ARTWORKER OF THE WEEK #30

Dean Sameshima @ aspreyjacques, London, UK

Dean Sameshima's photographs are intensely autobiographical documents of the people, places and images he knows best. For his first London solo show Outlaw II (Silverlake) -- re-photographed images from an '80s soft-porn magazine and photos of an unpopulated Los Angeles leather bar -- he continues his exploration of gay culture and some of its rather complicated paradoxes. Sameshima's pictures resound with a universal notion of longing, desire and loss that can uncannily get under any viewer's skin.


Dean Sameshima's Outlaw II (Silverlake) exhibition at aspreyjacques runs through 15/05. The below interview took place in Los Angeles.


Jill Martinez Krygowski: You often make photographs in series from magazines. In some of the earliest work from your ongoing series Modern Boys, you re-photographed pictures of models from popular fashion magazines. The current installation of Deaf Dudes is photographed from an '80s soft porn magazine. Although the process is similar (close cropping, graphic quality) can you describe how Deaf Dudes diverges formally and/or conceptually from your earlier work?

Dean Sameshima: Hmmm. Well, honestly, close to graduating from Art Center I decided to eliminate the purchasing of fashion and art magazines. I found that both were affecting me in a negative way -- and on that note perhaps, especially the fashion magazines, have always affected me in a negative way. Like my self-esteem, how they shaped my desire(s) in what I expected from myself and other men. Also, I think the fact that I am older now, the newer work, at least for me, seems more realistic (mature?), emotionally and conceptually. The Deaf Dude (the actual name of the article was Languages of Men), since presenting them again in London, I realised that there is a melancholy in the portraits. Also, a lot of the time he is staring at you directly in the eye, so as to not only communicate with his hands, but with his eyes... I tore out the source material and held on to them, for some reason, since the early '90s... I realised that the model, who was photographed for a 1984 soft-core gay magazine, can most likely be dead. Perhaps this man once cruised at the Gauntlet.

JMK: Roland Barthes said, "The photograph (in its literal state), by virtue of is analogical nature, seems to constitute a message without a code." The use of sign language in Deaf Dudes has been described as echoing your "interest in the notion of a specifically gay sexual language". Besides the obvious signing by the deaf model ("ejaculation", "blow job") how are these images "encoded" with this notion of gay sexuality?

DS: Maybe I put too much emphasis on this particular man. Then again, it is I that is sexualising this man... I initially intended his portraits to be seen metaphorically, perhaps literally with the Gauntlet II images (signs, signing, a man to fill the empty space). I have been thinking a lot about my own past. How I cruised Silverlake when I was 16, as soon as I got a drivers licence. I was thinking about how I discovered and learned slowly but surely about cruising and the use of signs -- handkerchiefs, an earring in the right ear, leather bands on the upper arms, as with handkerchiefs, left for top/aggressive, right for bottom/passive, direct heavy eye contact. Piercings were a code for the "queer" set in the late '80s early '90s thanks to the participants Club Fuck (also, to go back as far as the '50s when a gentleman would wear a red tie as a sign of homosexuality). I have also been thinking about my undergrad project Wonderland and how my then boyfriend introduced me to the book Sexual Outlaw. I related to Rechy's obsessive need for validation through cruising, being cruised and anonymous sex. Actually I realise I still am constantly looking for validation EVERY single time I enter a gay bar/club/party/event. I guess this is where I can really get into race politics in the "community", maybe not.

JMK: It seems that most anyone, hetero or homosexual, seeks validation on some level when in a bar, club or party type of environment. Can you elaborate a bit further on what you mean by race politics in the "community"?

DS: I understand that there may be others (gay or straight) that seek validation on various levels, again I am just speaking of my experiences and observations. Asians seem to be at the bottom of the totem pole of desirability in the gay "community"; on the other hand, there is the lingering stereotype/fetish of Asians being submissive, docile boys. To this day, I still hear racist remarks from other gay men. Invisibility is an issue I personally continue to struggle with. Then again, my former instructor, Millie Wilson, told me in undergrad, "Oh Dean, desire is never politically correct", and that is something I really took seriously in grad school, when I finally found the guts to photograph actual people. In 99% of all portraits I take of other guys, I see them as self-portraits. In a sense, the males I choose are guys I wish I could look like, if I could look like anyone else than myself, it would be the boys/men I ask to pose.

