Gimme More...
TASTE THE SWEAT!
Format: 16mm
Length: 110 meters
Running Time: 13 minutes (24 fps)
Color: Black and White
Sound: Magnetic or optical
Subtitles: English
Year of Production: 1997
Stock: Kodak Plus/Double X
Reels: 1
Original Language: German
World Premiere: MIX NYC, November 13, 1997
Detailed Synopsis
What makes a skinhead a skinhead? The cropped hair? The 14 hole ranger boots?
The stay-pressed Levis 501? The soccer-riots weekends? Or a nice, brutal tattoo,
a crucified skinhead, directly in the middle of one's breast?! OK, let's get
the tattoo first, thinks Martin, our little schoolboy and skinhead -"hero."
He jumps onto his bike, directly to the next tattoo studio around the corner.
We are in Hamburg, there are many of them around. In front of the shop window
stand two travelling journeymen, discussing the drawings exhibited in the window.
When the skinhead appears, they leave. Even the hard-boiled carpenters don't
want to get too close to those bald-headed rebels. Martin enters the door in
an optimistic mood, yesterday was a fine day, he earned some credit of his fellows
during a fight. Maybe the tattoo is his own mark of distinction for that.
But the first person he meets inside the studio is not the tattoo-artist, but
an old, white-haired man, with good manners. He tells the young skinhead that
he started tattooing himself during the second world-war in Russia. He shows
him his left arm, as an example. It is covered over and over with old, self-made
tattoos. Martin looks at it in disbelief. A groan of pain from somewhere below
the studio ends their discussion. Our little skinhead follows the sound. The
real tattoo-studio is in the cellar. A small staircase goes down to a small
room, the walls covered with hundreds of tattoo-drawings, where the artist is
at work.
Martin hides himself in a dark corner of studio above as a punk is getting his
neck inked. You can never know how a punk reacts, seeing a skinhead. Especially
when he is talking about his friend, who was attacked by some skins and badly
injured.
Was the guy in the studio strange, are the characters here even stranger: A
dreadlocked, sweat-stinking stenth-punk, well, who is good-looking, somehow,
and a Viking-like man, who tattoos the punk's neck with a double headed snail.
When the punks tells the tattooist the story of his friend, he has only one
comment: Kill them!
Looking at the smeary punk-rocker, Martin more and more feels some sympathy
for him, although he was the one attacking the punk's friend. Martins starts
daydreaming: how it will be, when he got his "crucified skin" and.
He will be the star of the concert hall, every bald head will turn around, when
our little "hero" is entering the room. He passes easily through the
crowd, getting an honorable glance of the singer of the audience. But then:
Another skin tries to get the microphone, wants to sing as well. Our super-
skin manages even this situation, a few kicks, a few pushes and the opponent
is down on his knees. The audience bursts out into applause for him. And then:
Yes, It happens, the oily, sweaty dreadlock-punk enters the hall and hands over
a glass-boot full of beer to him. He drinks it in total joy.
For a moment Martin seems to be on the campsite, where the punk may live. He
sees him in his van, naked, being kissed by a skinhead. Onto the new tattoo,
the double-headed snail.
The tattoo-machine stops working, Martin awakes out of his dreams/thoughts.
He fastly turns away.
Warmly greets the old man his companion, the punk. They talk to the tattoo-artist,
while our little hero, the skinhead reads, just for show, some issues of tattoo-magazines.
When the punk embraces his companion, Martin can't sit still anymore, he turns
around in a mixture of anger, hate AND in a mood for a flirt with the rotten
punkboy. He stutters something about his girl friend, that she hates tattoos,
that he now would get every girl with his tattooed neck. He touches the punk,
half aggression, half love, but he just turns away, saying bye-bye to the tattoo-artist
and leaves the studio with his companion. Martin looks on them thru the shop
window, until they are out of sight. "And, what's the tattoo YOU want to
get?" asks the Viking-man behind the cashdesk. "Well...I don't know"
answers Martin.
Director: DOM REDDING
Born 1968 in Dortmund. Studied architecture in Aachen.
