Ties that bind

JAILHOUSE COCK The work of late local artist Etienne, on display all year at the Leather Archives & Museum, enjoys a special showcase during IML.

In a rather nondescript building on a quiet tree-lined street in Rogers Park, Jeff Wirsing, facilities manager for the Leather Archives & Museum, buffs a vintage motorcycle jacket to a buttery-smooth sheen. One of the museum's two employees, Wirsing (along with a small, dedicated corps of volunteers) is especially busy, like a hurried host readying his home for a party. After all, company's coming—about 13,000 gay men and women will flock to Chicago to attend the daddy of all leather events this weekend: the 27th annual International Mr. Leather.

For the benefit of vanilla types who have never noticed an influx of chap-clad gentlemen strolling through downtown Chicago every spring, IML comprises a series of events held every Memorial Day weekend. Highlights include parties, such as the aptly named Black and Blue Ball, and an ongoing leather market that attracts leather and fetish vendors from around the world. The main event is the competition for the coveted title of International Mr. Leather, held this year in Navy Pier's Grand Ballroom.

Although the Leather Archives & Museum officially incorporated in 1991, it had a low profile for years among the very constituency whose lives it documents. To many members of the global leather community, Chicago is mecca, the destination of an annual trek. But the IML attendees didn't know where to look for the exhibits, which were, at first, an itinerant collection, typically on display only during the weekend-long event. The archives found an Uptown storefront in 1996 but quickly outgrew it.

A campaign to raise funds for a permanent space resulted in a 1999 move to its current home (once a synagogue and, later, a theater and art gallery). "The building's purchase was achieved 100 percent by leatherfolk," Wirsing says.

The museum started out with the personal art collection of local entrepreneur Chuck Renslow, the godfather of Chicago's leather community and IML's founder. Today, the two-story building is open to members year-round, four days a week. (A 30-day membership costs $5.) Regular exhibits among its eight galleries include photographs and artwork from around the world, with a special display devoted to Etienne, a Chicago artist whose homoerotic drawings helped establish a hypermasculine style of art made famous by the better-known Tom of Finland.

The museum continues to grow; in the last two months, it opened the Uniform Room and the Teri Rose Library. In the Uniform Room, curators display only four uniforms, three vests and four military hats at any one time, allowing viewers to study and reflect on the details of each piece, Wirsing explains. The Teri Rose Library boasts 4,000 books and 7,000 periodicals—everything from erotic art books to poetry to travel guides.

During IML, a shuttle will run regularly from the host hotel, Hyatt Regency Chicago, to the museum. Along the way, it will stop at 1926, the School of the Art Institute'sgallery in Lincoln Park, now showcasing "Palpable Testosterone: The Art of Etienne." The exhibit draws from the archive's collection, including art that first appeared in 1950s physique magazines.

Also an accomplished dancer and choreographer, the late Dom Orejudos drew and painted his hypermasculine fantasies under different pseudonyms: first Stephen, later Etienne. He went into business with Renslow, his longtime lover, founding the Gold Coast Leather Bar in 1958. The bar closed in 1993, but some of its Etienne murals live on inside the museum auditorium.

The existence of the museum—according to its curators, the only institution of its kind in North America—"provides viability and credibility for the leather, S&M and fetish communities," says Rick Storer, executive director. "The Leather Archives & Museum provides truth about who we are and what we do in the privacy of our bedrooms. In just ten years, we were able to fill a 10,000-square-foot building with leather artifacts. To me, this proves that there was a need for a repository for leather artifacts, because the mainstream institutions were not taking care of documenting our past and our traditions."

The Leather Archives & Museum will observe extended hours Thursday 26 through Monday 30.