So, I decided
I'd write about the artist who most inspires my performance project that I've
been working on. Annie M.
Sprinkle is an American sex educator and
former stripper, pornographic actress, cable
television host, porn magazine editor, writer, and
sex film producer. My hero.
Actually, Ms. Sprinkle earned her BFA in photography at the
School of Visual Arts in New York in the mid-eighties as well as a degree in
human sexuality at the Institute
for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco in 1992.
One of her most famous performance pieces is her Public
Cervix Announcement (shown in the photo above), in which she invites the
audience to "celebrate the female body" by viewing her cervix with a
speculum and flashlight. As her artist statement on her website proclaims, "You can never demystify a cervix. It’s a
magnificent miracle — the doorway to life itself. One reason why I show my
cervix is to assure the misinformed, who seem to be primarily of the male
population, that neither the vagina nor the cervix contains any teeth. Maybe
you’ll calm down and get a grip."
Sexuality is still a very murky subject in American
culture, swept under a rug and spoken only with a whisper. This is especially
true for female sexuality though a major irony remains: female sexuality is
quite prevalent in our everyday economic processes. One can barter womanhood to
sell clothes, booze, club cover fees, etc.; however, discussing the subject
intellectually still remains taboo. Sprinkle acknowledges that to demystify
sexual re-productivity is probably unfeasible, but what I like about the
performance and image above is how it forces people into uncomfortable
territory without losing any slapstick, which I think is required sometimes
when relating serious issues to the public.
The next photo is a still
from the performance, Dirty
Sexecology. Dr Sprinkle and
Elizabeth M. Stevens begin to explain the science of Sexecology, first by
talking about it, then with a demonstration. It blends pornography references
with kitsch mock science. It was lengthy performance piece lasting around 45
minutes. The duo and two other assistants in white coats, demonstrate love with
a flower, play country music, perform a kind of nudist ballerina dance and make
love with an earth mound. During these demonstrations, one of the assistants in
a white coat recites names of mountains. This all relates to Sprinkle declaring
herself ecosexual. She
claims that the Earth should be cared for and respected just like humans.
Her methods in this performance piece may be a tad over the top for this
particular topic but I think she mostly accomplished her in the piece.
No comments:
Post a Comment