Drew Montgomery Artist: 'SOHO' - Lower Para Project

'Enigma' is a Steampunk cafe in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, filled with kinetic sculptures. Designed by Alexandru Tohotan and Zoltan Zelenyak, the bar is considered the first in the world of its kind to use mechanical innovation in coherence with Steampunk visuals. Tohotan and Zelenyak were approached by 6th Sense Interiors to design and create the cafe, and it took around two years to reach completion; in addition to this, the pair have also worked on other designs for pubs and bars, including 'The Submarine' and 'Joben Bistro'. The cafe features rotating wheels, metallic flowers opening up in the ceiling, an automaton bird and also a robot riding a bicycle with a plasma ball for a head. The aesthetics are reminiscent of H.R. Giger's artwork, particularly the robot automaton riding the bicycle, which uses the silver palette and characteristic repeated lines and patterns in the metal that we see in Giger's work.

The automaton appears to be plugged into a mains electricity panel, and you can see the way a plasma ball is used as a head, in addition to using a gas mask to reinforce the slightly disturbing quality to the sculpture

You can see the Giger-inspired use of designs and patterns on the automaton

A rear view of the way the plasma ball is used as the automaton's head

A network of cogs are used to power a large clock in the cafe

'Enigma' uses interior design to create an artificial environment that surrounds the observer; this is similar to the effect I want to achieve with my own work, but due to lacking the time, money and resources to create something as large-scale as this, I'll have to think of other ways to create an environment for the observer. Projecting video art and using sound, as well as creating installation pieces and drawings and paintings, may be an effective way of creating the kind of immersive atmosphere that is given by video games and physical environments, for example. Each different part of the city will have a different visual language, and Lower Para will be founded on neon and metalwork. The city revolves around the sex trade and that of Soubrettes, sex automatons, so the way 'Enigma' utilizes mechanics and mechanical imagery is inspiring when it comes to deciding upon the look and function of the Soubrettes.

Below is the work of Swiss surrealist painter H.R. Giger, an influential figure in modern art who inspired many artists and different media, including fetishists such as Eric Stanton and Touko Laaksonen (also known as Tom of Finland), and many record-albums, furniture and tattoo artists. Giger was known for his role in the special effects team for the movie 'Alien', and his work has left a cultural thumbprint on many video games, movies and artists to come. Giger was Zurich-based and studied Architecture and Industrial Design at the School of the Applied Arts from 1962 until 1970. His earlier work is almost entirely made using airbrush, until later on in his career when he began to work with pastels, markers and ink. His signature visual style incorporates humans and machines linked together in a cold bio-mechanical atmosphere, and his work often incorporates erotic suggestions.

A piece by Giger that brings together machinery and eroticism - there is also an Ancient Egyptian feel to the repeated patterns and the heads of the creatures that look like hieroglyphics of Ancient Egyptian gods. It is often difficult to tell where the mechanical ends and the organic begins in Giger's work.

Giger's 1978 drawings for the movie 'Alien', brainstorming ideas and consolidating designs for the visual look of the younger aliens that use human bodies as hosts. Even in these designs, there is latent sexual implications that make the work even more disturbing.

Another mechanical piece featuring what appear to be android/automaton females - there are references to the industrial revolution and mass production, and this piece in particular inspires the look of my Soubrettes.

Giger's work was an influence on fetish artists, whose work was a mixture of comic art and pornography. Tuoko Laaksonen's homoerotic fetish art heavily influenced late 20th Century gay culture, and he is best known for representing homomasculine archetypes such as lumberjacks, motorcycle policemen, sailors, bikers and leathermen. In 1956 he submitted drawings to the United States magazine 'Physique Pictorial', and this was his first time releasing any of his drawings to the public. He was credited in the magazine under the pseudonym he gave; Tom of Finland. Due to the strict laws regarding the abolition of gay pornography, Laaksonen's work was primarily published in 'beefcake' magazines, a genre that began in the 1930's. These magazines primarily features drawings and photographs of young, attractive men performing exercises, and they were advertised as publications promoting physical fitness and health. However, their main audience was gay men, and these magazines were often the only connection that closeted men had to their sexuality. Due to the homophobic and conservative society, any explicit work was rendered through private commissions.
In 1962, the United States Supreme Court ruled that male nude photographs were not obscene, and so following this softcore gay pornography gained momentum and 'beefcake' magazines were soon dropped entirely. Tom of Finland's work grew more explicit due to the new lack of limitations, and many years after, in the 1970's, his work gained gay mainstream appeal.

Laaksonen and other artists were so vital to their times because of the suppression of homosexuality, and their artwork often provided the sole way men could connect to their sexual identity without breaching laws. His work has an influence on my project in that I want to represent, adversely, how the media nowadays has reached the other end of the spectrum - gay relationships have gone from condemned to openly fetishized, lesbian relationships in particular. Patriarchal society has led to lesbian relationships being overly sexualised, and I want to explore how the media is reducing lesbian relationships to a fetish that exists for the satisfaction of heterosexual men.

One of Laaksonen's illustrations depicting a romantic relationship between two men, a visual touchstone

Initial sketch of a Soho Soubrette logo

More developed digital sketch with cleaned up lineart

Thinking about the pose of the Soubrette in relation to the Soho welcome sign

Inverting the colours of the Soubrette sign in order to prep it for becoming neon.

Sketching two different arm and head positions in white so that my neon sign will be seen to move, not just light up.

Screencap of the neon sign, showcasing the first position. Drew over the lineart with colour, applied a Gaussian blur then put it into 'screen' filter mode.