DESTRICTED

To depict sex is really, really easy. But to actually deal with sex – in a way that is not just creative but also interesting – is hard.

This is the complexity at the centre of Destricted, an ongoing series of short films addressing the crossover between sex, art and pornography. The initial collection was released in 2006 in the UK and featured works by Sam Taylor-Wood, Richard Prince, Gaspar Noe, Larry Clark, Marco Brambilla, Matthew Barney and Marina Abramovic. A later US version, released in 2010, included new additions by Tunga, Sante D’Orazio, Marilyn Minter and Cecily Brown.

Destricted’s two versions feature interviews, three-part narratives, animations, abstractions, multi-layered concepts and simple ones too. If the films mount a collective point, it seems to be that sex has the power to clarify and and obfuscate equally. This applies, we are shown, in art as it does in life.

The Art of the Tease

The art of the tease is a delicate one. The Tease is someone who entices you into thinking you have a chance by tantalising and arousing desire or curiosity without intending to satisfy it – well, at least not at first.

The act of tantalising is in fact named after Greek bro, Tantalus, who messed around with the gods of his day and was subsequently punished for doing so, being sentenced to stand in a pool of water under a fruit tree with low branches. The shitty part was that whenever he reached for the fruit, the branches raised his intended meal from his grasp. Whenever he bent down to get a drink, the water receded before he could get any. Harsh, huh. Tantalus’ name has now become the proverbial term for temptation without satisfaction.

The thing is, to be truly effective, The Teaser must eventually give up what they are teasing about, as otherwise, everything ends up in tears and blueballs. They’re dangerous waters to manoeuvre, but when done correctly, The Tease can make things all the more worthwhile.


The Tease is something most famous and commonly used as female arsenal. When executed ruthlessly, it can have deadly results, and almost always ends with the unfortunate male left with feelings of sorrow, resentment and bitterness (along with the aforementioned blueballs). Generally, emotions only get involved if The Tease goes too far and doesn’t give shit up after a few rounds.

As a Charming McGee stated, “You generally get prick-teases, but there aren’t really any ‘fanny-teases’ who’ll whisper things in your ear, buy you drinks and then NOT go home with you at the end of the night.” Unless they are hustlers just plying you for free drinks, a common enough occurrence. In that case, sucks to be you for being sucked in.


In a sexual sense, either sex can refer to the use of posture, language or other means of flirting to cause another person to become aware of the possibility of sexual arousal. It’s a form of flirting that comes even before foreplay; though the word itself can be used in a more physical sense, referring to sexual stimulation.

Ultimately though, the Art of the Tease is about power play. It’s about flipping your skirt, but actually wearing the pants, metaphorically speaking. It’s the art of coy denial, of not being ‘easy’ but in a delectable fashion. And it also means eventually succumbing to a situation that you were hoping to create all along.

JIRI RUZEK

Look But Don’t Touch

Czech photographer Jiri Ruzek has released a series of gymnast posing, high heel licking belles that jump off your screen and into your lap (in the name of art, of course). Using 3D photography techniques and with the help of your own very not so stylish 3D red-blue glasses, you can view boudoir fetish games and strip teases.

The nude enthuse has also just released The Nude Photography book – 672 pages and 2kg of unclothed models shot by 21 top photographers across the globe and includes a selection of his own photographs from 2004-2009.


Oh and if you happen to be visiting Prague in the near future, Ruzek is on the look out for “interesting models”. Only “the hottest women in the world” need apply.


Ah, right. We wonder what aspiring models would have to do in the audition.

The Child

Sex, Fashion, Rock’n’Roll

The Child may just be the best thing since sliced bread… What can I say? Lead singer Holly Marilyn had me at her accidentally-porno, crotch-split, no-undies on-stage story – oh, and their music happens to be pretty damn good too. Preparing to shoot the video for their first single, Boomerang, the LA-based band are also getting ready to release their debut LP this fall. Meet The Child!

Indigo Clarke: When, how and where did your band meet and come together?

Holly Marilyn: Norm Block (drummer, producer) and I met on Santa’s lap at the White Trash Charms Christmas party, in LA. I think it was 2008. Norm shot me the now classic line, “I wanna know you”. We’ve been a band ever since. Peter Simon (bass) and Lauren White (keys, vox) recently joined and made us complete.

Indigo Clarke: How would you describe your sound to someone who hasn’t heard it?

Holly Marilyn: There are two girls in the band but we are NOT girly. Our music will make you dance, sway, or just sweat. In the best way.

Indigo Clarke: Who writes the songs – is it a collaborative process? Is there anything in particular that inspires you to create or influences your music?

