In Suspended Animation, Montgomery Perry Smith converts GCA into a romantic sissy dungeon. A fringed black leather hoop and powdery pink chains and tassels hang like fetishistic ladies-in-waiting. Smith draws equally from kink and crafty domestic décor, inspiring that uneasy feeling you get in a suburban tract home where white doilies are employed to protect every surface from contamination. Just as comforting as a fresh-baked apple pie or lovingly crocheted scarf, the sculptures are akin to homemade fleshlights and blow-up dolls – made for private love and worship. Decorative orifices delicately sprout ladyfingers and fleshy segments, while blushing fleece waterfalls spill. There are hidden mirrors available for quiet reflection and self-viewing.
Blurring the line between exquisite and tacky, Suspended Animation could be hung in the MET, the Museum of Sex or a pervert’s basement. In the spirit of Paul Thek, the hovering objects are memorial pieces imbued with brief infatuations and monumental life-altering events. As reliquaries, they house secrets and anxieties surrounding gay sex in a world where HIV/AIDS can be concealed but is nonetheless omnipresent. The threat of HIV/AIDS is part of the queer scenery, a voice that’s always in the background. It’s unclear whether we have just disrupted some kind of orgy or ritual, and if our role as spectator will animate the objects so that they come back to life. They hang naked, suspended for our viewing pleasure. We are invited to gaze.
MONTGOMERY PERRY SMITH was born in Dallas, TX in 1986. He received a BFA in Fiber and Material Studies from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His evocative forms are often orifice, portal, flower and reliquary at once, resulting in “bodies” that hover between sci-fi beast, rare organic growths and sexual innuendo. Smith lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Blurring the line between exquisite and tacky, Suspended Animation could be hung in the MET, the Museum of Sex or a pervert’s basement. In the spirit of Paul Thek, the hovering objects are memorial pieces imbued with brief infatuations and monumental life-altering events. As reliquaries, they house secrets and anxieties surrounding gay sex in a world where HIV/AIDS can be concealed but is nonetheless omnipresent. The threat of HIV/AIDS is part of the queer scenery, a voice that’s always in the background. It’s unclear whether we have just disrupted some kind of orgy or ritual, and if our role as spectator will animate the objects so that they come back to life. They hang naked, suspended for our viewing pleasure. We are invited to gaze.
MONTGOMERY PERRY SMITH was born in Dallas, TX in 1986. He received a BFA in Fiber and Material Studies from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His evocative forms are often orifice, portal, flower and reliquary at once, resulting in “bodies” that hover between sci-fi beast, rare organic growths and sexual innuendo. Smith lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.