Tryptic

To paint my Tryptic I used primary colours to express the boldness of the topic. Curved lines symbolise tenderness between two men. Each one takes turn watching for disruption of their sex game. Overcoming their fear, they kiss, but the « Big Face » remains worried. (Trypitic contains three JPEG images each 40x40cm.) « Men have been having sex in public comfort stations since the first pissoirs were installed in Paris in the mid-19th century. But the indisputable fact of men seeking sex with other men in public toilets has long been a thorn in the side of a gay political movement and gay and lesbian organizations seeking social acceptance and political rights. …the ideals of a movement that privileges a proud assertion of sexual identity and the restriction of sexual acts to the privatized – preferably state certified – form of the couple… In « Fox and his Friends » by Fassbinder we find the social and sexual space of the tearoom playing a more central role in the narrative, arguably the central role, in terms of its function in providing a space that facilitates interclass contact… However, the greatest memorial to the German tearoom of the 1970s was created, of course, by Frank Ripploh. His film Taxi zum Klo (Taxi to the Toilet, 1980) provides us with a non-moralistic view of the significance of cruising and tearoom sex in the life of one Berlin schoolteacher and, by extension, a broader queer culture. » LUX Off the Streets, Into the Toilets! Marc Siegel 15 Aug 2017 »