Art-or-porn

RMIT Gallery's Pleasure exhibition celebrates artists who use the body to not only embellish and adorn but also as a personal and intimate metaphor. While we live in a world where sexualised imagery and online pornography are commonplace, artists have for centuries used the body as a canvas to explore identity and sexuality. Many of the works in Pleasure are highly erotic or graphic in their content. However, they depict sexuality through an alternative lens to mainstream pornography, providing the nuanced perspectives of voices usually silenced in an aggressive online pornographic culture.

When Jeff Koons debuted his "Made In Heaven"series, the art world gasped at the nerve of the sculptor who had made his name with reproductions of Michael Jackson and his monkey. How tame Bubbles must have seemed to critics faced with an entire exhibition of Koons fornicating with his then-wife, Italian pornstar and parliamentarian Ilona Staller. Though Koons would graduate to a career of reproducing mammoth inflatable dogs and befuddling members of British high society , it was neither the first nor last time that so-called "fine art" appeared to slip into the land of pornography which, for the purposes of this piece, means visuals primarily intended to elicit arousal. Whether it's Jonathan Yeo's porn-clipping collages of celebrities and politicians or a re-blogged image from That Hipster Porn NFSW , the line between art and pornography is consistently blurred. Photographer Nan Goldin caused a media frenzy when a collection of her work -- including an image of a young girl standing and looking at her naked sister lying on the floor beneath her -- was shredded in France. In a talk last year, Goldin noted that she doesn't think of the audience when she's at work: "There are a few times when my stomach tells me it's not appropriate to photograph Goldin went on to place the onus on the viewer.

Our websites may use cookies to personalize and enhance your experience. By continuing without changing your cookie settings, you agree to this collection. For more information, please see our University Websites Privacy Notice. Art in its various forms — from sculpture and painting to photography and, most recently, digital media — has moved, delighted, and sometimes provoked people. And pornography has been regarded by some as a source of erotic pleasure, while being denounced as offensive or even harmful by others.

A middle aged, average-looking man knocks on the door and is met by the woman, who is carrying two glasses of wine. The film features salaciously long sex scenes between two young women and is shot from angles that put anatomy front and center. While the critics tore the movie apart with justifications of their dissent—ranging from rage at the patriarchy to gratuitous indecency—it was clear the movie made people feel uncomfortable.