Asked by prosecutor Charles Gills to define the “love that dare not speak its name” during his infamous trial for sodomy and gross indecency, Oscar Wilde responded, “It is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it. It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an … Continue reading
It was probably the garish pink walls and the gaudy iridescent sea green curtains pushed to the side that drew me into Jeffrey Deitch’s The Florine Stettheimer Collapsed Time Salon at the 2017 incarnation of the Armory Show. I mean, how could I not resist something so irresistibly tacky?! Not to mention, the simply decadent … Continue reading
Well, I know I promised days ago, faithful Filthy Dreams readers, that I wasn’t going to do a tired old best of list, but Filthy Dreams is nothing if not inconsistent and unpredictable. While I was going to write another “making up for lost time” review of Jordan Wolfson’s show at David Zwirner, I decided … Continue reading
In 2016, the figure of the dandy has fallen somewhat out of fashion. It is, of course, a throwback to an earlier decidedly gay–rather than queer–aesthetic. The hypermasculine clone image still goes strong, probably due to its reliance on the safety of masculinity. But the troubling “gender inversion” of the fairy leaves the aesthetic–much like Jack Halberstam’s discussion of Brandon Teena’s gender performance in In A Queer Time And Place–as an anachronism. Continue reading