Went to Hamburg and started his filmmaking in 1992.
Filmography
1992 ACKER; LUETE; GOETHE. ( 16mm, 5 min )
1993 Photobook DIESES RADIKALE LEBEN (Material-Verlag).
1994 ADRIAN'S MONDAY (16mm, 8 min.)
1995 DRECK/DIRT (16mm, 10min.)
1997 TASTE THE SWEAT! (16mm, 10 min.)
1996 Script to long-feature film GREASY GRASS (shooting starts Feb. 1998)
Director: BEN REDDING
Born 1968 in Dortmund.
After a few years a directors-assistent at theater in Bochum, he studied acting
in Stuttgart. He now lives in Hamburg. He enjoys himself mostly riding his bike.
He worked as a film director together with his brother Dom on several projects,
like ADRIAN'S MONDAY and DRECK/DIRT and as an actor in TV productions and air-plays
for German radio.
Cast:
The Skinhead: Andrej BRENDEL
Zottel, the punk: Stefan BARKHOFF
The tattoo artist: Thomas POHLMANN
The old tattooed man: Michael HERBOLD
Fighting Skinhead: Simon LINDAU
Crew
Script: Dom and Ben Redding
Camera: Dom Redding
Sound: Ben Redding
Gaffer/Light: Dom & Ben Redding
Production Assist: Renata Fisser
Set Design: Dom & Ben Redding
Editing: Dom & Ben Redding
Soundmix: KONKEN Ton Studio, Hamburg
Lab: ATLANTIK Filmkopierwerk, Hamburg
Subtitling: Holland Subtitles, Arnheim, NL
Production: SchlammtaucherFILM, Hamburg
Music: SMEGMA, availble through Scumfuck Records, Dinslaken/Germany
TASTE THE SWEAT! CAST BIOS
Andrej BRENDEL
Born in 1978 in East Berlin/GDR. Lives as a skinhead in Berlin-Marzahn. Is a
soldier in the German army. Keeps in shape with kick-boxing.
Stefan BARKHOFF
Born in 1971 in Berlin. Works as a musician in several bands (punk, mainly),
designs trinkets, teaches deep-sea diving on some Pacific islands.
Thomas POHLMANN
Born in 1969 in Kiel. After years of fights and prison-terms, he settled down
in Hamburg. He learned the art of tattoo during his prison "visits."
He now has a tattoo studio of his own in Hamburg. For his work he got several
prizes in tattoo exhibitions all over the world. The main location of TASTE
THE SWEAT! is his tattoo studio "Burning Needles."
Albrecht BECKER
Born in 1907 in Thale/Harz. Worked as a movie set designer for the German film
industry. Started tattooing himself during World War II in Russia. Lives in
Hamburg, Germany.
Simon LINDAU
Born in 1973 in Munich, Bavaria. After a few years on the road, living in squats,
campsites, etc., he now lives and works as an actor in Munich again.
Michael HERBOLD
Born in 1972 in Hamburg. Went through several schools, several political opinions
and several music-styles and youth groups. For a few years he has been very
successful with his Oi!-band SMEGMA. He lives now in Hamburg, works as a mechanic
in a power station.
KANSAS ANYMORE
David Wilson, 1996, 16mm to video, USA, color, sound, 30 min.
A funny and bittersweet tale of a band at the end of the road. Sad and comfortable,
it evokes memories of mildewed basements-smelly and comfortable at the same
time.
KANSAS ANYMORE is a love story between a boy and his home. David Wilson, a native
of Boone County, Missouri, began writing KANSAS ANYMORE at the age of 17, drawing
on the small town experiences his own and those of his friends. As a young band
returns home from a grueling tour, they explore the physical as well as cultural
terrain of the American Midwest, disrupting the notion of "flatness"
that is too often attached to the region. Finding the subcultures or the counter-public
spheres hidden behind the facade of middle America is not so different from
discovering the cliffsides, trees and rivers amidst the seemingly unending fields
of corn and soybeans. Shot on 20-year old color film stock that lends a faded,
comfortable feel to the piece, KANSAS ANYMORE offers a fresh look at neo-nomadism
and modern youth culture.
