And finally, the last set of EVB party pics. These, from our Boy of the Week casting couch, set up in the back room, shot by David Kimelman. Names, blowjobs, handjobs and cockshots hard and soft have been removed to protect the not-so-innocent, but you get the idea. See you next time boys…
Well, well, well drinks, certainly got me lubricated for our party Thursday night, as I kicked off the party with the Gossip’s spunky version of Wham’s “Careless Whisper”. I suspected it was going to be a hot hot night, and hot it was! And I’m not just talking about our troop of go-go’s decked-out in customized jockstraps and vests, rusty accessories, leather roses, rubber suspenders, golden army boots and dust goggles (we’ll be keeping those for burning man!). Big thanks go out to Joe and Ian and the Nice Collective team for all their work in (barely) dressing our boys. And thanks to our guests for undressing them…
With “Billy Jean” blasting out of the speakers (R.I.P. Michael) I passed the aural (or was it oral) baton to DJ Paleboy, our DJ of the Month. A great set that climaxed with a Scooter LaForge painted Gio Black Peter collaboration, Amerikill, which reminded us all to get fucked up. Of course by then I was - maybe even more so than the four boys twisted around each other on our casting couch - our rather soiled casting couch I might add. Thanks to David Kimelman for handling that debauchery - we’ll be posting those shots in a couple days.
Spirits and minds were high high high… just how I like them. When the Captain arrived, a.k.a. the wonderful DJ Saheer Umar, I knew it was time to go below deck and find myself a cabin boy or two. Now, this is where I kind of have to rely on Weston and Richard to fill me in (no, not in that way… you dirty girty) as my next recollection is of waking up this morning between two boys whose names I obviously don’t recall, but who still tasted good and smiled… so it must have been good… Ah, how how I love a good party. Finally some reward for this overworked intern!
Thanks to everyone that came - everyone had an incredible time! The hottest and nicest party we’ve been to in a while! xxx
Thanks to the Hose, Fire Island Beer Co., Mark Edio for making the go-go boys even hotter, and special rock hard thanks to all of our go-go boys: Canyon, Glen (who we never actually saw go-go), Richter, Louis, Ryan, Taylor, Scott and Scott – many of whom popped their go-go cherry at our party. Many of whom some of us here at EVB need to see much more of later…
Anyway, Paul Gunn was nice enough to send us some shots of the party, and here they are…
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… and some more random (kinda crappy) shots from me after the jump...
This week’s East Village Boy of the Week is Michael, from New York
Photographed for EVB by Richard Welch
The Wrath of GusPhotography by Heami Lee. Styling and Art Direction by John D. StefanickText excerpted from a story by John D. Stefanick.For a tattoo that seemed to be a leftover memento from a drunken night, it had relevance. Constantine Lagoon explained, “It is the medieval alchemical symbol for sulfur, also known as brimstone. It has to do with the soul, the destroyer aspect of the goddess, the wrath of God and purification through fire. It’s one of the 3 heavenly substances in alchemy. Sulfur represents the dark, wet, hot smelly aspect of life that is necessary to bring out the gold of the individual. I got it when I was 18 to represent how I burn for my passion. Of course, mine is purple and dripping.”
During our first outing I learned that he is of Greek decent and spent his childhood in Queens, New York. Constantine has taken on an alter-ego of sorts that goes by the name ‘Gus’. The nickname has fueled his creative side allowing him to push the envelope a bit further in the presentation of his art. His given name in Greek is Kostandinos which sounds like Gustandinos, hence, Gus.
Paintings by Constantine Lagoon (Gus), and more photographs from this shoot by Heami Lee,will be exhibited at Niagara, 112 Avenue A, Monday June 22nd, 7-9PM.
Laughlin Artz is a big fag with a big mouth. His words, not mine. He’s also a writer, activist, performance artist, and filmmaker who wields the power of language to effect social change. He describes his work as a “full frontal attack on the bullshit of life”. His context is decidely gay, and he’s on a mission to do nothing less than reinvent global culture and generally cause trouble by any means, in any medium, with anyone necessary along the way.
Laughlin’s past ranges from one-man shows to running for President (sort of), but in the spirit of dealing with NOW, not then, we spent most of our conversation on his upcoming gallery show, alltogetherqueer, opening in New York Thursday June 18th.
Weston Bingham: We first met about a year ago when you were just starting your “Laughlin for President” campaign. What was that about, and how did it work out?
Laughlin Artz: Well, I didn’t win. I just hit this point where I was tired of just screaming and protesting and bitching and signing all those stupid petitions and I thought “Fuck it, I’ll just run myself.” So I wrote a platform, got some campaign photos taken, got some folks onboard, did a whole series of video campaign speeches, and ran an online campaign. The experience was great, to kind of be in that space of imagining yourself as President and what you would really take on. And now that we’ve elected the first black President, maybe I can be the first cocksucking commander-in-chief. Or at least the first out one.
