NOVEMBER 25, 1994 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 23
ENTERTAINMENT
Lesbian and gay art show illustrates the need for more
Reviewed by Barry Daniels
At 8 pm of Friday, November 11, the small Griffon Gallery on Cleveland's West 9th Street felt very much like a New York subway at rush hour. The event that filled the space to overflowing was the "Queer as They Wanna Be" exhibition of work by gay and lesbian artists. Although it was fairly difficult to view the art and the performance going on, there was a happy buzz in the room full of mostly gay and lesbian Clevelanders literally rubbing against one another, chatting, laughing, and enjoying the white wine and well-catered food.
Suspecting that the well advertised event would attract a crowd, I arrived early in order to view the art. Slightly more than half the gallery space was covered floor to ceiling with a fairly good selection of work in a variety of media that reflected the diversity of our community's tastes and desires.
Of the work by men, I was most attracted to the photographs by Tom Ritter and Jimi Sweet. Sweet's color print of the crotch of a faded and tattered pair of discarded jeans is a beautifully lit, almost abstract, composition with just the right hint of the memory of an erotic adventure. Ritter's black and white photographs include elegantly conceived portraits and nudes. In the lovely and poignant Two Men, the white flesh of the two men embracing seems to merge. A triptych, AIDS Quilt 87, tells a moving story. The first print shows an ACT UP demonstration. The second shows the tombstone of a gay Vietnam veteran. On it you can read the inscription: "When I was in the military/They gave me a medal for killing two men/And a discharge for loving one." The final print shows the AIDS Quilt spread out on the Mall in Washington, D.C. Face of AIDS: Mark and Jean hits you in the gut. The man in a hooded
sweatshirt looks like a medieval deathhead as he rests against his women friend's breast. Although speaking less to my own preferences, Baltimore artist David Grinnell's photographs of semi-nude men in leather paraphernalia are accomplished works. His nude Shadowman Shadow demonstrates a very real talent. The nude figure casts a shadow on a white wall in an image that seems like a series of musically alternating black and white bands.
Dennis Ackerman's amusing and energetic paintings, Two Studs in a Tub and Pondering a Woman's Proposal, use squiggly strokes of bright color to portray steamy and sexy same-sex couples.
Of the works by women, Barbara Bodemer's black and white photographs were among the most powerful images in the show. Her female nudes are tightly framed by the dark edge of the photographs in such a way that a tension is created between the edge and the body it confines. Elaine Bishop's oil painting, Trapped in Blue, is a vigorous, almost cubist, nude that expresses the same feeling of confinement and oppression. Sherrie Justice's canvases, Gilded Cage and Days of Heaven use a collage of fabric and stitching. They are fine abstract work that have a foreboding or brooding quality about them.
Crammed into a front corner of the gallery, Thaddeus Root performed Sewing, a forty minute piece during which Root sits on a low platform that is covered with white cloth and strings a necklace of real sheep hearts. Root, wearing a flowing white skirt, has pale skin and blond hair and is pierced in the ears and nose. His physical delicacy contrasts with the raw animal hearts. Necklace complete, he exits wearing it and carrying a white bowl containing the blood.
I left the Griffon Gallery in high spirits.
GIFTS OF ATHENA
Make Your Holiday Shopping Fun and Easy!
Come see our selection of jewelry, t-shirts, gifts, cards, and, of course, great books for
everyone on your list.
Open Mon-Fri 10-7 Sat 10-6; Sun 12-5 (closed Tues)
Gifts of Athena; 2199 Lee Road; Cleveland Hts.
-
371-1937
BARBARA BODEMER
Gallery manager, Sue Urban, shows a piece of artwork to Melisa Jewl.
Then walking home across the Detroit-Superior Bridge, I was struck by the thought: How desperate we are for occasions to celebrate the talent in our community.
I commend gallery directors Wendy Belich and Sue Urban for putting up this exhibition, but I was disturbed by some of the things they said to me. One of the reasons they did this show was they are committed to representing Cleveland's diverse communities. But when asked why the work was on display only for the weekend, Belich indicated that it was too near the holiday season to have this art in the gallery, and that she would be more comfortable mounting an extended exhibition of gay
and lesbian work when she has expanded into an upstairs space. I find this attitude that the expression of a gay or lesbian self that includes our sexuality will offend the “normal" public at the very heart of our society's oppression of gay people.
If we are going to part of a healthy and open community, we need our artists to be not special events, but regular ones. We need galleries and institutions that will nurture our artists and give them the opportunity to express their unique visions. One thing the success of the "Queer as They Wanna Be❞ evening demonstrates is how much the Cleveland art scene needs our fabulousness.
Gay People's Chronicle Night
at the
RED DOG
1962 East Gay Street Columbus, Ohio
Body Language
3291 W. 115th
(1/2 block North of Lorain)
Cleveland 216/251-3330
Since 1984
Hours: Mon.-Sat. Noon-9PM Sunday Noon-5PM
Books, Magazines, Videos, Leather & Accessories Think Body Language for Holiday Gifts Largest Selection in the Area
Calendars: Colt, Tom of Finland, Bear, Soho, more. Books, including the newly published "Unofficial Gay Man-ual" a must in every gay man's home 111 titles of magazines
Expanded leather and exotic accessories New this year; Christmas Decorations, Colt & Tom of Finland posters, terry wrap arounds, towels, glass mugs and more, all with a gay and lesbian theme.
December 9th at 9pm
Entertainment by Female Illusionist
Bubbles
to Benefit the AIDS Service Connection
No Cover