Killer Event at Powell's City of Books: 2/7/06

Walking over to Powell’s City of Books in Portland last Tuesday and I’m filled with mixed emotions. The weekly newspaper The Willamette Week had been hounding people who had appeared in my book for weeks prior to the event and these folks ain’t happy. Then we got word that the exhibition was actually cancelled for a few short days, due to the subject matter. Trent Debord, the gracious and intelligent gallery director at Powell’s nervously spelled the whole matter out to me, and it didn’t sound pretty. Invitations began appearing on the ‘net for something mysteriously called THE AFTER PARTY. Now here in the newspaper I see the most un-flattering photograph of myself I’ve ever taken being used in the paper with the caption : “It’s Battlebots meets Barbarella as photographer Archibald presents a slideshow…”

I climb the stairs to art/architecture/photography floor that houses the gallery. I turn and see the Sex Machines exhibit, interpreted in the most elegant and sophisticated way I’ve ever seen. Long linen drapery panels define the space, announce the show, and seem to create the feeling of entering into the very personal spaces that the photographs were made in. These living rooms, kitchens, garages, and bedrooms that the subjects invited me in to photograph in are all here, larger than life, behind the curtains. The subject’s words quietly and silently accompanying each photograph. Trent Debord, Marci Macfarlane and the crew at Powell’s have created a startlingly inspired installation for this show!
Powell’s knows how to deliver the audience to their events. The lecture is packed to capacity with people standing in the back! Who is here tonight? I ask people to explain why they’ve come to the show. Here is who introduces themselves: We’ve got two photography students writing down questions and taking notes, a class of students preparing questions, a handful of pornographers, Christopher Rauschenberg of Blue Sky Gallery and Batka- a 28 year old dominatrix. We meet Brad, a guy who introduces himself as an inventor and later describes his years working for Phizer Pharmaceuticals pre-Viagra, on robotic penis research. We chat with a writer in a backpack whose working on his own long term project, photographer Amy MacWilliamson’s mom, a woman who says she came tonight because she enjoys trying to explore life’s boundaries, Todd-a commercial photographer, Randy a guy who owns one of Allen’s Thrillhammers, photographer Mr G, inventor Allen Stein, as well as my sister in law and brother in law!

There is a buzz in the air. The people, the excitement, people taking in the art, and the electrical buzz of a humming sex machine. Allen Stein of The Thrill Hammer took it upon himself to wire up and artfully arrange a display of roughly 10 different sex machines from inventors all across the US. I’m getting nervous…his display almost looks illegal, almost crossing a decency boundary, but the crowd comes in, approaches the stuff and just starts laughing. Suddenly the evening becomes this Dada-ist over-the-top art scene with people of all ages goofing around with the machines!
Hard to compete with all that, but fortunately the lecture went off wonderfully, probably the most insightful questions from any crowd yet.

Then...THE AFTER PARTY. Allen Stein has been circulating word of this event, hosted by the family he works with who own Homegrown Video. It promises do be a mixer of sorts….bringing together the high brow folks from the Portland literary scene with the veteran practitioners of the Portland porn industry, all hosted at the company’s studios. Marci Macfarlane and Trent Debord from Powell’s are committed to go the extra mile, to live and breath Sex Machines. We head over with Portland porn veterans Mr. G and Allen Stein. They promise us we’ll feel comfortable there.

Here we are at the Homegrown House. I was looking for Hefner’s airbrushed Grotto or something, but Homegrown’s aesthetic is all about keeping it real:

A living room floor made of glass allowing a view to the bedroom below?!?! Women with giant serpents writhing around their necks ? A dominatrix with an S&M Virgin Mary tattooed on her back?!? All so biblical, it’s like an adult oriented Garden of Eden in here! Who are all these people and what is with this house?!?!
Stein fills me in: Homegrown Video is the largest producer of amateur video shot in the world. Think about that. They have the longest running series in the history of the adult videos, as well as the series titled “Sex Machines”. Their work is about real people really gettin' it on. The house is a 4000 square foot real place and the person who lives there, Tom, is a world renowned snowboarder and skateboard artist. The company’s president Farrell Timlake was associate producer with the Southpark guys for the film ORGASMO. We are thrilled these guys have embraced the book and they certainly know how to party:

Meet Jenn, a star of the MachineMaidens.com site, who also does bookkeeping for another producer. Here's DarkLady, a fixture of the Portland kink community, wearing her “Masturbate-a-thon” t-shirt, networking the scene. Here is Randy, the proud owner of a Thrill Hammer, introducing me to legendary Santa Cruz based photographer David Steinberg! It’s got the feeling of a kind of kinky family reunion of sorts…everyone knows each other and no one is a stranger. All the while Stein is doing the manual labor, hauling a collection of machines up the stairs and thru the doors….and remember, it is only a Tuesday nite…

Farrell comes up and sums up the whole project in one keen observation:

“The wonder of the book is the fact that this sexual subject is suddenly shown as a clear and colorful statement…nothing dark or mysterious about it. It’s bright, well lit, and almost cheerful,”

When someone on the inside pays you a compliment, it really feels good to know they think you may have gotten it right.




party photos by Carl Geers