petit-mort, the moment of introspection post-orgasm when, as Reba Maybury outlines in her exhibition text, “the brain forgets itself”.
Reba Maybury, aka Mistress Rebecca, is an artist, writer and political dominatrix. Her accompanying text posits Hardcore as a state of mind. It makes a distinction crucial for the more scandalised members of the public: “These works are not seducing you, because they are not about you”. Instead, they present the great diversity of sexual pleasure – from Joan Semmel’s interpretation of the foot fetish to Bob Flanagan’s penis-stretching torture device — there is no kink community left behind. In Monica Bonvicini’s “Beltdecke #6”, black leather belts are braided together into a kind of S&M craft object. The belts form inter-connected strands, alluding to the historical importance of the material in uniting the 1980s queer leather community.
Hardcore does not waste time with societal niceties. The best works are fantastically grotesque. It takes a moment to notice that “Untitled #257”, from Cindy Sherman’s 1992 Sex Pictures series captures acts of sexual humiliation between dolls rather than humans. The piece holds an uncanny mirror to society’s love of highly graphic pornographic media, one of the main aims of Sadie Coles and co-curator John O’Doherty. “The concept of Hardcore is to explore the impulses inherent to being human,” they say, “specifically the more complex dynamics related to sex, prompting new conversations surrounding the attitudes we as a society choose to accept and why.”
Joining the long list of renowned artists in the show — including Carolee Schneemann and Tishan Hsu — the work of Miriam Cahn is brilliantly perverse. Her 2017 work “Leischbild/famillienbild” depicts two figures having sex with kinetic frenzy. While Miriam’s subject matter is often obscene, the 73-year-old artist finishes her figures with absurd, crudely drawn smiley faces. The faintly ridiculous outcome makes a welcome change from what Reba Maybury calls “the banality of sophistication” so over-valued in the contemporary art world.
Since 2015, Reba’s Instagram has been famous for its images of the artist as a larger-than-life dominatrix cradling her subs, who appear tiny and naked, like mole-rats. To the general public, these posts might simply be humorous examples of men being belittled. More importantly though, these images celebrate sexual roleplay for its subversion of social hierarchies; similar to the artworks shown in Hardcore, they demonstrate the importance of “pleasure as something to take seriously” rather than just a by-product of gratification.
Outlining the political urgency of the show, Sadie and John add that “cancel culture has complicated the openness of dialogue, and equally mounting repressive conservative forces have sought to demonise or police sexuality.” One aim of Hardcore is to provide an alternative avenue of sex-related discussion via contemporary art. Works such as Bruce LaBruce’s “Female Liberation Army” (2005) demonstrate the artist’s belief that transgressiveness has always been synonymous with political incorrectness. Typical of Bruce’s fondness for combining revolutionary zeal and libidinal politics, two naked women embrace in a blood-spattered room — one toting an AK-47. It’s no wonder the artist’s works have previously been censored. As Reba Maybury writes: “The policing of who is allowed to possess sex will be endless”. “Headless Body In Topless Bar” (2023) forms part of Darja Bajagićs Ex Axes series. The sequential display of axes carries stills of actors from violent pornographic films. Darja highlights these dark corners of the internet to draw out similarities with America’s very public obsession with gruesome murder cases and true crime.
In Hardcore, sexual play is a state of moral limbo; rules are upturned, convention disregarded, and prudishness left behind. There is, as Susan Sontag writes in Regarding the Pain of Others, a “pleasure of flinching”. The exhibition depicts exactly the point at which, as Reba writes, “discomfort links arms with curiosity and pleasure holds hands with disgust”.
Hardcore is open at Sadie Coles HQ in London until 5 August 2023
Credits
All images courtesy of the artists and Sadie Coles HQ.