Welcome to Filthy Dreams
Well hello there! Welcome to Filthy Dreams, a blog that analyzes culture through a queer lens. Rather than jumping right into new content, we thought it best to introduce ourselves and our aesthetics with our Trash Manifesto
Latest Entries
Lost Paintings: A Look at the Recent Taner Ceylan Exhibition
In today’s art dynamics however figurative painting is somewhere between ‘post-contemporary’ and ‘old skool’. The recently opened exhibition of Turkish hyperrealist painter Taner Ceylan at Paul Kasmin Gallery offers viewers a post-Oriental journey among some voyeuristic yet fashion photography-esque paintings. Continue reading
Lesbians A-Go-Go And Other Sordid Covers From Queer Pulp Fiction
Oh, hello! Didn’t see you come in. Please, come, sit down. What’s that? What am I reading? Oh, I’m glad you asked. It’s a copy of Skid Row Sweetie, the latest find in my collection of trashy queer pulp fiction. Continue reading
Philip-Lorca diCorcia’s Cinematic Ode To Hustlers and Vintage Porn
Following in the footsteps and aesthetic of these cinematic visions of sex work, photographer Philip-Lorca diCorcia’s exhibition Hustlers at the David Zwirner Gallery features diCorcia’s esteemed early 1990s photographs of hustlers in Los Angeles, as well as a more recent video installation Best Seen, Not Heard. Continue reading
It Takes Three To Tango: Filthy Dreams’ List of Things We Hope Will Happen (After Roberta)
Reading Roberta Smith’s fascinating, cathartic and just the right amount of bitter list made us at Filthy Dreams consider what we would like to see happen in both the art and queer scenes. All three of the Filthy Dreams writers put our heads together and cobbled together a list of our dreams that will likely never happen. Continue reading
Wayne Koestenbaum’s ‘My 1980s & Other Essays’ Encourages My Inner Fangirl
In his fantastic essay on art critic James Schuyler in his recently published collection My 1980s and Other Essays, cultural critic and poet Wayne Koestenbaum writes, “Liking is itself an art and a difficult one.” Following this statement like his own personal mantra, Koestenbaum proves the utter critical importance of unabashed obsession and fanaticism. Continue reading
A Few Good (and some Adonis-y) Men in Hudson
Warren Street, where the “fun” happens, is the home to many art galleries, so much so that you may need a whole day solely devoted to see all of them. Carrie Haddad Gallery on the east side of Warren Street is one of these galleries. Continue reading
Filthy Dream’s 5 Films/Videos To Watch If You Hate BBQ’s On Labor Day Weekend
Inspired by my barbeque defection, here’s a list of transgressive, trashy, demented and thoroughly queer underground films and videos you can watch to help you endure the family vacation, block party, barbeque madness. Continue reading
Turn on ‘Karma Chameleon’ and Read This Interview with Greg Newton from Bureau of General Services-Queer Division
I interviewed Greg Newton, the co-founder of Bureau of General Services-Queer Division, a bookstore that is solely devoted to the Queer culture, holding besides books, some magazines, posters, records and even art works by emerging artists, to learn more about the space and their campaign. Continue reading
Capturing the Beauty in Queer Pittsburgh: An Interview with Photographer Caldwell Linker
Photographer Caldwell Linker’s exhibition All Through The Night at the Andy Warhol Museum, on view until September 15, may change this perception of Pittsburgh through their capturing the range, the liveliness and above all, the beauty of Pittsburgh’s queer community. I spoke with Linker about Pittsburgh’s queer scene, the importance of photography in preserving queer bodies and communities and how they would like to affect the viewer of All Through the Night. Continue reading
How Do We Make Them Listen: Thoughts on (re)Presenting AIDS: Culture & Accountability
Visual AIDS and the Pop-Up Museum of Queer History hosted a public forum, (re)Presenting AIDS: Culture & Accountability, to discuss the responsibilities of museums, galleries and other institutions when mounting exhibitions about HIV/AIDS. Organized in part due to Pop Up Museum of Queer History’s Hugh Ryan’s insightful New York Times editorial “How To Whitewash A Plague,” the forum was designed to, as moderator Ann Northrop described, create a space for “productive thinking for future work,” as well as understand the way the community interacts with cultural institutions. Continue reading