The photographer, writer and filmmaker Bruce LaBruce crosses the line between pornography and art, he actually crossed every line I can imagine, and he couldn’t care less. Borders are there to be broken, subtlety is for the weak, his images exist to shake your mind and to challenge your own references.
His work is obviously created from a gay persons perspective, or should I say, the perspective of a minority (dominated by a heterosexual western culture). But his art and writings are commenting our society as a whole, our human interaction and the way we approach religious or moral concepts. The dialogue his work starts is interesting enough for a broad audience, and limiting it to “Gay only”, would be a shame.
Bruce LaBruce was kind enough to answer my six questions and to provide me with some images of his work. Be sure to check out his website and the news section, it’s an interesting (and harsh) journey. If your easily offended… well don’t come close.
How would you personally describe the nature of your art?
The nature of my art is harsh and romantic, direct and mercurial.
What artists, art periods, are an inspiration for your own work? And in what way?
Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, and General Idea for their adoption of personae, their multi-media approach, and their mockery of established art and art practices.
Where are your ideas coming from? Does your work reflect your own erotic fantasies & desires?
I’m not always sure where the ideas are coming from. Some of it comes from sexual desires, but some of it tries to oppose or cancel out those desires. It’s always a mysterious process for me.
What you biggest artistic frustration? Or main struggle in your creation process?
For film-making, the funding process is the most frustrating. In general, the main struggle for me creatively is usually lack of motivation.
Is it easy to find places to display your work?
Yes and no. My films, for example, show widely in an international context, but more in terms of festivals and art spaces than commercial venues. My photography is sometimes shunned in art contexts for being too forthrightly pornographic.
Or is erotic art still somewhat taboo in your country?
My country is the place that I am least appreciated as an artist.
