Daniel RolnikIt's funny how nude photographs on the Internet are considered porn, but the same ones in a gallery are considered art. So, the website Girls In Front Of Art was formed to partially play with that idea, founded by Brad Tinmouth in 2009 after he had gotten tired of updating his old website.
“I just thought it would be really funny to do,” Tinmouth said. “Especially since I had a few pieces on my old site that dealt with porn…But, I mean, I think a lot of artists make now work that deals with porn, since most of them it online anyways.”
Upon first glance, the site seems to have an innocent name. I mean, one would think that it's literally what it sounds like — wholesome artsy girls sitting in front of art at museums. But if you assumed that, you'd be wrong — way wrong! It's actually an archive of paintings featured in the background of amateur pornographic photos, which the artist, Tinmouth, presents in an interactive way.
And if you've seen any of his other websites, then you know he's all about satire and fun. For example, his official site looks as though it belongs to a self-help guru, but it's all a wickedly unabashed parody of survival tips and social commentary.
When you get past the initial splash page of Girls In Front Of Art, the site just looks like an endless array of shitty art destined for motel rooms. However, when you hover your mouse over each image, it's revealed that the paintings are actually background elements to random couples' shameless YouPorn extravaganzas.
“The pictures are mostly from amateur porn sites that I don't even think are still anymore,” Tinmouth said.
Apparently when the site first launched it got so much hype that it actually crashed his server.
“I got 10,000 hits in one day,” he said. “It peaked right after I posted it on the website Street Boners and TV Carnage.”
Over the last three years Tinmouth has thought about updating the site, but has been busy running his own artist space, Butcher Gallery, in Toronto. And now, finally, he's decided to collect submissions, which anyone can send to him via email contact@bradtinmouth.com with the subject line of GIRLS IN FRONT OF ART.
Follow @DanielRolnik and @AfterDarkLA on Twitter.
Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.