Time Out London
August 21-28, 2002
Richard Kern ICA Museums
Described as 'the De Mille of Super 8 Sleaze', Richard Kern is a pornographer who contributes to magazines such as Hustler. Exhibiting his photographs along side Fergus Greer's pictures of Leigh Bowery suggests that they transgress boundaries or explore gender identity. They don't. Rather than casting heterosexual male desire in a fresh light, they reiterate tired cliches. Kern likes them young - for me, disturbingly so. His models often look like schoolgirls whose fresh faces make the exposure of their bits more exciting, like having sex with a virgin. Some have shaved their pubes. They stick up their arses or spread their legs on beds, in kitchens and bending over tables or cars. A hole in the crotch of one girl's tights frames her genitals as she leans over the back seat of a car. The image could be described as humorous; most are deadly serious, though.
Self-conscious poses reveal the dullness of Kern's imagination; the girls are being art directed to corny effect. Miro has a blue condom sticking from her vagina; Debra dribbles toothpaste as if it were cum. Tia and Elizabeth arm-wrestle naked on a polished table that reflects their nubile bodies. More troubling are implications of vulnerability and ill-health. Nicole nurses a black eye with some steak;Joyce doses herself with echinacea; Sue takes her temperature.
In his book, Kern shows girls being trussed up or suffocated beneath polythene - gift wrapped. Lust leads, it seems, to an interest in suffering. Why is the ICA showing this nasty rubbish? Should this man be walking free?
-- Sarah Kent
