I am fascinated by the men who visit the strip clubs of Hindley Street in Adelaide. In other words, I observe male spectators who look at naked women performing an alluring act for their pleasure. Such a scene represents sexual difference at an extreme level particularly as the night progresses and the men get drunker becoming themselves a part of the performance. Strippers manipulate mens desires and fantasies and parody, through their routine, the male in the act of sex. And as men watch men watching women perform, I suggest men are actually sharing their sexual experiences with each other, raising questions about assumptions of ???heterosexual??? desire associated with why men go to strip clubs, as gender boundaries blur and become ambiguous. / The focus of my research has involved positioning myself as a member of the audience in three strip clubs along Hindley Street a clothed woman in a male dominated space dedicated to the representation of nudity and sex. In conducting my research, I have relied upon a methodological approach loosely based both on ethnographic and the action research models with the aim of using the understandings gained through this to inform my visual art practice, which includes photographic images, staged settings and installation. I consider my artwork to be a form of experimentation through which I explore issues of sexuality, power, sexual transgression and gender difference within strip clubs creating provocative scenes which position viewers as voyeurs. / My thesis as the totality of the artefacts and exegesis which form the outcomes of this research draws on critical and cultural theory concerned to explore pornography, with particular reference to masculine fantasy and desire. I also make reference to a number of contemporary visual artists who question these same issues through their works. / My project questions why men go to strip clubs, and involves speculation as to whether this choice actually entails a rejection by such men of aspects of their own masculine identity, or reflects a need to detach themselves from the physical act of sex with women, or perhaps simply reveals their reliance upon fantasy, titillation and suspense as a form of sexual pleasure. Using a play of gender roles based on a reversal of performative aspects of the scenario of the strip club, I hope the artefacts created in the course of this research will provoke viewers into exploring unsettling questions and issues and reflect an image of men as being both complex and vulnerable, rather than dominant and in control. Through constructed installation spaces involving photographic images of empty strip clubs, men and women, along with smell, lighting and sound I attempt to set the stage for a performance upon and about sexual desire and difference. / Thesis (MVisualArts)--University of South Australia, n.d.

I am fascinated by the men who visit the strip clubs of Hindley Street in Adelaide. In other words, I observe male spectators who look at naked women performing an alluring act for their pleasure. Such a scene represents sexual difference at an extreme level particularly as the night progresses and the men get drunker becoming themselves a part of the performance. Strippers manipulate mens desires and fantasies and parody, through their routine, the male in the act of sex. And as men watch men watching women perform, I suggest men are actually sharing their sexual experiences with each other, raising questions about assumptions of ???heterosexual??? desire associated with why men go to strip clubs, as gender boundaries blur and become ambiguous. / The focus of my research has involved positioning myself as a member of the audience in three strip clubs along Hindley Street a clothed woman in a male dominated space dedicated to the representation of nudity and sex. In conducting my research, I have relied upon a methodological approach loosely based both on ethnographic and the action research models with the aim of using the understandings gained through this to inform my visual art practice, which includes photographic images, staged settings and installation. I consider my artwork to be a form of experimentation through which I explore issues of sexuality, power, sexual transgression and gender difference within strip clubs creating provocative scenes which position viewers as voyeurs. / My thesis as the totality of the artefacts and exegesis which form the outcomes of this research draws on critical and cultural theory concerned to explore pornography, with particular reference to masculine fantasy and desire. I also make reference to a number of contemporary visual artists who question these same issues through their works. / My project questions why men go to strip clubs, and involves speculation as to whether this choice actually entails a rejection by such men of aspects of their own masculine identity, or reflects a need to detach themselves from the physical act of sex with women, or perhaps simply reveals their reliance upon fantasy, titillation and suspense as a form of sexual pleasure. Using a play of gender roles based on a reversal of performative aspects of the scenario of the strip club, I hope the artefacts created in the course of this research will provoke viewers into exploring unsettling questions and issues and reflect an image of men as being both complex and vulnerable, rather than dominant and in control. Through constructed installation spaces involving photographic images of empty strip clubs, men and women, along with smell, lighting and sound I attempt to set the stage for a performance upon and about sexual desire and difference. / Thesis (MVisualArts)--University of South Australia, n.d.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2007. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.

