On New Year’s Eve, the electricity in my family’s home in Pittsburgh flickered ominously and then, went dark. In the distance, orange and pink lights flashed vibrantly like strobe lights in the sky, as a buzzing sound, reminiscent of Dean Hurley’s ever-present static bursts in Twin Peaks: The Return, echoed furiously. If the impromptu disco … Continue reading
What the hell am I looking at? This was the question I continually asked myself as I wandered aimlessly through the Carnegie Museum of Art’s 2018 Carnegie International. What is this pile of industrial materials in the Hall of Sculpture? What is this coffee stand? What are these random photographs? Why was I so tragically … Continue reading
In her essay “Video Remains: Nostalgia, Technology and Queer Archive Activism,” Alexandra Juhasz discusses the importance of “queer archive activism” in preserving the lives of queer folks. Speaking in reference to her own documentary Video Remains, Juhasz explains, “It is not our suffering that is compelling but our willingness to name and record it, and in so doing, make communal and move into the present” (328). Continue reading
Why hello there, dearest Filthy Dreams readers? What’s that? Where have I been? While I know I’ve been slightly ignoring you, faithful Filthy Dreams readers these past couple weeks, it’s been for a good cause because I’ve been installing my newest exhibition–a group show Night Fever at Pittsburgh’s Future Tenant. The show focuses on disco and its … Continue reading
Why hello there, dearest of dear patriotic Filthy Dreams readers! What’s that? You hear the boom of fireworks already? Well, grab a beer or a case and try not to get your hands blown off lighting up those bottle rockets. Rather than do a video post that we, here at Filthy Dreams, like to do on … Continue reading
Filthy Dreams Editor’s Note: From yiffing to erotic Furry illustrations (warning–don’t Google) to men in suits with tails attached wandering through Downtown Pittsburgh, Anthrocon is a yearly dose of be-furred hilarity in a city that already tends toward the surreal. Unfortunately stuck in New York and missing this year’s annual gawking at the Furries, I asked … Continue reading
In Susan Sontag’s seminal On Photography, Sontag states, “A photograph is both a pseudo-presence and a token of absence. Like a wood fire in a room, photographs–especially those of people, of distant landscapes and faraway cities, of the vanished past–are incitements to reverie. The sense of the unattainable that can be evoked by photographs feeds … Continue reading