Sex & relationships: Archives of arousal
A woman, naked, is hanging from four chains, each connected to a wrist or ankle.
A barebacked (and bare-fronted) couple is swathed in leather, their limbs at once splayed and entwined.
A man stands nude, tenderly cupping his manhood.
And Catherine Johnson-Roehr, curator of the gallery at the Kinsey Institute, stands fielding a compliment on her cardigan — a nice, knitted turquoise affair — from a colleague who happens to be a sex researcher. You almost expect her to suggest a spot of afternoon tea and a game of bridge.
If it weren’t for the images on the walls, you wouldn’t suspect you were deep inside Indiana University’s famed sex research institute, where Johnson-Roehr has been examining highly sexual material — both graphic and artistic — for the past eight years.
“I have a fun job, working with a lot of interesting materials,” she said. “.‘You have the best job.’ I hear that a lot.”
But Johnson-Roehr also has the crushing boredom of clerical duties and the pressure of deadlines. Her working life is not an unending parade of arousal-inducing ephemera. When you’re organizing 100,000 pieces of art — 70,000 of them photographs — you become desensitized to the ephemera more quickly than most.
Johnson-Roehr works on the second floor of an otherwise unremarkable university building with low ceilings, narrow corridors and cramped offices, and seems like an any busy, middle-aged university type, until you realize her sentences are littered with phrases you wouldn’t hear elsewhere. The words “really fabulous testicle portraits” and “collage of vulvas” stand out.
But Alfred Kinsey didn’t collect art with the intention of proudly displaying his huge, constantly growing collection, she explains. He saw art as a way of documenting sexuality.
Kinsey had a great relationship with the members of the police, for instance, which was useful in obtaining images we might now consider innocuous but which were illegal then. That relationship led to some of the stranger items in the collection, like some original Black Dahlia crime scene photos.
But in other ways, the collection is a veritable pornucopia. The library’s glass case proudly displays copies of “Deep Throat,” “Swedish Erotica” magazine and “The Big Book of Porn.” They also have a well-known stag film collection, the earliest of which dates to 1915. Those are shown every so often at the school.
“The auditorium is always packed for those screenings,” Johnson-Roehr said. “They’re really quite fun to watch.”
As I walked back toward Johnson-Roehr’s office, I was confronted by a not-quite-abstract chalk drawing of fellatio, opposite a blown-up photograph of six strapping, naked black men called the Mandingos, hanging out at a swinger’s convention.
Johnson-Roehr pointed out that the sextet of men in the photo only agreed to the shot if the photographer herself agreed to be naked while conducting the shoot, thereby involving herself in the artistic project.
In a way, the curator was showing me that the art was more important for the questions it raised than anything else it raised.
“It’s such a rich collection,” Johnson-Roehr said. “I don’t think we’re ever going to run out of things to do shows about.”
Current shows: “Sex and Presidential Politics,” until Jan. 23; and “Pre-Revolutionary Queer: Gay Art and Culture Before Stonewall,” until Feb. 14.
Where: Morrison Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington.
Hours: Monday through Friday, 2 to 4 p.m.
Info: (812) 855-7686 or www.kinseyinstitute.org/services...
sex, relationships, Kinsey Institute, porn, sex toys, erotica, Mandingos
Who is paying for this? Taxpayers? Tuition dollars?
Yes, who is paying for all this enlightenment?
This is just nothing more than a new way to market porn.this is why my kids will never go to I U.
To James47, real smart withhold your children from a top-tier school in the hopes they will not learn about sex when they reach the “young” age of 18-22? I must applaude people like you that have no idea what goes on in high school, keep turning the blind-eye, James. Real men of genius, you are!
Konrad.Marshall : RE: Sex & relationships: Archives of arousal More..
Actually, I asked about funding for the gallery, and the curator explained that they don’t have any acquisition budget, so the works aren’t coming out of the taxpayer purse.