JMK: The series Gauntlet II accompanies Deaf Dudes in the exhibition. You have made photographs of men in nightclubs, at a distance, without your subject's initial knowledge. Did you photograph the bar in the same stealth manner? What drew you to photograph the Gauntlet II leather bar without any people in the space?

DS: I have been frequenting Gauntlet II for a while now. I have always known of the Gauntlet and Gauntlet II, and been there a very few times since I was of age. On a fluke myself and a few friends went there to escape the crowd of Akbar. At first we were a bit self-conscious, getting a few odd looks, but there was something about Gauntlet II that kept driving us to want to be there. I have befriended quite a few of the regulars and staff since. It is a space where I feel very comfortable -- even though I don't dress in uniform, leather from head to toe, and I'm not a bear, they treat me with respect. Unlike the typical haunts, like Akbar, I am not as self-conscious there. I see it this way -- they are a community that chooses to stay outside the norm, at least at night. Chances are they will not even think about entering a mainstream gay bar/club; rarely if ever you will see a uniformed man in any mainstream gay establishment. And me being Asian, not by choice, I can relate to them. So one night I was talking to the manager about what he knew of the history of Gauntlet II and I told him I was an artist and asked if he would let me photograph this historical space. I say historical right now in fear that it may change or disappear. Seems as though Silverlake is becoming SO gentrified. All the sex clubs have been shut down by law enforcement. There are "no cruising" signs posted where the sexual outlaw once cruised at night, after hours. So, again I asked to photograph the space. I chose the daytime, deplete with people so I can show the space, the decor, the layout without any seal of a demographic, and I think the images speak volumes because of that. It is THE oldest leather/fetish/uniform bar in Silverlake that is still in business; the rest have closed or have been sold out, due to change in the demographics in Silverlake and/or lack of business (for instance Detour is now a straight club). I felt my images captured the space successfully in that you can't tell if it's from the '70s, '80s, '90s... it's era-less. To get back to the question, no, the Gauntlet II was photographed with a 4x5 camera and with complete knowledge of the managers, with permission, and I wanted that also to be clear in the images, PERMISSION... It was so great to see their reaction when two images were published in the magazine CSNA. They were so pleased, even talked about how different the bar looked, and how beautiful it actually is -- and this is coming from people who are there almost every night! One bartender even asked me to autograph the magazine for him!! That was great!!

JMK: I understand that these pictures to a certain extent represent a disappearing aspect of the culture.

DS: I guess I may have spoken too much with the above question. But, yes, I feel there are the special aspects of Silverlake that is slowly now disappearing, or already gone. Historically, Silverlake was known as a sort of oasis for gay men and women and its great mix with very multi-ethnic families and artist types. In the past few decades it has become increasingly expensive, hence the cleansing and even shutting down of certain establishments, and the decline of the "edginess" that Silverlake was known for. Straight AND gay affluent, upper-class types and new businesses that are all trying to make Silverlake their own Beverly Hills with a slight edge -- they are the ones that complained about the after hours cruising and the sex clubs being too close to their homes and families. The bars now seem to accommodate and cater to their needs and interests. The Gauntlet has been around since the '70s, I was told. In 1984 (same date as the magazine in which I got the source material for Deaf Dudes was published) the Gauntlet was up for sale, and the name Gauntlet was up for grabs. It was bought by the -- then -- infamous piercing salon. So the current owner had to change the name to Gauntlet II. To me, Gauntlet II is the only establishment that still has the same atmosphere, aura that represents part of what Silverlake used to be about and I wanted to capture that. The emptiness is so you can imagine all types from all decades hanging out, cruising.

JMK: Perhaps the popular media representation of gays -- for example television shows like Will and Grace and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy -- aren't exactly coups. Is mainstreaming of gay culture a good thing?

DS: I am but one voice, but at this point and time, YES I do think the mainstreaming of gay culture is somewhat a let down. For a lot of people they see this as a fight they have been working at their ENTIRE lives, which is great for them. On the other hand people need to realise that "gay culture" can't and should not be so comfortably compacted; we should be saying "gay cultures". Since the early '90s, some members of the now defunct Queer Nation were saying that gays need to go back to the closet, a very interesting and haunting thought that has lingered in my head.



Jill Martinez Krygowski is an independent curator living and working in Los Angeles. She has organised exhibitions at LACMA, the Korean Cultural Center, and ART2102 and published in LACMA's magazine. Recently she has edited an issue of the online artzine, periscopes.org.


Image © the artist, courtesy of aspreyjacques

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