"Here is a true punk rock film. A wonderful little half hour where punks
don't act like retards. paving the way for real, intelligent films to come out
of the [homocore] community. A 'feel good movie' in a different sense. A charmer."
-Siue Moffat, Punk Rock Film Guide
The YO-YO GANG
Cast:
The Yo-Yo Gang:
Leslie - Leslie Mah
Tracie - Tracie Thomas
Lynna - Lynna Landstreet
Candy - Candy Parker
Suzy - Suzy Sinatra
Beverly - Beverly Breckenridge
The Rival Gang:
Chills - Caroline Azar
Spills - Jena von Brucker
Thrills - Anita Smith
Googie - G.B. Jones
Donna - Donna Dresch
Googie's Doorman - Kiwi
Leslie's Secretary - Eric Gunner
Secretary's Friend - Deke Nihilson
Candy's Roommates - Klaus von Brucker, Mark Freitas
Go-Go Dancer - Bruce LaBruce
Tattoo Artist - Uranus 235
CREW
Written and Directed by G.B. Jones
Produced by G.B. Jones and Jurgen Br_ning
Associate Producer Caroline Azar
Production Assistant/Set Jena von Brucker
Audio Post Production Louise Kiner, Anita Smith
Soundtrack
Frat Boy
Written and performed by A.S.F.
Big Dick
Written and performed by A.S.F.
Yo-Yo
Written by Joe South
Performed by Fifth Column
People in Your Neighborhood
Performed by Human Ashtrays
The Yo-Yo Gang Soundtrack is available on BITCH NATION Tapes and is distributed
by K Records and by Hide Records and Tapes.
G.B. Jones Curriculum Vitae
****RECORDINGS****
FIFTH COLUMN (Caroline Azar, Beverly Breckenridge, G.B. Jones with a shifting
roster of personnel)
Boy/Girl/Monsieur Beauchamps/Legionaires (7"EP)/ Hide Records/ 1985
To Sir With Hate (12" LP, cassette) Kangaroo Court, The Fair view Mall
story, Hit the Roof, To Sir With Hate, Modern Diseases, Marcie and Paulette,
Semonette Reprise, Imitations of life #2, Theme from Work Reprise/ Hide records/
1988
All time Queen of The World (12" LP, cassette) She Said "Boom".
Bad Madelaine, Walk Like You, Like This, It's Science Friction, Schroeder Ye!Ye!,
Margaret Bourke-White, Weathertown, Secret Storm/ Hide Records/ 1990
All Women Are Bitches: Repeat!/ Donna (7" single) / K Records/ 1992
Chewing Gum (cut from CD "Keep on the Sunny Side: A Tribute to the Carter
Family") / Amoeba Records/1993
Yo-Yo (cassette only; "The Yo-Yo gang" film soundtrack)/ Bitch Nation
Records/ 1992
"Don't" (split 7" single with God Is my Co-Pilot) / Outpunk Records/
1993
36C (12" LP, CD, cassette) All Women Are Bitches: Repeat!, (Get the) Bug,
Your Love Glows In the Dark, "Don't", Spoiler, Donna, M.O.V.E., Von
Bucker in Love, Schizocrush, It's a really Weird Thing/ K Records/ 1994
I Love You, But ( I Ain't Gonna Be Your Fool) (Split 7" single with Trailer
Queen) / Dark Beloved Cloud Records/ 1994 Various limited edition promo cassettes;
broadcast, studio and live/ 1985-
Human Ashtrays
People In Your Neighborhood (cassette only; "The Yo-Yo gang film soundtrack;
G.B. Jones, Jena Von Brucker, Beverly Breckenridge, Klaus Von Brucker) / Bitch
Nation Records/ 1993 (also on "Acu-punk-ture" compilation cassette
/ Zugang Records/ 1992)
Kill the Straights (unreleased; G.B. Jones, Jena Von Brucker)
And Her Name Was Joan " "
****FILMS******
The Troublemakers 1990
With Caroline Azar, Stevie Suzy Sinatra, Bruce LaBruce, Joe the Ho, Cizzy ChÄ,
