Hanging your art in a dungeon may not be a goal for most artists, but for the 15 current and former sex workers whose photos, drawings and paintings are featured in the Sex Worker Visions II show, the dungeon-turned-art gallery allows them to expose their secret lives in context.
“The history of Western art, at least when it comes to the female form, was built on the backs of prostitutes who doubled as artists’ models and muses,” curator Audacia Ray explains. Thanks to this exhibition, hosted by $pread magazine, a sex industry publication, these silent voices can now be heard. A few participants are well known, such as contemporary artist Zak Smith and porn-star-turned PhD. sexologist, Annie Sprinkle, but others are art-world virgins.
“The need to express one’s own truth is universal,” says illustrator Jesse Cox, who’s created a collaged drawing of her stripper friends. “Patricia/Justice” features the pretty, smiling face of a young woman prominently drawn and surrounded by photos of her kids, a laundry line, a crumpled apron and cutout shots of her dancing—just a typical mom.
Dominic Vine has photographed three of his “chubby, daddy type” clients baring it all, yet hiding their faces. This series raises questions about guilt, privacy, illegality and our willingness as a culture to force sex workers into the shadows in order to save face.
Bella Vendetta shows off her impressive flexibility in a photograph by L.C. Dressed only in ripped nylons, platform shoes and horn-rimmed glasses, Vendetta’s look suggests a librarian gone very, very wild; the old saying, “don’t judge a book by its cover,” has never been truer.
Vena Virago has done a series of pen and ink drawings in a comic-book style. “Mommy’s Little Sissy” features a man being dominated, and “Naughty Secretary” shows a woman being spanked. Each picture has multiple dialogue balloons filled with sex chatter that reveals both Virago’s “celebration and ambivalence.”
“Take A Walk in My Shoes” is painter Genevive Zacconi’s small, realistic picture of her unbuckled “hooker” shoes. Nicely done in moody blues, the piece sums up the show’s purpose: to present the whole reality of women and men we normally objectify as mere body parts. Guided tours of the art and “dungeons” will be held through June and July.
Arena Studios, 407 Broome St. (betw. Lafayette & Centre Sts.), 646-520-1350 (to schedule a visit). www.spreadmagazine.org for more events and details.