The monumental paintings that Canadian artist Attila Richard Lukacs (b. 1962, Edmonton) created while in Berlin (after 1986) focus on the themes of desire, power, masculinity, and eroticism. This focus, however, is not only a representation of what he sees, but is also an attempt to order things to a political and ethical end. Using the major works of Michel Foucault ( The Order of Things, The History of Sexuality), the thesis demonstrates how Where the Finest Young Men... (1987) and Authentic Decor (1988), may be interpreted as achieving a fundamental ordering and representation of desire. In particular, the thesis shows how Lukacs intervenes on existing codes and conventions of culture through heterotopia, and how he articulates political, sexual, and ethical choices through a concept of self-forming ethics. / If one is to situate Lukacs' work within the dynamic of heterotopia, and support the claim that these paintings not only intercede on existing codes and conventions, but also manifest ethical choices, then one ought to read the work against a prior understanding of sexual politics proper to the art historical and socio-political moment of the 1970s. The basis of that historical glance is established through the work of General Idea and notions of sexual identity. The sensuosity and pleasure characteristic of mass media entertainment formats, such as beauty pageants and variety shows, is similar to that featured in much of General Idea's work created throughout the 1970s. Importantly, the aesthetics that General Idea embraces in their brand of performance art increasingly becomes evident at the end of the 1970s, with the emergence of the New Painting. An assessment of the so-called "return of painting from exile"---as it appeared in Italy, Germany, and Canada---considers the output of Lukacs' contemporaries. The intention there is to establish whether a newer focus exists in the work of the late 1970s and early 1980s, which supports the hypothesis that what Lukacs aims to do is to order things to a political and ethical end. Upon setting forth an examination of the framework in which Lukacs appears, the dissertation then presents a highly detailed analysis of Where the Finest Young Men... and Authentic Decor, with particular focus on the function of heterotopia in these works. Finally, an explication of power and ethics in Lukacs is proposed through the later works of Michel Foucault, in order to demonstrate how, teleologically, the paintings operate as political, sexual, and ethical choices.

No description available.

Firstly, sexuality and death are discussed as instinctual drives, specifically through Freud's essay, Beyond The Pleasure Principle. Sexuality and death are then related through pleasurable attachment and painful severance. Next they are discussed in terms of Georges Bataille's notions of continuity and discontinuity. Secondly, The Garden of Eden is looked at as a mythological indicator of the psychological links between sexuality and death. Sexual differentiation has a role to play as woman is seen to be a signifier of death through the writings of Julia Kristeva and Victor Burgin. Thirdly, Plato's argument for immortality is discussed, specifically through The Phaedo. The argument centres on the separation of self from sexual pleasure in order to defeat death. Fourthly, the chastity of Mary and Christ is dealt with. It can be seen to be resultant of the tight connection between sexuality and death and relevant to a hope for immortality. For Christian theology there exists a necessary division for those who are immortal from their own earthly carnality. Fifthly, Julia Kristeva's notion of Abjection is looked at through her essay, Powers of Horror. Abjection plays a significant role in the attempt at repression of the sexual drive and the death drive. Lastly, the reflection of Narcissus is observed. There seems a human need for a reflection self that goes beyond notions of delusionistic beauty or reviling horror. Sexuality and death are accepted as most essential aspects of our being. Abjection leads to a rejection then an acceptance of our own perishing carnality. / Master of Arts (Hons)

Thesis (M.A.)(Hons)--University of Western Sydney, Nepean, 1995. / Contains slides with print copy. Includes bibliography.

Thesis (M.A.)(Hons)--University of Western Sydney, Nepean, 1998. / Slides included in print copy. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A. (Fine Art)) - Rhodes University, 2009.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 1995. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 278-284).