NEW YORK CITY: Times Square may have swept away the
peep shows that once made it infamous.
FROM
peep shows to cheeky jugglers, the weird and wonderful street theatre of Stockton International Riverside Festival came to life yesterday.
Unlike the pornography shops and
peep shows that once dominated the Times Square district, the block is a mix of steady chains such as Cingular Wireless and McDonald's and independent operations like a 99-cent store and a steakhouse.
Rooms rather than chapters imply curation--various galleries within the overall theme exhibition--but no less pointedly allude to the architecture of
peep shows and sex clubs, with their warrens of cubicles for private/public erotic gratification and frustration, furtive gestures and exhibitionistic display.
Jay, an author, actor (``Heist,'' ``State and Main,'' ``Magnolia,'' ``Boogie Nights'') and expert in the improbable whose magic act touches on the history of the art, called the collection a ``dazzlingly daunting compendium of ideas and devices'' from
peep shows to digital projections to robots.
YES, TIMES SQUARE'S
peep shows and porn theaters are disappearing, as brand-name restaurants, gleaming office towers and touristy shops transform the streets.
Yvonne Haulsey made her living in New York City's biggest and flashiest porn palace, performing one-on-one
peep shows in the private fantasy booths at Show World Center at 42nd St.
The installation's deceptive ly legible architecture mimics shopwindows or
peep shows, but also a fairground's hall of mirrors: Multiple reflections (of faces on TV and those of gallery visitors) complicate the viewing of the videos, and one's attention is constantly drawn in different directions.
His next job - for he surely needs one after NBC fired him Thursday and he resigned at Madison Square Garden Network, where he called Knicks games - should be on s tage in 25-cent
peep shows.
His recent, site-specific installation, Birds of the Commonwealth, A Peepshow, 1992, reflected a new level of control over the world his lenses might illuminate--here, Torchia included references to trompe l'oeil painting and 17th-century Dutch
peep shows.