David-id, Kelly Ellis, G.B. Jones
The Yo-Yo Gang 1992
with Leslie Mah, Tracie Thomas, Caroline Azar, Suzy Sinatra, Jena Von Brucker,
Lynna Landstreet, Anita Smith, Klaus Von Brucker, Candy Parker, Eric Gunner,
Kiwi, Mark Freitas. Bruce La Bruce, Deke Nihilson, G.B. Jones, Donna Dresch
The Lollipop Generation 1994
with Jena Von Br_cker, Johnny Noxzema, Vaginal Creme Davis, Caroline Azar, Mark
Ewert, Karen Chapelle, Rachel Pepper, Diana Donato, Mitchell Watkins, G.B. Jones
GB Has played roles in:
Boy/Girl/ Bruce LaBruce, 1989
Cross Your Heart/ Stevie Suzy Sinatra, 1990
No Skin Off My Ass/ Bruce LaBruce, 1991
Smoothie Chops / Caroline Azar, 1991
********ZINES*******
J.D.'s 1985-1991, 8 issues; Bruce LaBruce co-editor
Bitch Nation 1990-, unreleased issues; Jena Von Brucker co-editor
Double Bill 1992-1994, 3 issues; Caroline Azar, Rex Boy, Jena Von Brucker, Johnny
Noxzema Co-editor
GB's work can also be found in:
Hide/ 1982-1985; Candy Parker, G.B. Jones, Caroline Azar co-editors
Don't Tell Jane and Frankie/ 1990-1992; Jena Von Brucker, Klaus Von Br_cker
Editors
Bimbox/ 1990-; Johnny Noxzema, Rex Boy, Editors
S.C.A.B./ 1991-1993; Johnny Noxzema editor
Jane Gets a Divorce/ 1993-; Jena von Brucker editor; F.O.D. (Maggotzine) / 1992-
Uraina 235 editor;
Ruh-Roh (1992) Mark Ewert & Mitchell Watkins, editors
Sister Nobody / 1989-; Laura Sister Nobody editor
Girl Germs / 1992-; Molly and Allison editors
The YO YO GANG CAST BIOS
Caroline Azar stars as Chills, the Skateboard Gang member who uses her powers of seduction to infiltrate the Yo-Yo Gang. Carloine is not only the lead singer of Fifth Column, who provides the theme song "Yo-Yo," she also starred in Virginia Rankin's Evelyn Be My Valentine, which premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Caroline also appears in Bruce LaBruce's No Skin Off My Ass and GB Jones's The Troublemakers.
Donna Dresch
Donna plays the Yo-Yo champ who leaves the gang after being slugged by Thrills.
Donna Dresch is a veteran of many bands, including screaming Trees and Dinosaur
Jr. She now plays in the well-know band named for her, Team Dresch. They were
recently featured in Lucy Thane's documentary She's Real Worse Than Queer, about
the underground Grrrl scene. When she was younger, Donna toured schools demonstrating
yo-yo tricks as a member of a team of Yo-Yo champions. K Records is her label of great punk music and stuff.
http://www.olywa.net/kpunk
G.B. Jones appears in a cameo role as Googie Jones, the go-between for the two
gangs. She has previously appeared in Suzy Sinatra's Cross Your Heart, Bruce
LaBruce's No Skin Off My Ass, as the skinhead's sister, and in Lucy Thane's
She's Real Worse Than Queer. G.B. describes the movie as "a pilot for a
situation comedy for TV." She is now filming her third movie, The Lollipop
Generation.
Jena von Brucker plays Spills, the tough, tempestuous leader of the rival Skateboard Gang. She has also appeared in No Skin Off My Ass, and stars in GB Jones’s upcoming Lollipop Generation. She also sings and plays bass on the song People in Your Neighborhood by Human Ashtrays, which is heard on the Yo-Yo Gang soundtrack.
