The artist collective known as CUM* have an approach to street art that would make Hustler Publisher Larry Flynt extremely proud. Finding their way onto the exteriors of very public buildings are wheat pasted images of coquettish brunettes flashing onlookers, women on their knees dishing out some oral, and preening pin-ups seducing passerbyers. Taken at face value, unsuspecting civilians might be offended by the nature of the work, perceiving it as nothing more than the continued exploitation of women. But in a time when mass media advertising is all too heavily borrowing from the porn industry, can fingers really be pointed at someone for crossing the line when the line itself is already so blurred?
Based in Ghent, Belgium, the trio known as CUM* have been making their "fucking erotic street art" for three years. Their work began with a stencil of a pin-up girl and has evolved, with a great deal of influence by the massive amounts of pornography readily available on the Internet, into a sexual free for all. Liberating the ladies from their computer monitor confines and setting them loose on the streets, CUM* was curious to see what would become of the girls when taken out of context. "In the beginning there was a group who would put tiny stickers on our work with a feminist slogan," they say. "Sometimes w get anti-fan-mail, but overall we don't get a lot of negative response. A lot of ladies really like our work. We absolutely don't want to denigrate women, it is just a reflection of how women are portrayed in the porn industry and even in every day media."
Originally a project slated just for the streets, CUM* has moved indoors where they have more artistic freedom to experiment with their explicit subject matter. Using a color scheme of mostly black, white and pink, silk screened images of the girl-next-door types are juxtaposed with drip-heavy spray painted stencils of Russ Myer looking women. On canvas, both the Madonna and the Whore are celebrated and they coexist side by side with neither camp passing judgment on the other. Try finding that on the street.
Working on the streets in Europe where people are a little less uptight about sexuality than they are in America, CUM* are still very much aware that they are breaking the law and that they would be the perfect fodder for a morality issue type court case. "Sex is everywhere, but since we started Cum* it became really obvious that there is still a taboo about this matter," they say. "If you pay enough money you can put anything you want on billboards, magazines or TV, especially in Europe. Not that we mind that there are a lot of sexual images out there, it's just the hypocritical way in which people deal with it."
