CULTUREEDIT Gallery is pleased to announce an intimate collaboration and multi-platform exhibition showcasing both virtual and physical displays of works by Terry Miller and Adam Porter.

The exhibition consists of a series of stills from a short XXX film titled BOAT DADDY, originally created for the amateur and independent porn fes- tival “HUMP!” organized and hosted by Miller’s husband and famed sex columnist Dan Savage. The 2016 film is set on the idyllic Lake Chelan in Washington State and features Miller and Porter at ease in a boat floating aimlessly, discovering each other and having graphic sex, while enjoying the sun and cold blue waters.

Terry Miller and Adam Porter were boyfriends at the time BOAT DADDY was made. Sometimes living together, they often traveled with each other and discovered common passions for art and design. These mutual influences are manifested in the film, and serve as aesthetic narrative via treatments and design elements that are, among others, inspired by the typography used by artist Ed Ruscha, the art of Tom of Finland and how he portrayed gay men as natural vis a vis nature, kaleidoscope-like compositions used by prominent figures of OP-ART, design and editing techniques by vintage porn studios Falcon and Bijou and DADA photo collages. All amplified by the original score composed by Miller and the producer Futurewife, Reminis- cent of XXX productions from the late 70s and early 80s.

The effect of these artistic treatments purposely distort / enhance the original composition of the stills, highlighting erogenous details and bringing the viewer into a more intimate setting that otherwise can only be accomplished by physical proximity. This altered lens that Miller and Porter created visually manipulates the viewer’s gaze - and perceived in- teractions between both men. In sequence, the graphic treatments make for a complex experiment that among other accomplishments, appears to neutralize and challenge the perceived power balance between TOP and BOTTOM that dominates porn - ultimately creating an amicable “TOPTOM” based relationship.

This exhibition is the first time the film is being shown outside of the HUMP! Porn Film festival, an event that serves as a safe haven for amateur au- teurs to present films oftentimes viewed as fringe material, without run- ning the risk of leaked images and social media due to the implementation of strict rules and regulations. This context allowed Miller and Porter to “Be a porn star for a night, not the rest of your life.” The unique platform afforded both parties the creative freedom and opportunity to blur the lines between erotic fantasy and real life. It is in this insulated space that BOAT DADDY has lived in for the past five years.

BOAT DADDY is an anachronism and also a marker of queer love. The film is presented as an extensive photo series, recast in a new light by interim years and a radically different world in terms of our digital landscape and how media is shared and censored.

Now 2022, the timing of this exhibition comes at a moment when anything visually homoerotic is being censored across platforms governed by cor- porations, most notably ones run by Mark Zuckerberg. The exhibition is in direct response to the unfounded deletion of Terry Miller’s 11 year old Insta- gram account, and a calling for our community to create our own online ecosystems, and take back our sexual power that the coporate web ini- tially exploited out of greed.

Nothing lives in it’s own sphere, it’s own space and time. When the plat- forms we all find ourselves on daily deem something censorable, those “somethings” that once lived in public are easily disappeared.
- Terry Miller