by MATTHEW HAYS

Mike Hickey has always been struck by the sexual opportunities that have been opened up by the Internet. Given the massive number of sex sites that gay men can choose from, a computer can be transformed into a veritable carnal smorgasbord.

But when Hickey was cruising about online a few years ago in his native Newfoundland, something else struck him: many of the people he was connecting with weren’t identifying as queer. Many were so-called “MSM,” men who have sex with men but don’t identify as gay at all. “This obviously leads you to think about a lot of things,” he says, “because they are bound to be in relationships with women, and are also bound to be having unprotected sex with these women. The culture doesn’t allow them to talk openly about their desires.”

Hickey, who goes by the moniker “Mikiki” in the art world, created a video installation in response. Titled “23/6’1”/170#/8.5uc,” the piece, which Hickey has unveiled in Saskatoon, Edmonton and Halifax—and which he’ll perform in both Montreal and Toronto this year—explores the complex issues raised by intimacy and relative anonymity offered online.

In the piece, Hickey appropriates the standard image within gay culture: beforehand, he gets a fake tan, takes all the jewellery out of his piercings, puts on a baseball cap backwards and pumps himself full of Viagra. With camera upon him, he then goes online and seeks out intimacy, working to negotiate safer sex with someone online. “This has always been an ethical exhibit,” he cautions. “No one’s online pictures are revealed, nor what we discuss, unless they agree to it. I would never threaten someone’s anonymity.”

Spectators, who view Hickey’s image from another room, can send him an e-mail or instant message, and can learn how to create their own profile on a gay sex chat line.

“The Internet has changed the way that queer men communicate with one another,” says Hickey. “This show is about claiming that public space as our own, and about negotiating safer sexual practices there.”