Cock, Paper, Scissors
at ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives

Anita Steckel, Anita of New York Meets Tom of Finland, (2004/2005). Mixed media on book pages, 19.6 x 13.5 inches. Image courtesy of the Estate of Anita Steckel and the Suzanne Geiss Company, New York. Photo: Adam Reich.

The collage exhibition Cock, Paper, Scissors cuts and glues fragmented, throbbing bodies into queer and feminist angles and positions. Print media pieces from the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archive and the Leslie-Lohman Museum show alongside newly commissioned works, showcasing the divergent erotic visions of 15 artists. Erections bulge within, and flop out of, tight jeans; well-slicked pectorals glint. The proliferation of toned, male forms is at once a celebration of cisgender masculinity and a phallic overload. These homoerotic figures are, according to the curators, the bodies that crowd the LGBTQ archive. In response, this show strives to also include a more diverse range of forms.

The feminist works that diverge from the clichés of titillation are most indelible. Anita Steckel’s delightful Anita of New York Meets Tom of Finland series (2004/2005) place Tom of Finland’s black-and-white beefcakes in the cradling arms of towering giantesses rendered in bright swathes of color. Here, Tom of Finland’s troupe of sexy men pleasure much more than each other. Suzanne Wright’s collages likewise deconstruct the politics of erotic viewing. In Eight Shuttles (2016), billowing rocket ship smoke clouds the nether regions of a spread eagle woman, presenting a stratified tale of technology, pollution, and discovery of the unknown.                

Cock, Paper, Scissors effectively rips apart, reconnects, and ultimately documents the changing visualizations of lust, from a bygone magazine culture to today. Dusting these pages off and placing them beside contemporary interpretations of the erotic, a compelling history of queer and feminist desire emerges.

Cock, Paper, Scissors runs from April 2-July 10, 2015 at ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives (Plummer Park, Long Hall, 1200 N. Vista Street, West Hollywood, CA 90046).

Suzanne Wright, 8 Shuttles (2016). Photo collage, 32 x 40 inches. Image courtesy of the artist. Photo: Ian Byers- Gamber.

Cock, Paper, Scissors (installation view) (2016). Image courtesy of ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries. Photo: Ian Byers-Gamber.

Steve Blevins, Collage illustration for “Muscle Meat,” Playguy, 7, no. 7 (1983), pp. 32-33. Image courtesy of the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries.

Cock, Paper, Scissors (installation view) (2016). Image courtesy of ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries. Photo: Ian Byers-Gamber.

Anita Steckel, Anita of New York Meets Tom of Finland (2004/2005). Mixed media on book pages, 19.6 x 13.5 inches. Image courtesy of Estate of Anita Steckel and the Suzanne Geiss Company, New York. Photo: Adam Reich.

Cock, Paper, Scissors (installation view) (2016). Image courtesy of ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries. Photo: Ian Byers-Gamber.

Marlene McCarty, Camellia Lou + Stephanie Dawn Fries, (1994-8). Mixed media collage, 11.75 x 8.5 inches. Image courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co.

Simone Krug is a writer, educator, and independent curator based in Los Angeles. Her writing has appeared in Artforum, Art in America, and frieze, among other publications.

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