Leslie Mah
The Yo Yo Gang marks her screen debut. As a member of ASF, she plays the song Frat Boy on the soundtrack. The seminal early 90s punk band ASF released a single and an LP, Damsel in Distress, as weall as contributing the song Big Dick to the Yo-Yo Gang soundtrack, before Mah went on to play guitar for Tribe 8.
Klaus Von Brucker plays Candy's roommate, who's so sex-crazed he has no time
of her problems. When he does manage to get out of the house, he steps right
into the path of the rival gang, and is KO'ed. Klaus appeared in he starring
role of No Skin Off My Ass as the skinhead.
Bruce LaBruce is the go-go dancer. LaBruce is famous for directing such films
as No Skin Off My Ass, and Hustler White (co-directed with Rick Castro) starring
Tony Ward. He has two new books, The Reluctant Pornographer (Gutter Press) http://www.slazmann.com/gutter
and Bruce LaBruce: Ride Queer Ride (Plug-In Editions - http://www.plugin.mb.ca)
edited by Noam Gonick.
Mark Freitas plays Klaus's sex-crazed boytoy. Mark co-coordinated (with Joanna Brown) Homocore Chicago,
and plays in the band Heterocide.
ARTICLES AND PRESS ABOUT THE YO-YO GANG
G.B. Jones rules, so to speak--there should be no rulers except the working
class, but it's a figure of speech, so lighten up...). For those of you who
don't know her, she is a member of the Toronto queergrrrl band Fifth Column,
a contributor to zines JDs and Double Bill (among others) and a filmmaker/artist/actress.
This is just one of her works (but the only one I've seen). When shown at a
queer film festival, some complained that it was homophobia because it showed
girls fighting and encouraged bashing because some guy gets beaten up.
The plot is simple. It's about rival grrrl gangs and their various conflicts.
There are songs, boy-boy and girl-girl sex scenes (the best kind--queer and
unnecessary) and punk divas, such as Leslie from Tribe 8 and Donna Dresch. Yes,
it's violent, but so's the world. For film students, it would be a nightmare,
since the audio is dubbed on afterwards without lip-synching and the picture
quality is not conventional-but it's a document of a scene and a mind, so relax,
folks, take it for what it's worth--a lot. I'd rather watch this than Jeffrey
any day-it rocks.
-Tim Murphy NOISE QUEEN, Issue 3, 1996
Crossdressing Series at the ICA
Complementing the Institute of Contemporary Art exhibition "Currents 93:
Dress Codes," the film and video series "Undressing Crossdressing"
continues at the ICA Theater with two programs....
The series has been put together by the women's group Fishnet, and most of the
entries look at the issue from a lesbian perspective. For many of the women
behind and in front of the camera, the body is a playground and a canvas upon
which one's identity is announced to the world. Reacting against the traditional
masculine and feminine norms, the films' subjects make their own creative detours
toward self-affirmation. Simply put, there's not such thing as a freak.
The most exciting film of those previewed is the Toronto super-8 film "Yo-Yo
Gang," part of the closing "Rebels, Irreverence and Girl Power"
program.... one of the best translations of the punk spirit into film, director
G.B. Jones' "Yo-Yo Gang" blows a bubble of a Riot Grrl-dominated world
and keeps it in the air for 30 blissed-out minutes. Highly reminiscent of John
Waters' no budget early films, with post-dubbed sound and campy song snatches,
"Yo-Yo Gang" follows its young lesbian heroines (who have whining
sex-obsessed gay male roommates) in their rivalry with the Skateboard Gang.
Movies like this can renew a critic's faith in the medium. -Betsy Sherman, Boston
Globe, May 13, 1993
Despite all the tattoos and raccoon eyeliner, G.B. Jones's THE YO-YO GANG is
sweetly silly, a postpunk Head starring two rival gangs of Lydia Lunchettes,
girls who rumble with yo-yos and skateboards instead of stilettos.-Manohla Dargis,
Village Voice, 1992
PORTLAND INFORMATION
GRETA SNIDER FILMOGRAPHY
Portland
1996, 16mm, B&W, sound, 12 min.