WB: Out of the 44 we’ve had, who do you think was most likely to?
LA: They say that old Abe enjoyed the occasional dick. Maybe that’s why sleeping in the Lincoln bedroom is still such a hot commodity.
WB: I know you care more about what’s happening NOW, but for a little a little historical context, tell us a bit about your one-man show That’s Mister Faggot to You!.
LA: Aww, I loved that show. It was my first real deal show. It grew out of readings of my poetry that I was doing in these really dingy little cafés. The readings got kind of popular, I was getting this underground following and at some point we just figured we’d make a whole show out the most popular pieces, like Cocksucker Rap and Fuckhead Asshole. So we added music and lighting and costumes and made this whole extravaganza of faggotry. Then we decided to film one of the shows as a performance piece, which then led to more filming, including studio and location sequences, and voila! A movie was born!
WB: You said that being a faggot makes you dangerous. How so?
LA: I think that anyone who is fully expressed as whatever or whoever they are is always threatening to the people and institutions that need to suppress people to maintain power. And when what you are is something that people have been trained to fear and hate, then the threat is escalated. It disrupts the bullshit.
WB: Surely you can be a person or institution in power and maintain it without suppression, no?
LA: Yes, but I think they are definitely in the minority, with the deck stacked largely against them. Look at the big two – religion and government - institutions that at their inception I would like to think had the purest of intentions, but which, over time, have become largely vehicles for the advancement of their own agendas, and the suppressive tactics employed to that end. Which is why we, as individuals, have to stop relinquishing our own power to the prevailing power structures.
WB: You’re a self-described “big fag with a big mouth” - has your mouth gotten you into any serious trouble?
LA: Well, I’ve never gotten arrested, only threatened with it a few times. It’s gotten me into some fights, gotten me followed and harassed, gotten me threatened, gotten me on the news, stuff like that. But no, given the situations I have put myself in, I’ve been pretty lucky on that front. I think a sense of humor definitely helps.
WB: Maybe you’re not trying hard enough.
LA: Ahhh, you might be right. I do think however that it’s important to keep that delicate balance of making the right kind of trouble, exposing and defying the bullshit of the current system, and at the same time, not becoming such a total whack job that you lose the opportunity to sit at the table when that’s what’s required to forward what you’re about.
WB: How about Oh Jesus! Oh Jesus! I’m Coming…Again!?
LA: Wow, you’re bringing up such sweet memories. I really loved doing that show. It was a special Easter service that I did at the Pioneer Theater in the East Village. I dressed in authentic Catholic frockery and preached the service as Jesus Christ, coming back from the dead to tell the people how badly they had bastardized my teachings. It was an Easter service dedicated to guys who love Jesus and love dick. We had hymns, a donation basket, all the trappings. I actually think it would be pretty close to what Jesus (if there was one) would be saying if he ever came back. It was pretty amazing.
WB: Tell us about your current project, alltogetherqueer.
LA: altogetherqueer is an art exhibit exploring and celebrating the world of queerdom. A couple things I wanted to accomplish with it. One was to have the chance to collaborate with this group of really wonderful artists, and second, to give all of us a chance to show our work in a distinct environment in a context that was appropriate to what each of us is out to express.
There is a piece I wrote specifically for the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, which Vincent [Gagliostro] merged with a beautiful print that he crafted from Judy Garland’s death announcement. There is a painting by Olan featuring Miss California which is an indictment of our media-driven bullshit culture, along with how we’ve settled for our second class status. There are video works that are unlike anything you’ve ever seen, featuring the likes of Liberace, Michael Jackson and the Pope.
WB: Do you think that art in a gallery have the same effect as art on the streets? The gallery audience often being already “converted”, having chosen to be there, versus the passerby on the street that may not naturally gravitate to you?
LA: One thing I really love about the space that we found is that it’s basically a big cleaned-up garage, and so it’s right on the street. And it’s right between The Eagle and Scores on the very block of the Folsom East Fair. So we expect lots of foot traffic that a normal gallery wouldn’t get. Leather queens, hookers, people on their way to the clubs, my kind of people. We’re going to open it at night and stay open as long as folks want to wander in.
WB: I guess that’s my point - you and your potential audience are already likely on the same page. It seems that if you really want to effect change you have to speak to the non-converted.
LA: Yes, agreed. Although, I’m pretty confident that even the converted will be a bit surprised that what they will see will still be a real eye-opener. I also trust that getting the work out there, however and in whatever format, is really the point. To release it and let it take on whatever life it does. I would hope that the impact of the show will ultimately happen far beyond the walls of the gallery and long after the show has closed. The show itself is only the beginning.
WB: A lot of the work in this show you’ve curated is about the past. With such an emphasis on what’s happening, vs. what’s happened, why did you want to include that sort of content?
LA: The truth is that it really isn’t a historical show. There are some pieces in the show that do make reference to past events, but overall, the show is very present- and forward-oriented. So the pieces that do have some history serve more as a reference point than as a trip down memory lane. And the artists themselves have a history in the fight for gay rights, so there is obviously going to be that sensibility. Vincent Gagliostro, for example, is one of the founding members of ACT UP and GRAN FURY.
