The opening night party of Hazel Dooney’s PORNO exhibition at MARS gallery in Port Melbourne was one of the best attended gallery events I have attended, equalled perhaps only by the opening of Gorker gallery (but that was the opening of the gallery itself and its first exhibition). Hazel’s art / porn proved popular with the art public, as did the music of Deborah Conway and the talk by academic Julianne Schultz.

The colour photos before the exhibition opened.
Photo (c) Hazel Dooney – used with permission

I got there early in order to get a good look at all the works again before the crowds arrived. It was interesting to see the finished watercolours on the back wall that completed the shape of the collection of works in the space. The nibbles, wine and conversation were all excellent. I was thrilled to get a signed tshirt from Hazel.

I’m not sure that I am qualified to discuss the work, or whether my opinions are of any use to anyone else. Years ago as an academic one of my areas of expertise was the representation of sexuality in popular culture (I wrote my Honours dissertation on Madonna’s SEX book).

It was difficult to tell how much the audience was really looking at the individual images. My girlfriend thought that the colour photos were more difficult to look at than the black and white ones. In our conversation on Tuesday I’d asked Hazel about the cultural differences between them: black and white is historically considered ‘art’ whereas colour is advertising, pop and porn. My girlfriend also thought that people could not bring themselves to stand so close to the colour photos compared to the black and white photos.

The black and white photos during the exhibition.
Photo (c) Hazel Dooney – used with permission

There’s no point in being coy or overly subtle in describing the works. The three large watercolours depict fellatio in lurid colours. Some of the photos are straightforward portraits that, while nude, could be broadly considered ‘art’, erotic portraits, culturally acceptable. Photos of the tall Hazel in the arms of a shorter Asian woman are erotic and sensual but not pornographic in terms of being explicit. Some of the photos were taken by Hazel; the others she has curated from the collections of friends and lovers.

Some of the photos are explicit, and fit the general definition of porn – depicting sexual acts to arouse the viewer, not make them think or feel something other than arousal. The diversity of the collection of images in the exhibition suggests that it is not a simple matter to say what is porn and what is not. Intellectual hierarchies between art and porn are meaningless here.

It is not immediately evident that there are no men depicted. Women are shown alone or together, and in one photo that suggests it is the consequence to the watercolours, a woman lies with her head tilted back, cum on her lips – the classic money shot. In simulating and critiquing the styles and poses of porn through art, PORNO questions how women are represented in porn and contemporary media in general.

If the standard feminist argument is that women are objectified by men (in front of and behind the camera) in heterosexual porn, what do images of women alone (some produced by women) and of women together (photographers unknown) signify? The victim argument refutes the possibility of affirmative female sexual agency.

Images of cunnilingus suggest an acknowledgement of female sexual pleasure, agency and subjectivity. Of all the images, they are the least like the faux lesbian images common in heterosexual male porn. They look authentic, but how can anyone tell for sure?

There is something quite surreal (from my perspective as a heterosexual male) about having a conversation with a female artist who is also a subject in the work, and that work is photographic and clearly identifies her face and body. I asked my girlfriend about this and she felt the same (I was trying to think whether this was only a heterosexual male response). It feels strange to talk to someone who is a new acquaintance and know for sure that she has (or had) a shaved pussy.

Although quietly spoken and seemingly reserved, Hazel also appears to have immense inner personal strength and sense of purpose. I cannot imagine exposing myself in this way. The subjective and conceptual experience she shares with the audience is very powerful. Seeing the work without having met Hazel surrounded by it would not be as powerful an experience.

If PORNO invokes critical reflection about sexual agency and subjectivity then I think the work has achieved something more than simply producing more arty erotica (not that there’s anything wrong with that). I’ve been thinking about it for days, and I wonder how other people who attended the opening night feel about it.

Update 4 August 2008: According to the Age, christians were planning to protest, but it came to nothing, and Hazel made a positive reference to my review of the show on her blog.