iGuy art on display

An exhibit examining the erotic side of social networking will soon be on display at the Kinsey Institute Gallery.\nThe text- and collage-based exhibit by local artist Robb Stone, titled “iGuy (helovesmehelovesmenot.com),” takes a look at what gay men reveal and don’t reveal about themselves in the photos they display on networking Web sites. \nThe exhibit will officially open from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday at the Kinsey Institute Gallery in Morrison Hall, but the exhibit can be viewed beginning Wednesday afternoon. The exhibit will feature collages, a sample profile of what one might see on a networking site for gay men and an artist statement about the subject matter. \n“(The artist statement) is a broader, more critical overview of the subject,” Stone said.\nBefore the opening, several professors will hold a panel discussion, “Virtual Connections: Sexuality and Relationships Online,” at 4 p.m. in Morrison Hall 007. The panel will include IU professors Brian Dodge, associate director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion, Bryant Paul, assistant professor in the Department of Telecommunications, and Michael Reece, director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion, according to Stone’s Web site, www.robbstone.com.\nStone will host a talk about the exhibit at 6 p.m. Friday in the gallery.\nHis exhibit explores adult social networking sites like Manhunt and Craigslist, said Catherine Johnson-Roehr, curator of art, artifacts and photographs for the Kinsey Institute Gallery. Stone pulled images off the sites and used them to create art, she said.\nStone said he finds the online networking sites interesting because people are now more focused on meeting online than in bars or other places in person.\n“I focused on profile sites where gay guys can meet other guys that are single, or maybe not single,” he said. \nStone, who is gay, also used images of himself in his collages. While he did not ask for permission to use the photos of others, he said he made sure there was no way you could identify the people whose pictures he used.\n“I’m not going to out anyone,” he said. “This is a forbidden glimpse ... at the very underground aspects of our culture, especially gay culture.”\nStone said he put his own photos into the show because he felt he owed it to the men whose photos he took from networking sites. According to his Web site, the exhibit aims to raise questions about self-objectification, wish-fulfillment and the implications of these issues on love. \n“These pictures are interesting, erotic and poignant,” he said. \nThe exhibit will be on display from Jan. 8-15. The Kinsey Institute Gallery is open from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.\nStone, a Bloomington resident, graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.