cuddle (2016), cuddle (2012), and cuddle (purple)
I first presented this installation performance piece as cuddle (purple) in 2010 during the opening reception for Breakups R Tough, a group exhibition at u.turn art space in Cincinnati, OH. It is an homage to a 2005 artwork by the Love Art Laboratory (2004-2011). The Love Art Lab — comprised of artist, activist, and educator Elizabeth M. Stephens and former sex-worker, feminist porn icon, and artist Annie M. Sprinkle —was a seven-year undertaking in which the two artists produced annual performance art weddings, gallery installations, workshops, theater pieces, and printed materials that explored, generated, and celebrated love. In their first year, Sprinkle and Stephens created the work entitled "Cuddle" in the Femina Potens Art Gallery in San Francisco, CA. Once a week during the exhibition, the artists would spend several hours cuddling gallery visitors in a bed installed in the gallery. They asked the participants to take off their shoes and socks and cuddle with them for seven minutes. Their piece has been recreated several times in multiple locations, both nationally and abroad.
I created my own version of this piece as an homage to the Love Art Lab. I installed a cuddling space in an alcove of the u.turn art space gallery, including a full size mattress, a sheer purple curtain that separated the space off from the rest of the gallery, mood lighting, and throw pillows. During the opening reception, a didactic panel on display explained the structure of the piece: visitors were invited to come inside and cuddle for seven minutes, alone or in pairs or small groups. The piece was intended to subvert popular cultural perceptions of interpersonal acquaintance and intimacy, physical promiscuity, and socially authorized physical behaviors, while also serving as a celebration of the body as central to identity and expressions of love in non-traditional forms. Staying with the theme of the exhibit, the seven-minute cuddling sessions had to end —the "breakup" was anticipated in advance; the hope was that the piece might shift how intimacy and relationships can be valued, away from exclusivity, permanence, and longevity and towards many loves and appreciating the time that we have.
I restaged the piece in 2012 as part of “STUPID CUPID > the ALT-Valentine’s Day Art Party" at Feverhead in Columbus, OH.
On October 1, 2016, I restaged a version of "Cuddle" as a 9-hour durational performance as part of Performance Art Day V.3 at Wild Goose Creative.
I created my own version of this piece as an homage to the Love Art Lab. I installed a cuddling space in an alcove of the u.turn art space gallery, including a full size mattress, a sheer purple curtain that separated the space off from the rest of the gallery, mood lighting, and throw pillows. During the opening reception, a didactic panel on display explained the structure of the piece: visitors were invited to come inside and cuddle for seven minutes, alone or in pairs or small groups. The piece was intended to subvert popular cultural perceptions of interpersonal acquaintance and intimacy, physical promiscuity, and socially authorized physical behaviors, while also serving as a celebration of the body as central to identity and expressions of love in non-traditional forms. Staying with the theme of the exhibit, the seven-minute cuddling sessions had to end —the "breakup" was anticipated in advance; the hope was that the piece might shift how intimacy and relationships can be valued, away from exclusivity, permanence, and longevity and towards many loves and appreciating the time that we have.
I restaged the piece in 2012 as part of “STUPID CUPID > the ALT-Valentine’s Day Art Party" at Feverhead in Columbus, OH.
On October 1, 2016, I restaged a version of "Cuddle" as a 9-hour durational performance as part of Performance Art Day V.3 at Wild Goose Creative.