The Invisible Archive: Annie sprinkle & beth stephens
written by saskia vogel
Vol. berlin, Issue No. 3
—Review excerpt by Jess Aszodi:
The topics of ecosexuality and the roles queer love plays in lineages of art-making are generally under-documented. Add to this the thread of sex-positive feminism and sex worker’s rights, and this essay feels excitingly original. Vogel describes Sprinkle and Stephens’ work in the context of the community that grows up and through them, in a movement towards a relational form of art making. The lines we traditionally draw between activism, high culture, and community work make it hard to discuss this kind of practice, but I think Vogel does a great job. The writing is clear, compelling, and well-structured. The style is sensuous and paints a vivid picture, reusing imagery and symbolism coherently throughout the text. Vogel is admirably reflexive too, examining her own impulses in light of what she has learned from the artists she is documenting. The discussions of conflict within the creative process, with our own habits, and with external forces, were interesting to read about. Like the natural processes the artists center in their work, the conflicts and resolutions of practicing making together, produce the most resilient and beloved fruit.
Legacy and time frames beyond the experience of the individual are not generally brought together in the same thought as sex positivity and sex work. This essay goes deeply into how these practices and theories go hand-in-hand in the work of the artists, centering erotic and non-reproductive sexuality within a practice of “choosing family”; families that nourish their kin. Sharing knowledge and conscious, ethical techniques for being together in a political landscape that is often unwelcoming, they have developed methods that support connection beyond the immediate generation: “Recipes are handed down through the generations, why not erotic knowledge too?”
The interview is a fantastic addition. I enjoyed seeing how, because of the depth of their connection, Stephens is able to speak about Sprinkle, and vice versa, in a way they would likely not speak about themselves. It’s a fun ‘proof of theory’ to read in real-time as they converse. They are each other’s cheerleaders. They mediate between their beloved collaborator and the world they inhabit with skill and compassion. I particularly appreciated the discussion on authorship. I’d never heard an artist admit to authoring their ideas while having sex. Their organic and collaborative methodology is drawn in stark contrast to the way in which their work was often falsely attributed to the more famous author (Sprinkle). Their discussion on the topic gives valuable insight into the push and pull of internal and external effects in an artistic process.
Through their committed connection to their community, planet, and one another, and by doggedly documenting and disseminating their work, Stephens and Sprinkle have done the seemingly impossible: told their own trailblazing story. Or, at least, this essay presents a gorgeously succinct narration thereof. Their deep and serious commitment to relational practice quickly mows down the demeaning labels first lobbed at them. By centering the work, and the communities of practice behind it, they’ve contributed a new way of understanding love and nature while upending the dominant cultural understanding of what “whores and hillbillys” are capable of.
Jess Aszodi is a shape-shifter. An artist, researcher, educator, and performer. Her vocal body is critically acclaimed in performances on stage houses across the world. Jess’ musical work crosses between classical, experimental music, and improvisation where she creates bespoke techniques and concepts from project to project. She has built up a truly idiosyncratic set of embodied knowledges, from cycling while singing, to impact-affected songs, singing into orgasm, and a not small number of extremely extended vocal techniques. In recent years her compositions have focused on the interdisciplinary, participatory theatre for bodies.
—Review excerpt by Tobias Wieland:
The author’s choice is not at odds with the artists' self-understanding–as the essay shows compellingly–because Sprinkle’s and Stephan’s artistry cannot be articulated without referring to their deep commitment to relationality, collaboration, and activism. The way how they live their mutual love and collaboration is not external to the reflection on the conceptual framework of their artistic practice. The essay brings about a personal, yet not voyeuristic view of their intimate life and what Sprinkle and Stephen call a “pollin-amorous” practice of disseminating erotic knowledge to empower a critical and lesbian gaze onto the erotic.
In hetero-patriarchy sex is separated from nature and culture, relegated to its own dark little box. In opposition to this, Sprinkle and Stephens’ artistic practice is described as relational, joyful, and full of humor. The combination of activism as sex-pro community building through art is fleshed out in the text with regards to the wedding ceremonies of Sprinkle and Stephan that brought together half the world of exponents of the sex-pro and eco-sex movement.
Tobias Wieland is a philosopher, post-doctoral researcher, and academic coordinator at the Freie Universitaet Berlin. His current research focuses on contemporary critical theory, the varieties of feminisms, and (un)doing of gender and sexuality. He works on his second book which is to culminate in a critical theory of erotic communication. Tobias obtained a Ph.D. in philosophy from the Freie Universität Berlin in 2021. In his dissertation „Die Pluralität des Absoluten. Hegels Theorie sozialen Wandels”, he claims that the good, the beauty and the true can only be conceived of in a pluralistic fashion. In his artistic research, he aims to play with the somatic and performative dimensions of intellect and discursivity. Tobias hosts the Philosophical Colloquium at IKSK ( Institut für Körperforschung und sexuelle Kultur) Berlin.
About the author:
Saskia Vogel is the author of Permission (Dialogue Books UK/Coach House Books North America, 2019), which was published in five languages and longlisted for the Believer Book Award. Her writing on pornography was awarded the Berlin Senate Endowment for Non-German Literature and has been published by Granta, Sight&Sound, Literary Hub, Edit, Anuário Todavia, and The Skirt Chronicles. She is also an award-winning literary translator of over 20 Swedish-language books, most recently Johanne Lykke Holm’s novel Strega. In autumn 2022, she was Princeton University's Translator in Residence, working on Linnea Axelsson's multi-generational Sámi epic Aednan, forthcoming with Knopf. Originally from Los Angeles, she lives in Berlin. https://saskiavogel.com/
About the artists:
Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle have created multi-media art projects about love, sex, and queer ecologies together since 2002. Annie was a sex worker from 1973 to 1995 and morphed into a feminist performance artist and sex educator. In 1994, Beth became a professor of sculpture and intermedia at the University of California Santa Cruz, where she still teaches and directs the E.A.R.T.H. Lab. These days the duo make environmental films with an ecosexual gaze; they also create theater, performance art, eco-activism, and produce symposiums and workshops. Their Wedding to the Earth and the Ecosex Manifesto launched the Ecosex Movement in 2008. Notably, they were official documenta 14 artists, received a 2019 Eureka Fellowship, and a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship. Their new book, Assuming the Ecosexual Position—the Earth as Lover, available at the University of Minnesota Press, chronicles their epic love story and art/life adventures.
loveartlab.org (archived work)
elizabethstephens.org, anniesprinkle.org (older solo work)