Lusty ambitions
Erotic art and poetry in Ventura
By Michel Cicero 02/19/2009
You could have cut the pheromones with a knife when lovers and others crowded into the Artists Union Gallery in Ventura on Valentine’s Eve for the opening of what is always a hotly anticipated event: the erotic art show. While “Some
Like It Hot” attendees were mostly bundled up in lavish robes, hats and boots on this wintry night, the exhibition left little to the imagination.
From the romanticized female form to pop art commentary on pornography and sculptural depictions of lovemaking, everything from soup to nuts falling under the heading of eroticism was on display in all its glory. Though renderings of female genitalia made a good showing, they were nearly upstaged by their male counterparts, images of which were abundant and welcome.
For reasons unimaginable to fans of the male body, while women’s bodies are celebrated to the point of being cartoonish, the penis is still considered a scandalous sight. How often in modern cinema, even in soft porn, do we see every inch of the female anatomy but steal nary a glance of the forbidden male fruits? Fortunately, such is on display at the Artists Union Gallery through March 22.
To further punctuate the annual exhibition — which benefits the nonprofit gallery — an evening of erotic poetry is traditionally featured. Nearly always a sellout night, literary types from all over the So Cal region flock to Ventura to partake in the erotic word. Headed up by poetry’s first couple, Marsha de la O and Phil Taggart, the evening is hosted by local writer Friday Lubina, whom, de la O considers to be an “erotic icon.”
Participants are asked to bring a poem of their own, and one by another author. For the purposes of this event, eroticism as a literary genre is defined broadly, says de la O: “Anything along the spectrum from anguish all the way to cheeky humor.” She says she doesn’t remember anything that could be considered pornographic passing through the lips of a reader.
Much like de la O and Taggart, poetry and pleasure have long been a happy couple. “Eroticism has always been a strain in poetry from the beginning,” she says.
Every year, Taggart and de la O pore over poetry books looking for a line that jumps out at them to frame the evening around. This year they settled on “The Vampire Who Makes Us Behave,” taken from the Arthur Rimbaud poem “Anguish.”
The event is well attended by people of all stripes, says de la O, but tends to attract more women than men — perhaps because it is through the mind they are supposedly first aroused — as well a wide post-adolescent age range.
Surprisingly, or not, women over 50 get quite excited at the prospect of writing and reading erotic verse, and they are always welcomed. De la O routinely gets e-mail in advance of the event from enthusiastic older women.
“I get mail from women over 60 who say, ‘I’m writing something really hot and I want to be in the reading,’ ” says de la O.
For the curious who may find themselves shy, de la O insists that while the poems presented can be funny, transgressive or philosophical, they are almost never overtly X-rated and always celebratory.
“The Vampire Who Makes Us Behave” erotic poetry reading, Saturday, Feb. 21. Artists Union Gallery, 330 S. California Street Plaza (next to Aloha Steakhouse). “Some Like It Hot” exhibition runs through March 22. 643-3012,
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