PORTLAND is a road movie about four friends looking for a good time in the city
of Portland. Instead, they get drunk, rained on, thrown in jail, and lose their
camera. Is this what memories are made of? (Distributed by Canyon Cinema)
Flight
1996, 16mm, B&W, silent, 5 min.
FLIGHT is my father's photographic legacy, compiled and transformed into light.
I wanted to materialize what spirit ephemera I have remaining from him. His
family photographs, his hobbyist pictures of trains and roses, his airplanes
and his obsession with birds circling...this material is shot through his eyes.
The images are imprinted onto the film, like a fingerprint or trace. It's his
movie, really... FLIGHT is hand-processed and hand-exposed without a camera
(as with Ray-O-Grams) and runs at silent speed 18 frames per second. (Distributed
by Canyon Cinema)
No-Zone
1993, 16mm, color, sound, 20 min.
NO-ZONE is an anthology style documentary about the end of the world. This 20
minute movie fleshes out the joy and the anxiety of apocalyptic issues through
memoir, cinema-verite, and pseudo science; examining the means of the documentary
form as much as the subject of the endtimes. (Distributed by Canyon Cinema)
Our Gay Brothers
1993, 16mm, color, sound, 9 min.
A delicate and touching view into relations between a few gay men and their
straight women friends. Made with a lot of archival footage exposing stereotypes
and Freudianism on both sides, the movie ends with an elegiac pause, as hand-processed
images of high divers celebrate the beauty of both the human and the film forms.
(Distributed by Canyon Cinema)
Shred of Sex
1992, 16mm, B&W, sound, 23 min.
SHRED OF SEX was an experiment in group filmmaking. My seven roommates in a
punk warehouse were given a (5-minute) crash course in 16mm production (by me),
then let loose to explore their eroticism in 3 minutes or less. The footage
was processed by us, by hand, and Voila! Instant cinema. The resulting 25-minute
film is at turns funny, dull, and awesome. The solarized emulsion takes center
stage in this cheap and breezy home-porn. (Missing/stolen)
Mute
1991, 16mm, color, sound, 14 min.
A story in three parts - three simultaneous layers of a narrative, competing
for the "real" story. The misogynistic narrator, the "mute"
woman character, and the images themselves intertwine in a tale of obsession,
exhibition, and power. (Distributed by Canyon Cinema)
Blood Story
1990, 16mm, color, sound, 3 min.
A three-minute essay on divergent social contexts of the appearance of blood.
Two women chat about the cultural and spiritual significance of the onset of
menstruation, intercut with an anecdote about a troublesome pavement stain.
(Distributed by Canyon Cinema)
Hard-Core Home-Movie
1989, 16mm, B&W, sound, 5 min.
A documentary about the San Francisco punk scene in the late eighties. The movie
pokes fun at the "ethnography" with its survey style, and makes a
charming historical document from an ephemeral place in time. Like most underground,
and indeed, interesting scenes, things in the punk world change overnight -
the looks, the music, the language, disappears. This is just one snapshot from
an ever-evolving milieu. (Distributed by Canyon Cinema)
Futility
1989, 16mm, B&W, sound, 10 min.
A found footage collage with voice-over. The sparse and grim narrative (of a
trip to the abortion clinic and a relationship breakup) is paired with at times
painfully enthusiastic images from tourist and safari films from a more buttoned
up decade past. The associations between image and story weave closer and then
farther as the film unfolds, while the magic of montage turns a 1950's tourist
into our protagonist, and a hunted rhino into her jilting lover. (Distributed
by Canyon Cinema)
Greta Snider lives in San Francisco, and has made eight short movies. Her films
have been shown and honored internationally. She makes a punk rock zine called
MUDFLAP, teaches film at California College of Arts and Crafts, and reviews
books and records for Maximum Rock and Roll magazine. She has recently begun
to make digital interactive pieces, which have shown at the SF Cinematheque,
SF State University, and on the world wide web.