WB: Your artwork is predominantly language-based, written and spoken, but you collaborate with artists who’s strengths lie elsewhere. You’ve said “language creates, speaking is the action”. While words are your weapons of choice, what do you get out of the collaborations?
LA: We live in language. Language has the power to create and destroy, and I am always looking for new avenues to maximize that power. To create opportunities for words to not just define or describe, but to bring us to the edge of language. The beauty of collaborating is that it gives a new framework for my text, a new place for the words to reside and take root within an image. So I find that when my text and the collaborating artist’s image coexist like that they really do redefine each other and also create an entirely distinct third expression, beyond the sum of the two merging expressions.
WB: What’s the difference between the agendas of your collaborative work versus your solo work?
LA: They are both to communicate, to provoke something, to unconceal something, to reach somewhere new. So I think the agenda is the same. The difference in the collaborations is that it gives my work expressions that would never have been possible if not for the other artist, and vice versa. So all the work takes on a new kind of life, not mine or theirs. And in altogetherqueer, to have all these different expressions housed in the same exhibit, in the same physical space, it gives all the distinct pieces a chance to be seen in relationship to each other, which makes the overall experience even more expansive and not necessarily given by any particular piece.
WB: Living or dead, who would you most like to collaborate with?
LA: Wow, what a question. I think Michelangelo. And Robert Rauschenberg.
WB: I love that your body of work isn’t dominated by a single style but rather pragmatic formmaking driven by context and a larger agenda. Why do you adopt this approach? Are there advantages to not being a “brand”?
LA: I think that approach adopted me. So many things fascinate me and I find the more expansive my work, the more I can have what I do be part of some kind of provoking - an emergence, something being born that hasn’t been, and for me that is much more exciting than art as a means of accurately defining or representing.
WB: you’ve spoken before about reinventing “new global culture”, what are you getting at?
LA: A new context for what it is to be human. To get at the underlying condition, the stuff that for the most part goes unnoticed, and to redefine that which defines us and the world. A new context - one in which the thrust is no longer derived from a separatist model of right and wrong, of win and lose, but one of workability and real freedom.
WB: But your work seems to be more about what is it to be queer, and male, than it is “human” in the global sense. I’d say the same thing about the “culture” you re-present. Why be so focused if you want to reinvent something so expansive?
LA: My work, in whatever combination of art and activism it might take, is definitely about the human culture - the singular underlying condition that’s there for everyone. Being queer is one expression of that condition, and it’s an expression that gives me a distinct access to the overall culture. So I mine that access, I honor that expression, I love being gay and what that gives me. Not just for its own sake, but for what that particular queer being that I am brings to the whole.
And, given where we are as a community, the how much ground we still haven’t taken, we need lots and lots of queer art. We need every queer artist creating work and getting it out there in a major way, making as much noise a s possible. Which is really what we’re out to foster in the whole creation of altogetherqueer.
WB: Revolution or evolution?
LA: Definitely revolution. Evolution takes way too long and isn’t nearly as much fun.
WB: You’ve written about the power and magic of art. What do you mean by “magic”.
LA: Art has the power to reach inside a person and redefine their world view. To alter what for that person is possible. Art crosses all boundaries and borders. It speaks to the soul, it reveals and transcends the bullshit. It exists for its own voice and takes us far beyond.
WB: We invited you to perform at the Hot Festival on July 30. What’s should we expect (or not expect for that matter)?
LA: Hmm, let’s see. Well, the show’s called I Love Dick, so you should expect lots of dick-centric content. It’s really a tribute to the dick and all the boys who love it. You should also expect some not so celebratory treatment for the dicks we don’t love, the two-legged kind, who use our open love of cock and all its wonders as grounds for their attempt to keep us second-class. And you’ll get to see some amazing videos.
WB: It’s fashionable to trash New York as “not what it used to be” - what keeps you here?
LA: I just fucking adore New York. Of all the cities I have had the chance to see, it is for me the one that most feels like home. The people, the trains, the noise, the art, the beauty, the madness, the something about it that can’t be tamed, I just love it.
WB: What do you think the chances are that you’re on the FBI watch list?
LA: I would guess conservatively 100%.
WB: Any plans for July 4th?
LA: Hopefully spending it with some partners-in-crime declaring our own independence.
WB: What was the last thing to make you happy?
LA: When it really hit me that this show is actually going to happen.
alltogetherqueer, a multi-media Pride Week installation featuring the works of Laughlin Artz, Vincent Gagliostro, Olan, Mike Ruiz, Consuelo Gonzalez, Adam Hardman, Felicia Spano.
From June 18-28 at The Garage, 548 West 28th Street (btwn 10/11 aves).
Opening night blastivities, THURSDAY JUNE 18, 8:00 (into the wee hours).
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