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GROSS INDECENCY 2: Strange Bedfellows
In the strange period between our proposals (we each proposed to each other) and our marriage we were vexed by the expectations placed upon us by what in the world of pinch-faced gay politics is described as ‘heteronormality’.
While the politicly right and the religious righteous threatened that we would ‘change marriage forever’ , over in the queer camp of pouting little snowflakes we were being told that we would simply assimilate, hide behind a white picket fence of respectability and lose our essential gayness.
To the latter, we said: “erm…hello….have you met us??”
To the former we said: “you’re right, we will change marriage forever. Change it for the better”
Artistically we wanted to mark this point with a big splash. But in the end we settled for 144 smaller splashes which we believe, accumulatively made a very bold splash indeed.
We had a duvet printed up with an idyllic image of the tow of us in our jammies holding hands. We then got onto the gay sex apps (Grindr, Scruff etc) and invited 144 guys to come and have hot, steamy sex with us and finish off by cumming on the duvet.
On the back we had printed anonymous extracts from the online conversations with them. This duvet was then hung, pride of place at our wedding as testament that not all weddings are the same. The very starting point to our wedding (a performance piece in itself) was:
“A marriage is no more than a series of promises that a couple wish to make to each other in front of their friends, family and people that matter to them. And no god and no government has any business in defining what those promises should be”
Gross Indecency 2: Strange Bedfellows is the embodiment of this firmly held belief.
It was also an enriching and rewarding experience. To read our personal accounts of the experience see our separate Artists Statements.