FILMMAKER CONTACT INFO:
Kansas Anymore David Wilson Kinofist Imageworks PO Box 1102 Columbia MO 65205-1102 p: 573-875-7151 dmwF92@hamp.hampshire.edu Portland Greta Snider 54 Bonview San Francisco, CA 94110 p: 415-824-3638 Mudflap666@aol.com Punk Rock Date Greta Snider see Portland download from http://www.wps.com/punkdate/index.html RitualNation Sean Kaminsky 28 W. 46th St., #3F New York, NY 10036 p: 212-391-5790 RitualNation@juno.com http://www.paperveins.org/rnation.html Taste the Sweat! Dom & Ben Redding Fever Films Distribution 23 E. 10th Street, #PHG New York, NY 10003 p: 212-539-1023 f: 212-475-1399
skj@echonyc.com Yo-Yo Gang, The G.B. Jones PO Box 55, Stn. E Toronto, Ontario M6H 4E1 CANADA Thank You Karim Aònouz Tony Arena Michael Balser Joel Burton Tammy Rae Carland Colin Chellman Jeff Crawford Paul Del Grosso Tina Einofski Pip Chodorov Andy Fabo Jane Farrow Thom Fitzgerald Jorg Foeckele Hector Fontanez Mark Freitas of Homocore Chicago Stuart Gaffney Vic Gedris Ed Halter Melissa Higuchi Laura Hudson Miranda July Sean Kaminsky David Kelly Robert Kirby Lexi Leban Miles McKane Charlie McKelway Media Network Allyson Mitchell Siue Moffat Donna Quince Emily B. Real REB Laurence Roberts Elias Rodriguez Terry Roethlein Anie Stanley Mark Taylor Lucy Thane Texas Tomboy Scott Treleaven Michael Wallin Matt Wobensmith Alex Wolfson Virgil Wong CREAMACHINE November 6-13, 1997 Cinema Village Men's Room 22 E. 12th Street (between University Place and Fifth Avenue) New York City An installation by Stephen Kent Jusick and Justin Yockel Inspired by the works of Gary Hill and the Brion Gysin Dreamachines, this installation provides an environment to refract and re-view 8mm gay male porn loops from the 1960s and 1970s.
Drawing on a private collection of 8mm porn, we have selected a number of loops
that run continuously in the Men's bathroom at Cinema Village. Since this 8mm format-originally designed for home or consumer use-is obsolete, and the standards and aesthetics that shaped the content of these loops has shifted so dramatically with the advent of churned-out video porn, we present a series of old images of now-unconventional bodies, camera angles, scenarios, and techniques. By design the environment of the public restroom must be small, and it acts as a partial barrier to viewing the work en masse. It's like a glimpse of the past, seen through peripheral vision, slightly distorted. Projected through lenses, or onto a cloth (a shower curtain?) the installation combines the seediness of porn imagery with a more antiseptic space of a washroom, a space designed for relief and cleanliness.
Here we are contrasting an older gay aesthetic and politics with the squeaky-clean assimilationist tendencies of today's gay establishment, and haunting the whitewashed space with phantasms of those uncompromising and unkempt pioneers who made it possible for today's "just-like-you" mainstream to have it so easy.
By presenting these images in a format that shrugs off authorial intent-by making them difficult to view-we hope to suggest how the ideas they embody have difficulty finding their place the current political discourse around sexuality. We urge viewers to make the extra effort, to look harder, to find something that has been cast off, but that is worth recovering.
A version of Brion Gysin's Dreamachine apparatus, a spinning cylinder carved with runes, from within which images are projected, doubling (or more!) the flicker of standard film projection, completes the installation. Gysin's original concept was to have the viewer sit close (1 or 2 feet away) to the Dreamachine with eyes closed, and let the rhythmic pattern play across the inside of the eyelids. One was then to enter a trancelike state for meditative purposes.
In our Creamachine, we replace the light bulb with a projector, so the viewer can either watch the images, or use the device as Gysin specified, simply by closing one's eyes.
In addition, a modified hand-drier and pay phone convert mundance actions into multi-input experiences as images stream from monitors linked to these devices, while still projections from the ceiling reify the drains in the sinks.