New Work: Craigslist Ads: 23

Well, look who’s back!  You!  And me!  And I brought some new art!

I recently completed a book that is printed in an edition of twenty-three.  I bound the pages with a perfect binding (that is the name of the binding technique and not just me being full of myself).  The title of the piece is Craigslist Ads: 23.  I have to preface this post with a warning to people who aren’t comfortable with sexually explicit language—this work is full of it!

2008
book
perfect binding
edition of 23
7 1/2″ x 5″ x 5/16″ (19.1cm x 12.7cm x 0.8cm)

So, the book begins with an introduction text that reads as follows:

The Internet—what a place! Everyday, thousands of men, (gay, bi and straight), visit Craigslist.com in search of love, sex, cocaine, hand jobs, circle jerks, and CBT (cock and ball torture).

The personal ad section of the site is simple to use. Simply enter a title for the ad you’d like to post, your age and neighborhood, and a description of the services you are seeking or offering. In addition to the services, the ad poster often includes a personal description that includes height, weight, body build, and race. Occasionally, the poster will request that the replier be of a certain description as well—“please be taller than me, in shape, and hung”. Finally, there is the option to include an online pic that appears at the bottom of the ad, which more often than not, is a pic of a penis.

My interest in online identity brought me to Craigslist’s personal ads. This specific section of the site perfectly exhibits the psychological definition of an Internet user: an anonymous individual who is honest, uninhibited, and aggressive.

While looking at the various ads, I couldn’t help but wonder: could I be one of these guys? I began to collect various ads that did not include any pics nor physical descriptors, except those that actually matched my own physical description. I also narrowed the age field to men under 28 and popular neighborhoods of New York City.

Within these pages are several of my interpretations of the poster’s identity. I thought, “if that was me, and I were to put a genuine picture of myself online, what would it look like”. Because the poster chose to be anonymous, there’s an uneasy sensation for you and me that perhaps, it really could be me. The individuals touch upon several ideas of physical beauty, sexual experience, drug use, and racism, that when juxtaposed with my image, construct a curious identity as to who I am. The final question is then pointed at you, in which I ask—could it be you, too?

And there ya go!  So now I’ll describe the work a little more, and include some pics of the book’s pages, but you can see all the pages by clicking here.

I’m in love with this little book because I love creating books (Ooo, secret number ten of the mystery that is Jeffrey Augustine Songco…).  I think the medium of the book really challenges my creativity and allows me to display my precise craftsmanship when it comes to cutting paper and lining up edges.  Add to that the repetitious act of multiplying the books into an edition, and boy, you’ve got a special item.

There’s a very special intimacy that comes from a book that has been hand-bound.  I think that energy contrasts well with the nature of the individual Craigslist ads.  I associate the idea of sex with that of love, and it is something that should be reserved for two individuals who are in love rather than as a cold and anonymous pleasure seeking activity.  Perhaps the piece is not about filling a void of love, but about an acceptance of sex.

It was very amusing to browse through the ads on Craiglist.  There were plenty of ads to choose from but many of them were very boring.  What do I mean by boring?  Well in a nutshell, the ad was short and sweet—perhaps no longer than two sentences.  I wanted a bit more drama—something the viewer could chew on.  I wanted enough information that there was some thread between the ad and it’s photograph.  If I wanted to present a boring array of ads, I woulda made a list in Word and emailed you the file.

Instead, I made a book that has a bit of a narrative.  I started the book with ads that are fairly simple to understand.  As the viewer flips the pages, the descriptions become heavier and heavier.  More physical descriptors are included and sexual desires are a bit more graphic.  Further into the book, time is specified, questioning sexuality arises, and racism is evident.  The book begins as a quiet stack of bound papers and ends as a screaming idea seeking attention.

In terms of the actual text, the ads are true to its online appearance.  The font of the text imitates the font used online.  The various typos are real.  At first, I wasn’t sure if the viewer would understand the abbreviations throughout the book, so I included a legend at the end that explains the various abbreviated phrases and codes, such as iso = in search of, nsa = no strings attached, and ski = blow cocaine.  I don’t want to spoon feed the meaning of the work, but I would find it problematic if the viewer was mixing up an abbreviated phrase with a typo, and thus missing the anonymous and graphic nature of the posting.

In terms of the photographs, I tried to capture an identity that matched the text.  Because the ads were genuinely anonymous, it’s quite simple to understand that any photograph I made could match.  But I let the text speak to my imagination and I got a little creative with the identity that I visualized.  I mentioned in the introduction text that I limited the ages of the anonymous ad writers to 28, and that is because I felt like I couldn’t convincingly look any older than that.  It’s been a while since I photographed myself so working on this piece was a lot of fun.

Well, that’s about it.  To me, I really find it necessary to give you, the viewer, some remarks as to how to interpret my work, which is why I write these posts to describe each of my pieces.  Of course, any interpretation is valid and I hope that my work inspires that.  With Craigslist Ads: 23, the introduction text was definitely all the text I needed to share, but hopefully this post adds a little more fun stuff regarding the process and a little more meaning within the work.