How do you break into a fortress? The days of swimming moats and scaling castle walls are over--today we use the Internet. Like many of us Kink.com leads a private life on its austere, impenetrable facade, but an intensely public life online. Voyeurism has evolved since the days of Hitchcock's Rear Window--the mystery is gone. In 2007 Kink.com, a producer of BDSM videos took up residence in the windowless former National Guard Armory and Arsenal, just half a block from Ratio 3. According to the press release, the gallery invited five artists to create work "that uses Kink.com as both an images source and a site for personal investigation". Artists in Safe Word use the open door of the Internet to investigate the pornography company and personal narrative.
Anthony Viti assembles stills from Kink.com's website to a popping rhythm. Starting with found images of San Francisco and progressing to the Armory building, Viti zooms in on one of San Francisco's many sub-cultures. As slides flash by, make-up is applied, actors prepare. Initially it is difficult to discern where the story may lead. The rhythm becomes more intense; the images quickly become more graphic. Using entirely re-appropriated images, Viti is able to give a penetrating view of Kink.com's every-day, how the mundane escalates to the extra-ordinary.
Takeshi Murata takes over Ratio 3's side gallery with a large-scale projection. Using footage taken from Kink.com's website, Murata imposes what clients might traditionally view on a laptop and enlarges it to a floor to ceiling projection with audio overlay audio, presumably from a relaxation tape. The voice instructs, "loosen any tight straps, or restrictive clothing." Murata artfully aligns this with images of an actress loosening the straps on a second actress' shoes. The juxtaposition is grating. While Kink.com distributes its work to the public, it is rarely viewed in a public space. The artist exposes the comfort level of the viewer, possibly more than the actors or what happens behind the two-foot-thick walls of Kink.com.
Amanda Kirkhuff imposes her own narrative on Kink.com. She contributes a life-size nude self-portrait, The Burden, in which her gaze captures and confronts the viewer. It is a powerful piece. Kirkhuff's second drawing, applied directly to the gallery wall, ties the digital nature of Kink.com's product to the intimacy of their subject matter. A full frontal of a female nude, the artist uses a digitized grid to slightly abstract the drawing. The Oldest Profession draws the viewer in for a closer look - Kirkhuff has filled a few squares with small drawings and words: a heart, "gay pride".
The exhibition's title, Safe Word, acknowledges in some ways that there is a limit to everything: BDSM, voyeurism, the pervasiveness of the Internet, even art perhaps.
--Katie Farrell
(Images: Anthony Viti, Still from Mission and 14th, 2009, Single channel video on DVD, 4:44 minutes;
Amanda Kirkhuff, The Burden, 2009, Graphite on paper, 50 x 38 inches; All images courtesy of the artists and Ratio 3, San Francisco)
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