Some of My Performances in Retrospect

Author(s): Annie Sprinkle

Source: Art Journal, Vol. 56, No. 4, Performance Art: (Some) Theory and (Selected) Practice at
the End of This Century (Winter, 1997), pp. 68-70
Published by: College Art Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/777728 .
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 party-people dressed in red dresses and fur coats. I keep photographed for sex magazines. I enjoyed my work, but
my focus on the pot I am making. The partyends suddenly, my deep, dark, secret fantasy was to be ... an artist!
and I notice the silence. I look about the ceramics roomfor I got my big break through Carnival Knowledge, a
traces of the party yet there are none. There are no wine women's art collective, which decided to put together a
bottles, no cups, no music, no people-just an empty room, series of performanceevents. Carnival Knowledge invited
save for one person who says there was no party here. I see Club 90, my porn star support group, to participate. We
spaceships flying around the sky. I paint paintings and were a group of seven women porn stars (VeronicaVera,
drawpictures maniacally frantically for years; I pursue my Gloria Leonard, Veronica Hart, Candida Royalle, Kelly
art as though art will organize this world for me. Nichols, Sue Nero, and I) who had been meeting every
My mother is dead, decomposed, eyes bulging out, few weeks to discuss problems, share successes, to net-
stench worse than vomit fills my memory. I work harder work, and of course to gossip. Delighted to have an oppor-
than ever before. I am attacked by a homeless man and tunity to reveal other sides of our selves, and to a whole
lose my memory.Sounds become exaggerated;I write my new audience, as well as to some of our peers (even Bob
will. I am told by my boss to see a psychiatrist or lose my Guccione came), we accepted the invitation. We wel-
job. I am diagnosed a schizophrenic by a leading psychia- comed the challenge to try our hands (and bodies) at
trist and am then sent to county clinics because I can't something new.
afforda doctor.I live in Hollywoodwith drug addicts, pros- Our show, Deep Inside Porn Stars, was a reenactment
titutes, and pimps. I ride the bus. of one of our meetings, portrayedin an honest, albeit styl-
My need for orderbecomes obsessive after startingto ized way. Within the "meeting" we each had a spot in
68 take antipsychotic medication. I want to know the symptoms which to share a bit about ourselves in any way we wanted.
of the illness, the history of insanity. I want to know the For my spot, I chose to illustrate with slides, words, and a
symptoms of the illness, the history of insanity, I want to few props, how shy, insecure, scared Ellen Steinberg had
organize madness. I discover Foucault, Antonin Artaud, re- re-created herself as Annie Sprinkle, exhibitionist, confi-
discover Vincent Van Gogh, and read the book Anti-Oedipus dent, fearless sex slut. My personal visual poem, now titled
by Deleuze and Guattari. I go to the biomedical library at "Ellen/Annie,"was only a few minutes long, but it became
UCLA. I send for my mother's records from insane asylums the springboardfor a whole new and improvedlife and set
in West Virginia. Is everyone schizophrenic and just sup- the basic style for much of my later work.
pressing it? Is society fragmented from itself-lost? Who am In retrospect,here are the main things that struckme
I? I am my mother---my mother is me. -, from doing that first show:
1.) The art audience was very nice. I enjoyed the nice
LINDA SIBIO is a nationally known artist and recipient of treatment and the respect that I got from folks in the art
numerous awards and foundation grants. Her work has been world; it felt kinder, more inquisitive, and more mature
shown at the WalkerArt Center; in June a private collector than my usual all-male audience who looked to get sexual-
acquired over three hundred drawings and paintings. ly aroused;
2.) It felt liberating to expose myself in a new way,to
reveal a deeper truth of who I was;
3.) Preparing for and doing the show was fantastic
therapy.It really helped me to understand myself and my
Some of My friends better. The intensity of the experience bonded our
Performances In Retrospect Club 90 group even more;

ANNIE SPRINKLE

wenty-six years ago, on July 29, 1971, I happily gave

up my sexual virginity. It was a major turning point in
my life. However, it did not compare to the transformative
experience I had thirteen years ago, on January 26, 1984,
when I did my first "performance art piece" at the great, the
one, and the only, Franklin Furnace. So powerful was the
experience that it changed my life forever-for the better.
Up until that fateful night, I had, rather contentedly,
been living as a multimedia whore-making porn films,
doing burlesque, nude modeling, photographing and being
An intimate moment from Deep Inside Porn Stars at FranklinFurnace,January1984.

