This piece began as an attempt to present deviant and sexual activites, in a soft, unusual way - through the craft of cross stitch, a medium usually preserved for teddies and samplers of flowers and kittens. By presenting the kinky, sexual material in this way, I wasted to express the banality and normailty of such subjects to myself and also present matter which some people may find offensive and abrasive, in a more subtle and less distasteful matter.
The first incarnation of this piece was presented reverse side up as I enjoyed the aesthetic qualities of this side and the way that I had unconciously created patterns and pictures in the reverse, which were not present on the correct side.
I framed this picture in a traditional fashion, but used PVC from old pieces of clothing that I had worn during kinky play.
I viewed the making of this piece almost as a performance in itself, as it was a long and labour intensive process, it began as a labour of love, but as I finnished stitching this piece, so did the relashionship I had with the man pictured, and it became increasingly difficult to finnish the piece. As our relationship in real life had ended, this piece did not feel finnished, I had a desire to hurt and destroy this labour of love.
So I did.
I decided to combine the destruction of this piece with an earlier idea I had formed for a performance. I decided to lay the piece on my naked body and to have wax poured over us, simultaneously covering me and the work in wax, slowly and painfully obscuring both.
Wax play is one of many areas of 'kinky play' that I have interest in, the effect of the hot wax as it cools on the skin produces a beautiful aesthetic effect, it could be argued that this effect could have been achieved in paint, however the pain/pleasure element became an important part of the performance/video.
I framed this picture in a traditional fashion, but used PVC from old pieces of clothing that I had worn during kinky play.
I viewed the making of this piece almost as a performance in itself, as it was a long and labour intensive process, it began as a labour of love, but as I finnished stitching this piece, so did the relashionship I had with the man pictured, and it became increasingly difficult to finnish the piece. As our relationship in real life had ended, this piece did not feel finnished, I had a desire to hurt and destroy this labour of love.
So I did.
I decided to combine the destruction of this piece with an earlier idea I had formed for a performance. I decided to lay the piece on my naked body and to have wax poured over us, simultaneously covering me and the work in wax, slowly and painfully obscuring both.
Wax play is one of many areas of 'kinky play' that I have interest in, the effect of the hot wax as it cools on the skin produces a beautiful aesthetic effect, it could be argued that this effect could have been achieved in paint, however the pain/pleasure element became an important part of the performance/video.
During the performance I viewed the pain as a form of purification, a task to be endured, a release from the emotional pain of the end of a relationship and the destruction of a work which I had spent many hours of loving work on. As the work had become symbolic of my relationship, the pain became symbolic of letting go of my work, whilst suffering with it and being part of its destruction.
A photo of the result of the performance
A photo of the result of the performance
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