Sex.co.nz

The boundary between “art” and “pornography” is a slippery one.  Is it defined by the purpose of the artist, or the reaction of the audience, or something else altogether?

One thing is certain: when artists explore sex, there's sure to be controversy and outrage.

American artist John Haddock has created his own version of pornography, using not live models but cartoon mice.

You heard us right: mouse pornography. You’ve got to see it to believe it.

Click here to enjoy images of pre-1970s porn, recreated by cartoon mice.

The exhibition opened at New York gallery Hallwalls on November 9. True to form, the art world manages to interpret Haddock’s “mouse porn” as cerebrally as possible.

“Rendered in shades of gray, Haddock's mouse porn manages, on the one hand, to employ anthropomorphism to great effect in an honest deconstruction of the subject of sexuality while, on the other hand, creating works that are, if anything, far more tawdry than one would imagine.”

But pornography is this artist’s playground, as seen by this earlier series by Haddock called "Internet Sex Photos" and featuring – get this – porn scenes with the people taken out!

Haddock likes mice, as is evident by an earlier exhibit called “Cartoon Violence,” where he subjects his cartoon mice to torture, murder, beatings, and death. Horrendous animal rights abuses ... or art? Sounds just as ridiculous as the porn vs. art debate.

Haddock is an instructor of Intermedia at Arizona State University and has exhibited in galleries and museums across America and Europe.