Just what is it that goes on behind the discreet curtains of an exotic “massage parlour”? If the jokes and innuendos associated with the shady businesses are anything to go by, there’s more on the menu of your average one than an innocent session of soft-tissue manipulation, and visitors to Shin Gallery in New York will definitely be getting more than they bargained for as the venue is taken over by an extremely risqué installation exhibition.

Shin at 66 Orchard has been transformed into a dodgy massage parlour with a difference, for behind the obfuscating drapes and screens we find the work of two artistic deviants: Rudolf Schwarzkogler and Nobuyoshi Araki. The former is one of the leading figures in the Viennese Actionism movement, and his physically gruesome and bloody photography provides the uncomfortable tension which is soothed by the gentler — if still very much NSFW — imagery of his Japanese counterpart. Cast off the shackles of shame, succumb to your curiosity and call in before 1 November. But please don’t ask for a happy ending.

@shin_gallery

Rudolf Schwarzkogler
1. Aktion, 1965
SCHWAR/F 24
70ies b/w (photo: Walter Kindler). 24 x 36 cm
Stamped on the back: “Nachlass Rudolf Schwarzkogler” (estate Rudolf Schwarzkogler)

Rudolf Schwarzkogler
2. Aktion, 1965
SCHWAR/F 15
70ies b/w (photo: Ludwig Hoffenreich). 24 x 54 cm
Stamped on the back: “Ludwig Hoffenreich”