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Frank
Melleno: The Fairoaks Project
Polaroids from a San Francisco bathhouse 1978
Curated
by Gary Freeman
June 12th - 27th, 2010
Opening
Reception June 12th, 2010 7-10pm
Featuring a musicial performance by The
Boyfriend
In celebration of Gay Pride Month, drkrm/gallery
proudly presents an extraordinary, never-before-seen glimpse into pre-AIDS
gay sexual culture. The Fairoaks Project is
an exhibit of Polaroid photographs taken by Frank Melleno during the spring
and summer of 1978 at The Fairoaks Hotel, a San Francisco bathhouse.
This exhibition
contains graphic nudity and explicit content.
Situated in a refurbished Victorian building near a black ghetto, The
Fairoaks was known for its laid-back and racially integrated ambiance.
Bold and unapologetic, Melleno’s images capture an aspect of gay
life rarely seen in snapshot photography: sexually candid encounters that
are playful, spontaneous and often affectionate. The dark storm of drug
abuse and pandemic disease that would soon overtake the community is not
visible in these celebratory pictures.
Melleno’s
collection of Polaroids was put in a box shortly after they were shot
and have not been seen until now. Many of the images contain nudity and
frank erotic scenes, but they also capture men dressed in festive attire
and engaged in other aspects of the counter-culture lifestyle the Fairoaks
promoted. Many artists lived at the hotel, and ongoing therapy-support
groups and monthly theme parties enhanced the Fairoaks’ reputation
as a neighborhood center for gay men as much as a bathhouse.
"Like a string of black pearls, San Francisco’s bathhouses adorned the city with a touch of louche glamour. The Hothouse. The Barracks. The Handball Express. Animals. The Club, Bulldog, Sutro and, down by the tracks, the Ritch Street Baths. The ever-notorious South-of-the-Slot, and so many more. (They were all officially closed in October 1984.) Each claimed a distinct character and clientele. But no place had quite the feeling of coming home once through the front door as did the Fairoaks... More than a pictorial record of a by-gone scene--or even of passing strangers with sticky feet--these photographs open a door into a secret gay world of sexual encounter and sweet innocence the likes of which will never be seen again."
--Mark Thompson, from the introduction to the exhibition catalog