The gallery essentially relies on donations and gifts. Kinsey naturally gathered much of the collection himself, but on top of that people frequently come forward with items to donate. Their grandmother will pass away, and in going through the cupboards after her death they’ll find some rare item that fits the mission of the gallery, and call the curator.
As far as the art hanging on the walls of the gallery goes, the gallery doesn’t buy these works from the artists – they merely provide the artists with a place to exhibit their works. The gallery itself is not a large space either – just one small room in a large building, along with a corridor of wall space.
On the whole, it seems like quite a self-reliant, important and interesting part of IU. If you live in Indy, I recommend driving down there to visit the place.
Adrianne Courtney : RE: Sex & relationships: Archives of arousal More..
I agree Konrad, I recommend going down there to see it. The Kinsey Institute and the gallery are fascinating and are put together in a way that doesn’t just scream pornography. It is truly educational, and I guarantee everyone would learn something. Yes, there are some things that will make you blush, but the fact of the matter is that this small institute holds one of the largest collections in the world. People from all over the globe come to visit and donate their items or works of art. The Kinsey Institute is a fixture on IU’s campus, but I actually managed to go there for 4 years and never set foot inside Kinsey. It wasn’t until I graduated that I went back to take the tour. So, James, saying that this small building on a large campus is the reason you won’t send your children there is really quite narrow-minded. If your children are into music and choose not to attend one of the most prestigious music schools in the nation so be it. If they have dreams of owning their own company or being the CEO of a Fortune 500 company someday and they want to look away from one of the top business schools in the US, then they are the ones missing out. It isn’t like you go to orientation, take your campus tour, learn the fight song and then go check out some 18 century vibrators. There are plenty of people that are IU grads that never even knew it existed. I think that is a shame, but the point is that going to a top university to get an education and having porn thrown in your face don’t equate. IU turned down thousands of students this year, some valedictorians of their high school class. Their freshman class is actually ranked in the country for one of the highest overall GPA’s of an incoming class. I don’t think IU is hurting for exceptionally bright students to get an education. And, just to open your eyes even more, check out www.sexweekatyale.com. Even the Ivy League dabbles…
condoms are porn? Riiiiiiight. When I get home tonight, I think I’ll lock myself in the bathroom and stare at a pack of condoms.
Adrianne Courtney : RE: Sex & relationships: Archives of arousal More..
Is switching between laytex and polyurethane like switching from girl on girl to group action?
Thanks for the invitation, but I’ll pass. As a state employee with a mountain of student loan debt, road trips to Bloomington aren’t in my budget.
Drinky_McGee : RE: Sex & relationships: Archives of arousal More..
Sex is bad, mmmmkay?
Christiebelle : RE: Sex & relationships: Archives of arousal More..
Drinky I think we should take a car load of people to see this!
Drinky_McGee : RE: Sex & relationships: Archives of arousal More..
A sexy car load!
Konrad, I have to give you props for the “tenderly cupping his manhood” line.
Remember this next time they want to use your tax money for more art funding. They did say this was art?
Do you know any Art Teachers? Most of their “funding” is out of pocket. Most art exhibits are Philanthropical. Try opening your mind boner-head…I…I mean, bone-head.
Drinky_McGee : RE: Sex & relationships: Archives of arousal More..
Yo, David! You might want to read Konrad’s post up above. The part where he says this collection isn’t funded by tax dollars. I know it would help your blighted world view to believe that the godless, heathen government is funding funbag displays, but it’s simply not true.
I wonder where you’d draw the line, though? You and the other neo-puritans here. The collection mentioned above has much to do with archiving culture rather than art, but since it’s been brought up, at precisely what point does the human body become a shameful thing? At what point does its depiction stop being art? Shall we put a fig leaf on Michelangelo’s David? Banish Botticelli? Maybe change Titian’s name because it makes teenage boys snicker?
OK, Titian’s name does still make me snicker, Drinky. I can’t help it.
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