TERENCE LI

“The Carnal Crypt” and is about several homosexuals and their experience in The Boiler, the only remaining gay sauna that caters to a gay male clientele. – photographed by Terence Li.

Biography
Terence Li is a filmmaker, photographer and art critic based in Berlin. He was born in San Francisco, USA, and graduated with a bachelor degree in Journalism and Communications in the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Li’s works shed light on identities in transition and the transience of space. The keywords defining the subjects of his works are: uncertainty, unpredictability and performativity.

Artist Statement
Bathhouses have played an important role in the shaping of the gay culture, offering homosexuals a haven for cleansing, relaxation and pleasure; however, they have also been stigmatised by politicians and the general public as a filthy place and the hotbed for AIDS transmissions. This difference in perceptions has lent an air of mystery surrounding gay saunas, and has gradually transformed saunagoing into of a sort of cult practice. Interested in exploring the site and getting to know the people who frequent it, I started the photo project “The Carnal Crypt” to probe into these low-light, steamy, labyrinthine establishments. It centres on “The Boiler”, the only remaining sauna in Berlin that caters to a male gay clientele. I was not only overwhelmed by the aura of the sauna, where all sauna guests are stripped naked, their bodies worshipped and placed above all social hierarchies, but also touched by the emotional undercurrents that run under the skin. The combination of physical sensation and emotional affect has driven me to associate the descent into the sauna with excavating an ancient crypt. “The Carnal Crypt” makes use of documentary photography and staged portraits, to offer a glimpse into the architecture and facilities of a gay sauna, while attempting to delineate the physical and mental landscape of contemporary homosexuals in their search for self worth and human connection.