Have you ever put off seeing a movie dealing with man’s inhumanity toward man, such as Hotel Rwanda or Life is Beautiful, know it will be shocking and sometimes painful, and will force you to confront the ugly reality that people often do very bad things to other people?
That’s how one might feel when approaching Mary Coble’s new show, Aversion, at Conner Contemporary Art. Coble confronts the horrible effects of electro shock therapy prescribed to gays and lesbians to re-condition their sexual orientation, in a sparse but powerful collection.
Up until 1973, when homosexuality was declassified as a mental disorder, the American Psychological Association supported reorientation therapy for gays and lesbians. Patients were subjected to repeated sessions during which they were shown a series of erotic images. When shown opposite-sex images no negative stimulation was applied, but when shown same-sex images a shock was administered.
The collection tries to impart some of the pain and suffering of this therapy through multiple media. Located in the back of the room is the main piece of the exhibit, Aversion (Installation) 2007. The installation consists of a large black leather chair, a slide projector, small machine with electrodes, and a small table. The chair is very modern and feels very much at home as a modern piece of furniture within the simple clean lines of the gallery. It looks comfortable, plush and inviting, opposite of the two light blue electrodes on its seat, which are cold, hard and clinical. Their wires follow back to a small squat machine, the shock machine that is on a table next to the chair. A slide projector is behind the chair, loudly cycling through its carousel of erotic pictures. The display is disconcerting and ominous on its own — but this piece is actually the set for a performance as well. On the opening night of the exhibit, Coble had an assistant deliver a series electroshocks to her as she sat in the chair, alternately being shown sexy images of men and women. When she was shown a woman, she would get a shock.
Photo copyright Mary Coble; courtesy Conner Contemporary Art.
