I recently performed at the Femina Potens “Art of Restraint” in San Francisco. The lineup included: Madison Young, James Mogul, Five Star, Twisted Monk, Maxine Holloway, JP Robichaud, Dylan Ryan, Lilac Wine, and myself.
My goal with the piece was to transform the room from voyeurs into participants into captors and finally into competitors. I wore a chain secured around my waist with 5 open padlocks hanging from it. Then I asked for 5 volunteers to take a 5 foot length of chain and lock it around my waist at a padlock. I then handed them the keys to the padlocks which were frozen in ice and already wrapped in cord to be hung onto the chain. “My goal is to get those keys, melt them, open the padlocks, and escape from the circle. Don’t let me get to those keys. GO!”
Once you’re a chick surrounded in chain, you’ve already got a heavy metal look going on so I decided to run with that. I put my hair up into a mohawk, painted it blue, wore a ton of metal on my body, put on electric blue eyeshadow and found knee high boots to match. I looked like a hooker out of Blade Runner (standard pleasure model). I did have a number of behind the scenes safety precautions including an emergency release that would not require bolt cutters but it was still super intense. Essentially I brought the moshpit experience into a performance art show at a sex party play space.
It was interesting to see how everything intensified the second that I was about to unlock a chain about 33 seconds into the clip. For me, that was the moment that the people holding the chain transformed from being participants and into some serious competitors. On one hand, I had set things up to handle far more brutality than I actually experienced but on the other hand I was genuinely taken by surprise at how rough it was. It did feel like being caught in a storm of metal. I was tossed into the air, thrown to the ground, and battered. The adrenaline from performance carried me through it all. I landed on my knees repeatedly and the chain would crash into my torso from all angles. For 10 minutes I had an out-of-this-world physical experience and I was entirely sober. Despite the chaotic look to everything, there was a method behind the madness. I was actually consciously reacting to every blow from the chain in order to reduce the trauma. There are better and worse ways to take a serious blow to the body. A great deal of what I was doing in the middle of that metal hurricane was making demands to my muscles that required an override of my instinct. The piece required me to let go of physical control while simultaneously maintaining meticulous mental control. Unlike more traditional SM scenes where the bottom, submissive, or slave can drift off and enjoy a sensual experience I had to stay fully alert and connected.
I managed to gain keys for 4 out of 5 padlocks but one evaded me. The ice cube slipped from my fingers and off into the crowd. I did manage to pull the woman with the final chain and the missing key down onto the ground into a hold but I still accepted a spanking for every link left unlocked. Although I am very, very bruised I am more than satisfied with how this performance worked. I don’t know if it’s masochism in the most traditional sense but I’ve always been drawn to intense physical experiences. I have jumped 40 foot waterfalls in the Dominican Republic for the same reasons that I have bottomed for heavy SM scenes. It’s a quest for the edge of my physical limits and my own control. This performance was a test of both and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
My next performance will be for “The Dirty Palette” at the SF Citadel. It will be hosted by the lovely Nerine Mechanique. Guests will have an hour, 9pm-10pm, to create their own perverted (or not!) art image on either canvas, paper, or the body at The Dirty Palette. Numbers will be assigned to each piece and a judging panel will vote on the best of our very own art show- Prizes will include passes to citadel parties, and various goodies! There will be penetrative paintbrushes, human collage, perverted paint-by-number, and prizes for all kinds of art. Come and check it out!
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