THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

For Rechy and Wojnarowicz, too, the derelict condition of the waterfront architecture was part of its erotic appeal. Both writers saw the warehouses and piers as animated by an erogenous charge that exceeded its appropriation by cruising men and its proximity to the leather and Western sexual cultures of the bars. This charge seemed to emanate from the physical form of the harbor, from the ruined buildings themselves. “Collapsing piers and warehouses,” Wojnarowicz wrote in a journal entry from June 1980, “brought back images that smelled young and cleared the world of its weariness.” These were lustful ruins.

Anderson/Wojnarowicz

To me, the most beautiful thing in the world is an abandoned parking lot and a soiled sofa on the edge of the parking lot with a street lamp off to the side. America seems like a series of abandoned parking lots, street-lights, and abandoned sofas.

Harmony Korine in Korine/Interviews