Its clear that there is a definite link between the idea of Sex and Art for Paul Clinton “When I Think About Art, I think About Sex” This can be seen throughout most of his work, for example The Video that he collaborated on with Susanne Oberbeck for their musical Project/Band together, as they play almost reversed stereotyped roles in seducing each other into a sexual act, reflecting Clinton’s aim to reject the Hetero-sexual masculinity of most other bands from around early 2000’s Camden and Shoreditch.
This obsession to explore his sexuality through his projects could be linked to the fact that he is homosexual and this impacts and inspires his work to an extent, it is interesting to me although I can entirely relate to it as I’m Heterosexual. I also believe that a band can be in-masculine and vulnerable in a Heterosexual way and infact I am currently in several projects of this kind, however its great to hear ideas and to see work from a different perspective in music and bands and I may incorporate sexuality into my own work at some point, but for the meantime its not a theme that interests me greatly.
I thought the most successful piece of work that he showed us was in in Southend on Sea in the focal Point gallery titled ‘Duh? Art and Stupidity’ (Image below), which for me showed all the various themes and ideas he had started to explore from His band ‘No Bra’ through to his writing and now into his Art exhibitions, had been collected and seem to all culminate successfully into this piece, which looked at ‘Queer stupidity’ a stereotype that gay people in the media are traditionally shown to be dramatic or stupid, but feeling inspired by Deleuze, he realised that you could be Stupid in a clever way, and the exhibition aims to be stupid in an obvious way but clever at the same time e.g. having so many video installations and sculptures in the same space making it impossible to actually concentrate or engage in the work.
A still from ‘Duh? Art And Stupidity’ 2016
Scott Clark Artwork 