Farewell Romance with Torrie Torrie at Firstdraft

By Rosie Hancock

Remember the days when the pinnacle of romance involved foil-wrapped baby’s breath and four tired red roses from the local servo? Maybe accompanied by a plush red devil, clutching an I Love You cushion and a Kenny G and Michael Bolton mixtape… Simpler times.

Torrie Torrie remembers those days. And in her exhibition The Death of Romance opening at Firstdraft Gallery on April 6th, she’s bringing it all back. Torrie, a queer Sydney-based artist, has been popping up all over the place in the last year. Two of her videos featured in Runway Magazine’s Porn Issue, her interactive video for the Bearded Tit (Free Love) fascinated drinkers all October-long, her installation Pop-up Beat at a Randwick Council public art exhibition managed to enrage uptight Eastern suburbs housewives and was censored into submission, and her romantic peep-show booth featured in MCA’s October ArtBar.

But most likely, you’ll know Torrie’s work from her projections for Heaps Gay parties. She’s been providing the (often cheeky, sometimes naughty, and always brilliant) visual backdrop to Heaps Gay since early  2014. Her bright animated collages – cocks flying out of donuts, fried chicken and sprinkles, chiko roll blow jobs – and hilariously creepy videos have provided the backdrop for hundreds, if not thousands, of drunken dance floor pickups (and hopefully, hook ups).

This time, she’s bringing the love off the dance floor and into the artwork. In this new show, Torrie invites us to consider a world in which love can be bought and sold. It’s as easy as popping into a peep show on your lunch break – except instead of paying for a glimpse of flesh, you pay to be told (commitment free!) that you are loved. At a time when technologies like Tinder and Grindr make sex easier than ever before, love seems increasingly harder to find – perhaps because of the very culture these apps create.

The answer, in Torrie’s brave new world, is to do to love what we’ve done to sex. Buy it, sell it, and strip away the cultural baggage and heavy symbolism. The show nails the creepy and vaguely repulsive air Torrie often creates in her projections – her video of a figure clad head to toe in nude lycra rubbing melting chocolate into their butt and teeth pretty much ensures that. And in keeping with her recent theme of public toilet/peep-show booths, there is a claustrophobic little love shack to climb inside.

If you’ve ever wanted to be enveloped in a declaration of love repeated over and over and over (because you can never say I love you too much, right?) or considered stuffing an entire box of Roses Chocolates into your mouth (or butt crack), this is the exhibition you’ve been waiting for.

The Death of Romance opens Wednesday 6th April, 6-8pm and runs until 28th April at Firstdraft Gallery (13-17 Riley St, Woolloomooloo).