How a feminist icon inspired a new world of indie erotica

Soft core indie magazine TALC is a mesh of curves and colour. Initially intended as a racy response to the lad mag’s demise, it’s become known for its collage aesthetic — something editor-in-chief Edward Vince is quick to credit to cult feminist icon Linder Sterling. He explains how the punk artist inspired his longstanding lust for erotica.

“It was originally inspired by the death of the lad mag around 5 years ago and also the sexualisation of mens magazines, often in a homoerotic way. We saw a gap in the market for a new magazine for modern men. It evolved again to eventually become an ‘adult design magazine’ and for everyone, not just men, and this was because of what we were calling ‘the pornification of culture”.

He continues to discuss how we as society have the potential to be aroused or excited by a “piece of furniture or a work of art as much as you would be by the naked female form”. The idea came about after he witnessed an online culture of blogs dedicated to anything from footwear porn to architecture porn and everything in between, society now had the potential to be aroused not only by the female form but by innate objects. This is something that Linder had already been doing in her own work; sexualising everyday objects by montaging them with pornographic images so it all becomes the same thing.

In regards to moving image TALC has recently started exploring the world of adult film, of course with its own alternative twist. The use of VHS footage propels this video from a standard adult movie to a more stylised piece of work. VHS film has made a real comeback in recent years with videographers preferring the nostalgic grain of the footage over newer HD equipment. There is a certain ‘coolness’ to using VHS again and TALC magazine hone in on this by using VHS footage in their films. The description of the video states how the model examines “the functionality of various mid-Century furnitures in a Hackney warehouse apartment including the classic GE 258 day bed designed in 1954 by Hans J Wegner.” The fact that the magazine is referencing furniture when describing such an erotic film proves that this magazine is more than just “porn” or as they would describe themselves “ a modern design magazine for modern times”.

There is a definite element of design to the video and interestingly thee focus is not only on the subject, there is emphasis placed on other elements of the room which is interesting when put in the context of an adult film. In my opinion the furniture is just as important to this movie as the model, they seem to work together so that the audience seems to forget this is considered ‘porn’ as it now seems more like a short artistic piece.

It is interesting to note that the founder and creative director of TALC magazine Edward Vince, is a CSM product design graduate. This for me therefore explains the sharp, clean aesthetic of the magazine.

What I want to draw from the work of Vince and translate into my own is his notion of clean cut collage. Personally the term collage holds connotations of things plastered on top of each other chaotically or somewhat randomly. Vince layers two different images on top of the other to create a layered image, I could perhaps experiment with this technique but instead use moving image and have two clips playing simultaneously.