WINTER 1997

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 69

Club 90 meets Carnival Knowledge at FranklinFurnace, gets it on together, and the rest is herstory.

4.) I was titillated and intriguedby the art world, and the show changed, and vice versa. The show became
the art world seemed titillated and intriguedby me. I could known mostly for its two most controversial parts: "The
really relate to performanceart; Public Cervix Announcement," where I would show my
5.) There was no specific "commercialstyle" or "for- cervix to my audience with the aid of a speculum and flash-
mula" one had to adhere to, as one does in the sex biz. light (if you missed it, you can still catch my cervix on my
There was total creative freedom, and far less censorship. website-http://www.heck.com), and "The Temple of the
For example, in a burlesque show you pretty much had to Sacred Prostitute,"a sex magic masturbationritual.
dress and act a certain way. Performances were always In retrospect, several things strike me from having
twenty minutes long, and there were strict laws about the done Post Porn Modernist:
sex and nudity. In art you could dress how you wanted, act 1.) Performance art is extremely educational. I
how you wanted, and performfor as long or short a time as learned a whole hell of a lot from my audiences, and some
you wanted, and there didn't seem to be any very specific of the members of my audiences reported learning a lot
laws about the sex and nudity. from me. For example, some audience members reported
As quickly as possible I transformed myself into a feeling better about their bodies and their sexualities. I
professionalperformanceartist. I began travelingthe world learned from audience reactions about how to be more
making a living sharing stories of my life. authentic, about how to accept wherever I was at in the
My next show was a one-woman show, Post Porn moment, and about giving and receiving;
Modernist, which I performed for five years. Earlier ver- 2.) If you share your life on the performance art
sions were very differentfromlater versions. As I changed, stage, you put yourself in a position to be seriously judged

ART JOURNAL

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 as a good person or a bad person. At times I was worshiped Here are some thoughts I have after performingthis
as a goddess-art lovers lavished me with gifts, shared new work:
their beautiful tears, gave me their blessings, sprinkled me 1.) Doing controversialperformancework requires a
with their love and adoration.At other times I was hated- heck of a lot of energy, and can be a really hard job.
protested against, screamed at, threatenedwith arrest,con- Although I've become a much more skilled performer,it
stantly censored, stalked. I even had neo-Nazis wanting to doesn't seem to get easier;
"get rid of' me; 2.) Doing performance art can be pure magic. To
3.) Doing performanceart is a perfect place to exper- draw forth concepts from the void, to have your concepts
iment with life, and it can be a fruitful spiritual practice. become manifest, to be the focal point of the energy of so
For example, by doing the masturbationritual on stage I many people (audience and co-workers), and to see so
got more invaluable insights than anything else I've ever much change occur throughthe work is nothing but mirac-
done. I learned so much about energy, trance, about how to ulous and awe inspiring.
be in the moment, about shame, about timing, and about 3.) To be a performanceartist is a great way of life. I
having no expectations; highly recommendit to everyone. _
70 4. ) I discovered that throughperformanceart I could
create my ownfuture.If I performedwho I wantedto become,
I would become it. I could also help shape the future of the
world.For one thing, I had greataccess to the media. ANNIE SPRINKLE lives on a Sausalito houseboat. Her book,
The most recent show, which I'm touringpresently, is Metamorphosex, will be published by Clies in 1998. She's a
Annie Sprinkle's Herstory of Porn-Reel to Real, a film field directorfor the International Sex WorkerFoundation for
diary of twenty-fiveyears as a metamorphosexual. Art, Culture, and Education.

Pornstarperformanceartistsbaretheirsoulsfor a sincereartaudience,then take a deep bow, fromDeep InsidePornStarsat Franklin

Furnace,January1984.

WINTER 1997

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