Holly Marilyn: My favourite songs that I write come in sort of a rush, a melody with a lyric, all at the same time. Occasionally I dream fully formed songs, like I’m hearing it at a party. I wake up in a state of confusion trying to figure out if it’s a real song, or if it’s my brain-child. If I’m lucky, I can sing it into a dictaphone and come back to it later. No matter how the idea comes, I take it and sit down at the piano or with a guitar and a notebook and really hammer it out. When I have a general sketch of how the song goes, verse, chorus, etc, I go to Norm’s studio and we fuck it up. Then the rest of the band comes in and fucks it up even more. In the best way.

Indigo Clarke: Have you always been involved with music?

Holly Marilyn: My Dad is a musician. It always seemed like a pretty solid career choice to me. For the most part, it’s been crazy fun.

Indigo Clarke: What are your live shows like?

Holly Marilyn: I once gave myself a black eye with my guitar. On stage. It was epic.

Indigo Clarke: Fashion and music have a complex, often symbiotic, relationship – what are your thoughts on fashion, sexiness and music and how they influence each other?

Holly Marilyn: Fashion, sex, music. Give it to me.

Indigo Clarke: What’s the sexiest outfit you’ve ever worn – and the unsexiest?

Holly Marilyn: At a show in Minneapolis, many years ago, I wore a bright blue, skintight pair of no-stretch trousers. No undies. I danced around the whole show. Afterwards I went to the toilet, pulled down my pants, and where there were supposed to be pants, there was air and I could see right down to the ground. I’d split my pants. You tell me… sexy or unsexy???

Indigo Clarke: Exciting upcoming projects or news for you?

Holly Marilyn: We’re about to shoot our first video for our first single Boomerang. We just finished mixing our debut LP. We’re first releasing an EP, due out in this fall on Manimal!

Haute Visionary

Visionary image-maker David Dunan is not your average fashion insider – not only did he grow up in the idyllic and remote Scottish countryside where he’d “never actually seen a McDonalds” until studying in Edinburgh at 17, but originally studied interior architecture before even considering working with a camera. The London-based photographer’s career in fashion came as an unexpected, but fortuitous, turn for the self-described “pure country boy”, where almost immediately his bold and captivating images found a home among the pages of fashion’s most luminary titles including Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. The illustrious man behind the lens lets Sex & Fashion into his world of women, clothes and “magic”…


Indigo Clarke: Tell us about your photographs, who you shoot for and what your work is all about…

David Dunan: Better that other people tell you what my photos are all about! Women, clothes and as much ‘magic’ as I can muster. I heard someone describe me as ‘mystical’ and I still can’t work out what he meant! My main editorial this last year has been for Vogue Italia, but I also shoot for Vogue Hommes and I did a few things for Vogue Turkey last season.

Indigo Clarke: How did you get started, and what was it that drew you to photography?

David Dunan: In a very roundabout way: I studied interior architecture, moved to Barcelona once I graduated and, not having enough language to pursue architecture, the photography kind of happened instead. I’ve always been obsessed with fashion, beauty, the way people present themselves to the world and I had an unhealthy obsession with fashion imagery thanks to vogue italia, i-D, Dutch (RIP). I’d also styled and photographed sisters and friends since I could use a camera, so it probably wasn’t too big a leap to start to try to do it professionally, no?

Indigo Clarke: In many ways, sex and fashion go hand in hand – do you use an element of ‘Sex’ in your images?

David Dunan: I find that ‘sexy’ is often an easy, go-to vocabulary in fashion and it can get a little boring (heels, ass, cleavage, hand on hips, dead eyes, parted lips, high contrast, blah-blah). Helmut Newton did it better than anyone- he practically invented ‘sexy’- but he had a depth and an obsession behind it that made it unique and compelling.

‘Sexual’ is more interesting than ‘sexy’, but I suppose I see it as one of a woman’s many characteristics, not the defining one. I don’t know, I’m interested in a little more depth- the women who inspire me are intelligent and self-possessed and seduce in a more subtle way: they are desirable and desired but understand that you don’t put it all on show as if it’s all you’ve got.

Indigo Clarke: What is one of the most exciting or unforgettable shoots you’ve done?


David Dunan: God… Loads of them, but recently a client had a health scare in some sand dunes in 40º heat and I really thought she was going to die in front of me! That was a new one: thankfully she recovered quickly and completely. Also, shooting Daria Werbowy last month: great to work with someone who you’ve seen portrayed in so many ways and try to squeeze something different out of her! She had presence, which we always like.


Indigo Clarke: Biggest career highlights?

David Dunan: I suppose being welcomed into the VI famiglia (at least I think/hope I am!) they were my bible when I was younger. Trite as it sounds, being able to maintain a career is really a highlight. I love going to work!

 
Indigo Clarke: Tell us something unexpected about you…

David Dunan: Unexpected? I’m a pure country boy, born and brought up in the very north of Scotland. I’d never seen a McDonalds until I went to study in Edinburgh when I was 17!