25 సెప్టెంబర్, 2025

"A public toilet neutralizes and suspends the dualism between … what remains private and what is meant to be shared."

Wrote Valentino creative director Alessandro Michele in the notes for the Fall 2025 Runway Show, which had a set with "red toilet stalls, where models changed in and out of gender-fluid looks."

Quoted in "The Next Big Thing in Pop Culture: Public Bathrooms/In fashion, film and beyond, restrooms have become sites of creative inspiration" (NYT).

The NYT instructs us to think of a public bathrooms as "an apt setting for art exploring identity, the body and discretion"... which is so not what I'm looking for in a public bathroom. Ah, but I'm talking about basic human needs, not art. Art is supposed to challenge you and to upset you, if you are bourgeois.

51 కామెంట్‌లు:

Howard చెప్పారు...

Pubic toilets are the appropriate venue for gender fluids

Eva Marie చెప్పారు...

I would forgo art in public restroom. The materials for critical commentary are too readily at hand.

tommyesq చెప్పారు...

Artists these days are all frauds.

john mosby చెప్పారు...

This is when we need Titus. And Laslo. CC, JSM

RideSpaceMountain చెప్పారు...

Pipe down junkies...you'll still be able to shoot up there. If asked just say you're 'performance art' and the bourgeois won't challenge you.

bagoh20 చెప్పారు...

Is there anything, and I mean anything more worn out than dressing in drag? It was already worn out 50 years ago, if not longer. I don't even get the point anymore. It's not shocking. It's not attractive or artistic. It's usually gaudy and clownish. The message, if there is one, is lost and now more a message of perversion than it ever was in the past.
It's a form of expression for the narcissistic person devoid of originality, talent and taste. It's the "That's what she said." of fashion.

Yancey Ward చెప్పారు...

"The NYT instructs us to think of a public bathrooms as "an apt setting for art exploring identity, the body and discretion"

Isn't this completely appropriate? The public restroom is exactly where a big pile of shit belongs.

bagoh20 చెప్పారు...

Nice one, Howard! 10/10.

RideSpaceMountain చెప్పారు...

"The public restroom is exactly where a big pile of shit belongs."

Plinth of shit please. It's art!

Joe Bar చెప్పారు...

Gotta admit, I've seen a LOT of creativity in public restrooms. Is art? I am not qualified to judge.

Paddy O చెప్పారు...

So much pop art and related is really about challenging the bourgeois assumptions of early 20th century Victorian culture.

Now it's just mind numbing and boring intended for people who have dulled their senses through persistent banality. All while being cheered by the similarly numbed.

Kandinsky's bottom of the pyramid who think attention is equivalent to thought-provoking.

n.n చెప్పారు...

Water Closets are where bits are bleached

RNB చెప్పారు...

Derelicte!

Old and slow చెప్పారు...

That was one of your better efforts Howard. Or at least I enjoyed it.

Ampersand చెప్పారు...

The daily sporadic need to eliminate liquid and solid digestive waste products is a constant reminder that we are smelly animals, albeit smelly animals with interesting brains. Our instinctive shame creates a need for privacy and, naturally, the world of art wishes to skewer the bourgeoisie by inverting our basic need. How do people actually make money doing things like this?

Leland చెప్పారు...

Ally McBeal made 5 seasons starting in 1997. Sit down with your “next big thing”.

PM చెప్పారు...

The logical next step for genderfluid.

RideSpaceMountain చెప్పారు...

Such a venue is, dare I say, the perfect gallery for Hunter's art. Think of it like an autostereogram...you won't be able to actually tell which pieces are his unless you relax your pupils.

CJinPA చెప్పారు...
ఈ కామెంట్‌ను రచయిత తీసివేశారు.
CJinPA చెప్పారు...

"exploring identity, the body and discretion"...

I read this as "exploring identity, the body and excretion"...

Which makes more sense.

Jim K చెప్పారు...

Just a short drive from Madison, at the Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, you can find bathroom art. https://www.jmkac.org/washrooms/

hawkeyedjb చెప్పారు...

"Art is supposed to challenge you and to upset you, if you are bourgeois."

Indeed, that is the credo many artists live by, not realizing that the bourgeoisie has moved on to the realm of not caring.

Wince చెప్పారు...

“A public toilet neutralizes and suspends the dualism between … what remains private and what is meant to be shared."

In other words: If it’s yellow, let it mellow, if it’s brown, flush it down?

Achilles చెప్పారు...

Quoted in "The Next Big Thing in Pop Culture: Public Bathrooms/In fashion, film and beyond, restrooms have become sites of creative inspiration" (NYT).

Is there going to be a place of relative privacy where my daughters can use the restrooms?

Are we going to address the primary functions of restrooms which are to improve public health and reduce the spread of certain diseases?

Do we get to have basic institutions that serve as building blocks for a civilization?

It would seem like there are people who are bound and determined to destroy civilized society at a fundamental level.

