Some time I forget about the posts I write. I was about to write a new post about Andy Warhol Empire State Building when I looked at the last blog post and resized I had written a post about Satan!!!!!! (REALY)…. How funny 🙂 So I reread what I wrote, as I was going to delete it. Then realised today as I lazed around in bed watching Netflix under lockdown. That the film I watch called Circus of Books has some similarities too Hail Satan the film I talked about in the Satin post.
In Hail Satan they are constantly trying to fight for the separation of church and state and to make sure that religious belief are left out of every day laws.
In the movie Circus of books it’s about a heterosexual, conservative, jewish couple who end up owning, operating a gay porn shop and producing gay porn. There are several things I like about the movie. One thing I found interesting and that made me think about Hail Stain is how Ronald Reagan and the Christian right tried to shut down the family run porn store. It was interesting to see how hard the couple had to fight the allegations. Also the wife in who owned the Porn store is a strong jewish women with a continual practice of her faith. She is constantly battling her anxiety of how her faith doesn’t not except homosexuality and her fears of her friends and family finding out what they do for a living. She in-fact become some what career closeted! What I find interesting is how time changes every thing and how she changes, grows although holding true to her faith she however begins to separate her faith ideology about homosexual and becomes an advocate of gay in such a positive way. One of the my main take aways from the movie is when they interview a gay man who talks about how gays have had to fight for so many of their rights, we have made so many changes but must always continue the fight.
I related this to my work in that I love the conflict of binary oppositions. As an exemormon being kicked out of a church for being gay, speaks volumes to me. I love the opposition, gay and mormon. Much like the film Circus Of Books the opposition of being an active jewish family but owning and publishing gay porn. I feel the binary opposition in my practice is the art and then me as the artist. I can’t just make “normal” art. I can’t make straight art work. Every thing I touch while making art seems to turn gay but for me that’s ok. I also think my art work is my constant fight for LGBTI visibility.