How far will you drive for sexy art?

Apparently I will drive about 124 miles if I’m promised a gallery show that centers on the subject of sex. And it seems that next time, I should really do a bit more research before I consume all that gas. It’s not that the XXX: The Power of Sex in Contemporary Design show at Western Oregon University (WOU) isn’t worth seeing-it’s just that you probably already have.

Co-curators Sarah Dougher and Joshua Berger first created the book version of XXX in 2003. In 2005, the New York Museum of Sex requested that they curate a show based upon the publication and drawing from the museum’s permanent collection. Dougher teaches women’s studies at PSU, and writing and music to teenagers. Berger is the creative director of Plazm Media, a Portland design firm. The result of their effort is a collection of liberated print ads originally designed for magazines. In case you haven’t read a magazine recently, companies are using SEX to SELL THINGS! Can you imagine?

I imagined all the way to WOU. After an hour-and-a-half drive, I was quite excited to not only stretch my legs, but to see what New York had sent to “rural Oregon” (as the Plazm website describes Monmouth). Would I be shocked and appalled? I certainly hoped so.

Entering the Campbell Hall Gallery I was greeted by a large Valentine’s-Day-red wall, and a DVD loop on a television. Artist Rebeca Mendez created Mediated Eros after meeting and then leaving a lover in Amsterdam. A digitally combined series of hand stills from a computer scanner makes the short loop visually interesting, but not as appealing as the large prints that Mendez creates from the images. The small television and soft professions of love seem lost against the overwhelming red and the stillness of the gallery.

After adjusting my vision, I rounded the corner, fully expecting the space to be full of imagery that deserved a nine-foot wall to block visual access. Instead I found a crowded salon-style hanging of contemporary media images from global magazines. The shocking part became not the sexual content, but my lack of reaction.

I confess there are lots of scantily clad female bodies in XXX. There are also quite a few naked men, some representations of fetish culture and some references to sexy bodily fluids. But I grew up in the late 20th century, and a lime slice between two double-Ds to advertise tequila seems quite normal. Barely clothed models don’t shock me; Abercrombie and Fitch have made an entire generation immune to that tactic. Glossy photos of spanking prominently featuring shoes don’t titillate me–instead I find myself wondering if perhaps last season’s heels were a little too pointy.

Organized into five groups, the ads are labeled by title, art director, copywriter, client, and the general concept behind the image. Most of these concepts are obvious, pointing out the implied sexual consequences of purchasing a Francesco Biasia wallet, for example. This sounds rather silly, until you connect the vulva-like shape surrounded by zipper to the aerial view of a woman’s wallet. Then it all makes sense. Wallets can be sexy!

One of the most subtle ads falls into the “Romance and Fantasy” category. Created for the British firm “Club 18-30,” the photograph at first appears to be a postcard-appropriate image of young adults poolside. If you look closely however, well-placed innuendos occur throughout the photo, almost turning the postcard into soft-core porn. What appealed to me in this case was the sexy subtlety. I felt as if I had found a naughty photograph that no one else knew about. Okay–everyone knows about it, but it was much more appealing than the obvious phallic nature of a Galliano bottle and a scantily-clad woman.

Removing ads from magazines is confusing. When hung on the wall of a gallery, this confusion multiplies. Is a print ad a piece of art? Is it worthy of being in a museum? Or is it a cultural souvenir? Given the motivation and money behind each creation, I’m tempted to opt for the souvenir. Granted, many of these sexy ads are brilliantly designed and executed, but their purpose is not to be art, but to sell products. And sex sells products. Just don’t drive 124 miles for this sex until you check out the magazine rack at Powell’s.

Campbell Hall Gallery at Western Oregon University345 N. Monmouth Ave.Monmouth, ORM – F 8 a.m. — 5 p.m.Feb. 14 — March 13, 2007