Wince చెప్పారు...

If it floats, eat more oats.

Yancey Ward చెప్పారు...

"Indeed, that is the credo many artists live by, not realizing that the bourgeoisie has moved on to the realm of not caring."

Yes- this! Thanks for summarizing the situation so perfectly.

rehajm చెప్పారు...

Next up: Versace Vomitoriums!

RCOCEAN II చెప్పారు...

The American Elite - at least for the last 90 years - has always been tasteless and vulgar. Its what makes their attacks on Trump so hilarious. Talk about the pot and the kettle. I guess the NYT's sex writer took the day off.

RCOCEAN II చెప్పారు...

The American Elite - at least for the last 90 years - has always been tasteless and vulgar. Its what makes their attacks on Trump so hilarious. Talk about the pot and the kettle. I guess the NYT's sex writer took the day off.

Lazarus చెప్పారు...

The NYT instructs us to think of a public bathrooms as "an apt setting for art exploring identity, the body and discretion".

Um ... that used to be a crime a crime in England. Ask John Gielgud. Or better -- don't.

Mike (MJB Wolf) చెప్పారు...

"I'll take 'Places I Avoid at all Cost' for $200, Alex."

JAORE చెప్పారు...

Me. ME MEEEEEEEEEEE!
The driving force of much of today's "art".
Note I did not say "modern" art.
Thinking a rotting banana taped to a wall sends an emotional message? Sure. But the message is you are all idiots to buy this crap.

JAORE చెప్పారు...

I forgot to praise Howard's post. Perfection.

Josephbleau చెప్పారు...

The duality of privacy and shared space is what makes public restrooms violent pits of crime.

Hassayamper చెప్పారు...

I've been saying "Art Is Shit" for a very long time, and look where we are now.

Hassayamper చెప్పారు...

Nowadays the way to really épater les bourgeoisie is to emulate Thomas Kinkade or Bob Ross, or if you have actual talent, the academic realism of Bouguereau and Gérôme. For extra offense to the Manhattan/Islington luvvies, include some explicit Christian iconography.

Leora చెప్పారు...

I think of the Egyptian style bathrooms in the Fox Theatre in Atlanta and of the Parrots in tile in a Youth Hostel I once stayed at on Cape Cod as well as Duchamp's urinal which I have only read about. I've been considering a glass wall for my shower which I understand can be embossed with some works of Vincent Van Gogh.

Leora చెప్పారు...

I also thought of the train station rest room scene in Graham Greene's "Ministry of Fear" where all the toilets flush at once in response to an aerial bombing.

RideSpaceMountain చెప్పారు...

"For extra offense to the Manhattan/Islington luvvies, include some explicit Christian iconography."

Call it Piss Christ V2.0. The bourgeoisie can supply the pissoirs with crosses, and the luvvies can provide the piss. Interactive art...so hot right now.

Leora చెప్పారు...

Loved the Kohler Art Center restrooms.

Bob Boyd చెప్పారు...

I totally get it. Why just this morning in a public toilet I created an amazing likeness of a full grown python.

boatbuilder చెప్పారు...

Cleanliness is next to Godliness.

That is job one for a public toilet. Nobody cares about the decorations.

Mason G చెప్పారు...

"The Next Big Thing in Pop Culture..."

It's just a short vowel movement from "pop culture" to "poop culture".

Biff చెప్పారు...

"In April, the [New York] City Council announced a plan to nearly double the number of public facilities by 2035. The expansion is expected to be particularly helpful to those experiencing homelessness, as well as to the city’s approximately 80,000 delivery workers."

That sounds like it was written by someone with the wisdom of Violet Affleck.

RideSpaceMountain చెప్పారు...

"poop culture."

A better descriptor of the fashionista aristocracy and their shit taste in everything you shan't find.

wildswan చెప్పారు...

Poop Culture

Our Motto - I don't give a shit

Art Work #1
Piss Luigi

Our Mission - Epater Karen

n.n చెప్పారు...

A shit show featuring the back... black hole... whore h/t NAACP at the intersection of racism and sexism.

Oso Negro చెప్పారు...

The public restrooms of NYC challenged and upset me back in my bourgeois days of the 1980s. In the list of memorable bowel movements is one in the Port Authority Bus Terminal - balancing with one leg using. The other to keep the door jammed closed against a would be intruder.

Saint Croix చెప్పారు...

Art is supposed to challenge you and to upset you, if you are bourgeois.

Toilets that splash upwards.

Also, if it's art, you should charge admission.

Or, free admission, and then nail them with the $10 toilet paper. Talk about a captive audience.

Bunkypotatohead చెప్పారు...

Public bathrooms in a shithole city seem redundant.

Rosalyn C. చెప్పారు...

"Art is supposed to challenge you and to upset you, if you are bourgeois."
The art world today is all about identity politics and virtue signaling. If you are challenged or upset by the art you are no longer welcome or have any significance.

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