ISSUE Project Room is partnering with TEDxFort Greene to present a series of TEDx salons culminating in a TEDx conference in June 2012. The second TEDxFortGreene Salon hosted at ISSUE Project Room will feature stories of creativity and innovation. Speakers include curator Ingrid LaFleur; bassist Melvin Gibbs, who will speak about his new work The DNA Project in which he uses DNA databases to reconstruct the roots of his family tree; Dr. Ben Dubin-Thaler, whose Cell Motion BioBus is a high-tech laboratory on wheels; and Elastic City founder Todd Shalom, who presents conceptual walks by artists throughout and outside of New York. Hors d’oeuvre and gourmet pizza by local chefs will be served, along with a wine and cognac tasting.

The feminist reception and production of pornography has had a complicated & fascinating trajectory, a discourse of representation often bound by the logic of the male gaze. The Hole Picture brings together a selection of socio-sexual films & videos by artists Barbra Hammer, A.K. Burns and A.L. Steiner that celebrate desire and redefine notions of queer sexuality and the lesbian body. Presenting a multigenerational overview of representation, this screening and panel discussion will focus on contemporary artistic practices which incorporate avant-garde visions of sexuality and erotics, dissecting the trope of pornography itself. Screening will be followed by a discussion with the filmmakers, moderated by art historian Kelly Dennis, author of Art/Porn: A History of Seeing and Touching. This event is presented in collaboration with MIX NYC.

Dyketactics, 1974, 4 minutes, Barbara Hammer
Menses, 1974, 4 minutes, Barbara Hammer
Multiple Orgasm, 1976, 6 minutes, Barbara Hammer
Women I Love, 1976, 22 minutes, Barbara Hammer
Superdyke Meets Madame X, 1977, 20 minutes, Barbara Hammer
Community Action Center, 2010, 69 mins., A.K. Burns + A.L. Steiner

Community Action Center is a 69-minute sociosexual video by A.K. Burns and A.L. Steiner. The piece incorporates the erotics of a community where the personal is not only political, but sexual. This project was heavily inspired by porn-romance-liberation films of the 70′s which served as distinct portraits of the urban inhabitants, landscapes and the body politic of a particular time and place. Community Action Center is a unique contemporary womyn-centric composition that serves as both an ode and a hole-filler.

Because the video contains sexually explicit content, the term ‘porn’ is relevant and the artists have an interest in exploring the trappings of the term itself. Sex, sexuality and the complexities of gendered bodies are inherently political. Queer sex and feminist agency is a shared acknowledgment of reciprocal penetration. This project is a small archive of an intergenerational community built on collaboration, friendship, sex and art. The work attempts to explore a consideration of feminist fashion, sexual aesthetics and an expansive view of what is defined as ‘sex’. Burns and Steiner worked with artists and performers who created infinitely complex gender and performance roles that are both real and fantastical, set to a soundtrack of music and original compositions by artists culled from the worldwide sisterhood. The video seeks to expose and reformulate paradigms that are typical of porn typologies, intentionally exploiting tropes for their comical value, critical consideration and historical homage. Using the gallery to exer/exorcise the mystical and discreet lost spaces of homosocial configuration, the artists have created a reason and a space to reflect on the cultural realness of homo-grown lesbian sexuality. The work aims to be a hedonistic and distinctly political adventure.

Menses, 1974 by Barbara Hammer

Women I Love, 1976 by Barbara Hammer

Dyketactics, 1974 by Barbara Hammer

Since 1987, MIX NYC has presented the latest in queer experimental film and previously unseen works from legendary figures in avant-garde cinema. In addition to our vanguard screenings, exciting interactive installations, and infamous parties, MIX NYC also provides year-round community screenings, a summer media workshop for queer youth, film preservation projects, and the groundbreaking ACT UP Oral History Project, documenting how collective action transformed AIDS activism, queer identity and health care in America.

The Experimental Television Center’s Presentation Funds program is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts.

ISSUE’s Littoral Series is made possible, in part, through generous support from The Casement Fund and the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York’s 62 counties.