Split into two sections; external and internal; Lavender Heated to 60C is a techno-sexual document of Berlin and it’s gay spaces. Comprising of iPhone footage, text, studio footage and music produced in collaboration with Jack Moray Brown, the videos explore the environments of both the streets of the city, here rendered through the guided context of hook-up apps, and of the materials of a bathhouse.
Establishing a narrative of sexual arousal being continually built and expended across the two videos, the work begins in a park in the centre of Berlin before slowly meandering through the streets of the city. Accompanied by a text that traces the outlines of bodies vaguely remembered and constantly lusted for, details of a graze or scent of an as-of-yet-to-be-lover are brought into sharp focus by rocks and oil-spills that take on the sexual energy built up through the app - notifications from this network interrupt the pixelated view of a tranquil body of water yet never lead to any form of finality. This view of the entire city as a potential digital gay space is contrasted by the highly stylised shots of materials that comprise a bathhouse in the city. Well lit and continually in a state of activation from bodies out of shot, the shots of leather and polished ceramic speak to strategies of marketing and interior design utilised by existing dedicated gay spaces within Berlin, fighting to remain relevant in an increasingly networked queer existence.
Commissioned by Look Again Festival 2018 for the group show Positive Geographies, curated by Jon Blackwood. Supported through a Visual Arts and Crafts Makers Award, Aberdeen 2018.