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Cindy Sherman. Untitled #257, 1992Courtesy the artist and Sadie Coles Gallery

Hardcore: inside the XXX-rated new show about transgressive sex

Featuring work from Cindy Sherman, Bruce LaBruce and Carolee Schneeman, the new exhibition at London’s Sadie Coles wants to ‘emancipate us from prudency’

On a sun-drenched May evening in Soho, London, visitors came in their droves to Sadie Coles’ anticipated new exhibition opening, Hardcore. Inside the packed-out gallery space on Kingly Street was a somewhat surreal sight to behold: people dodging the swings of Monica Bonvicini’s gigantic mechanised flogger, friends casually drinking beers in front of 40 of Carolee Schneemann’s vulvas, and onlookers politely studying a life size-portrait of artist Bob Flanagan with his penis stretched out in a BDSM torture device. A curious mix of explicit sexuality laid bare and the happy clamour of a spring night in the city, it oddly seemed to capture what’s so special about Soho – a cobbled patch of London where luxury shops and buzzy restaurants coexist with slippery histories of sex work and niche underground subcultures, dating as far back as the 1800s. 

The scene also spoke to one of the important conversations Hardcore is trying to have; about the boundless subjectivity of sex and pleasure and its right to take up space in galleries, to be seen by people, whether they identify with it or not. Through the work of 18 contemporary provocateurs, Hardcore shines a light on the more extreme, niche and shocking portrayals of sex in contemporary art – from languages of fetish and fantasy to confronting stories of exploitation and bodily autonomy. Mixing legendary contemporary artists such as Cindy Sherman with new forces like Stanislava Kovalcikova, several of the artists on view have been labelled as “depraved”, “perverse” or “obscene”, and a few have even been censored by other institutions for their work – such as polymathic queer artist Bruce LaBruce, whose film L.A. Zombie was banned in Australia in 2010, and mix-media artist Darja Bajagić, whose work explores violence and eroticism through imagery sourced from the depths of the internet. The provocative spirit of the show is perhaps described best by artist and dominatrix Reba Maybury who, in an essay released with its opening, says Hardcore offers us “an emancipation from prudency”.

“The works shown in Hardcore explore the parameters of the human experience, inherent impulses and the more complex dynamics of sex,” curators Sadie Coles and John O’Doherty tell Dazed. “Their works embrace subjects that are often judged as ‘taboo’ or ‘depraved’ without judgement or reproach. In so doing, the works hold a mirror to our personal and societal attitudes and offer valuable, often undermined perspectives on what constitutes pleasure.” 

With their curation, Coles and O’Doherty hope to create a tapestry of perspectives on sex and its lesser-broached subjects. The show, therefore, ranges from private meditations on sexual fantasies, such as Joan Semmel’s gentle painterly ode to foot fetishists, to visceral political artworks, like African American artist KING COBRA‘s grotesque fleshy sculpture The Feast of the Hogs, which confronts the consequences of the transatlantic slave trade and abuses enacted upon Black bodies in the US. One of the more touching stories in the show is that of Bob Flanagan and Sheree Rose, an artistic duo who met in 1980 and entered a sadomasochistic romantic bond that would last the entirety of their lives. Flanagan was a cystic fibrosis sufferer, and it is believed their devoted sub-dom relationship contributed to the lengthening of his life. “Bondage, I can relate to that,” the artist says in Kirby Dick’s 1990s documentary SICK: The Life & Death Of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist. “Being able to control something.”

In celebration of the show, Sadie Coles invited Climax Books founder Isabella Burley to open a temporary shop in the building, where a carefully-selected array of erotic publications, periodicals and ephemera reflect the fearless message of Hardcore. “I have so much respect for Sadie and for her programme, and I really feel like this show feels so monumental,” Burley says. “It’s so assertive in a way that I think a lot of shows haven’t been in London recently.” The dedicated space on the ground floor includes rare materials by Dennis Cooper, Cindy Sherman, Kathy Acker, John Waters, Kembra Pfahler and more, but one of the most special items available is a facsimile edition of Carolee Schneemann’s 1972 book, Parts of a Body House, which includes the artist’s menstrual blood in its pages. “It’s such an amazing object,” Burley says. 

As Hardcore opens for the duration of the summer, Coles and O’Doherty say they hope the show will encourage more open-minded attitudes towards the work of artists who are bravely exploring the edges of human experience. “We are currently living through a time in which cancel culture has produced a timidly lower volume for discussions around difficult and more nuanced examinations of sexuality, and simultaneously, there are repressive conservative forces that seek to demonise or police sexuality,” they say. “In bringing these varied perspectives together, our hope is that Hardcore will generate more open and tolerant conversations.”

Hardcore at Sadie Coles HQ in London is on show until 5 August 2023.

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