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Recent press

The Public’s Radio.

‘Scandalous Conduct’: Telling the queer history behind the Newport Navy sex scandal of 1919

“It’s a great setting to enjoy the piece. You can wander among the three screens as your attention is pulled from one to the other, listening to the reports of the encounters and the recreated vaudeville songs. It’s a fascinating bit of forgotten local history that’s presented in a thoroughly enjoyable way. ” (Read More)

Boston Art Review.

In Newport, a Queer Sex Scandal and Sailor Sting Operation From 1919 Get a Film Dramatization

“Enter Matthew Lawrence and Jason Tranchida, Rhode Island artists and co-editors of Headmaster, a journal they describe as “the art magazine for man-lovers.” Their new hour-long three-channel video, Scandalous Conduct: A Fairy Extravaganza, screened on a loop this fall at one of its period filming locations in Newport. More provocation than essay film or documentary, the piece switches between evocations of the Newport sailor entrapments and recreations of the historical Navy-made musical The Strange Adventures of Jack and the Beanstalk: A Fairy Extravaganza, which toured the area in 1919. Walking in at the middle of Scandalous Conduct, you could be forgiven for thinking you’d stumbled across Warhol screen tests from the 1960s intercut with scenes from W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan’s comedic operetta H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), but the film’s mood is ultimately more melancholy. It is a form of cultural restitution to unearth the Navy’s actions, bring the 1919 incident back for consideration, and mix artifacts of popular theater and police action.” (Read More)

Boston Globe.

FDR, sex, and the Navy: Two artists are uncovering a little-known piece of Newport history.

“Not long after World War I ended, about 30,000 sailors in the United States Navy returned to the seaside town of Newport. But shortly after they landed, the city was in the midst of a national scandal: sailors and civilian men were being targeted in a homophobic undercover operation to root out “immoral acts.”

Today, little is known about the investigation, but two local artists and co-publishers of Headmaster Magazine, Jason Tranchida and Matthew Lawrence, are shining a light on this little-known piece of Newport's history with a combination of sound and video work along with some other pieces they're still developing.” (Read More)

Edge Media.

Gay magazines and the evolution of male erotica.

“While this brainier new breed of gay erotica doesn't objectify bodies like the glossies of yore, the magazines themselves are crafted to be appreciated as objets d'art. Both Elska and Headmaster are perfect bound rather than stapled, and expensively printed on luxurious stock.

"We are total paper nerds," confides Lawrence.

To their makers and readers, these beautifully produced publications are not sources of shame to be hidden under the mattress. Instead, they are signifiers of pride to be displayed on the coffee table.” (Read More)

Association of Canadian Archivists.

PeepShow & Tell: Sex in archives.

“We have given assignments about an array of subjects: the planet Neptune, the lax public nudity laws in Seattle, the titling of porn videos, the architecture of discotheques. But we always keep returning to specific moments in queer (primarily gay male) histories, and that can lead to some fun archival research work. Once an artist is interested, we develop their assignment for a week or two and then give them roughly 6-8 weeks to complete their project, whether that is a comic style photo novel project about dithyrambs or a cut paper tug of war (to name two recent examples). We work with photographers and writers, but also with artists working in fiber, video, music, and other genres that are not traditional two-dimensional paper works. The most recent issue features an astrology project by House of Rice, Vancouver’s only all-Asian drag family.” (Read More)