The Earth as Lover, the Collective as Lover. Ecosexual and Posthumanist Perspectives in Performance Art

The Earth as Beloved, the Collective as Beloved

Authors

  • Friederike Nastold Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17169/ogj.2022.211

Keywords:

Activism, Love, Nature, Performance, Queer

Abstract

The book "Assuming the Ecosexual Position" tells the story of Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens as loving collaborators working together and offers a pleasurable and performative (over)view into their joint (performance) work. The artists have been developing public wedding performances since 2005, and in 2008 they married their more-than-human beloved for the first time in the form of the Green Wedding performance: the earth. Sprinkle and Stephens made a political statement against discrimination with their weddings, as marriage for all was not yet federally legal in the US in the 2000s. With the founding of the performative "Love Art Lab" - which is the focus of the book - the artists celebrated further dazzling wedding performances with the moon, the sky or the Appalachians, among others, together with many collaborators. With their work and this book, the artists are writing another piece of performance history.

Author Biography

Friederike Nastold, Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle

Friederike Nastold is trained as an artist, mediator and art theorist at the Kunsthochschule Mainz and Granada. In 2015, Nastold founded the interdisciplinary collective TOYTOYTOY, which operates at the intersection of art, mediation and theory from an intersectional perspective. Her main research interests are: Gender Studies in Art and Cultural Studies, Psychoanalytic Cultural Theory, Phenomenology, Affect Theory, Queer(ing) Theory, Visual Culture Studies.

References

Bauhardt, Christine (2018): Ökofeminismus und Queer Ecologies: feministische Analyse gesellschaftlicher Naturverhältnisse. In: Kortendiek, Beate/Riegraf, Birgit/Sabisch, Katja (Hg.): Handbuch Interdisziplinäre Geschlechterforschung. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 467–478. doi: 10.1007/978-3-658-12500-4_159-3

Bennett, Jane (2010): Vibrant Matters. A Political Ecology of Things. Durham: Duke University Press. doi: 10.2307/j.ctv111jh6w

Engel, Antke/Govrin, Jule Jakob/von Redecker, Eva (2016): Lust an Komplexität und Irritation. 10 Jahre Institut für Queer Theory. Berlin: institute for queer theory.

Haraway, Donna (2018): Unruhig bleiben. Frankfurt/New York: Campus Verlag.

Haraway, Donna (2016): Manifest für Gefährten. Berlin: merve.

Kronberger, Alisa (2022): Diffraktionsereignisse der Gegenwart. Feministische Medienkunst trifft Neuen Materialismus. Bielefeld: transcript. doi: 10.1515/9783839461310

Mellor, Mary (1997): Feminism and Ecology. New York: New York University Press.

Plumwood, Val (1993): Feminism and the Mastery of Nature. London/New York: Routledge.

Buchcover Assuming The Ecosexual Position, gelber Hintergrund, Fotocollage aus u.a. Blumen, Personen, Tieren und Lebensmitteln

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Published

2022-12-23

How to Cite

Nastold, F. (2022). The Earth as Lover, the Collective as Lover. Ecosexual and Posthumanist Perspectives in Performance Art: The Earth as Beloved, the Collective as Beloved. Open Gender Journal, 6. https://doi.org/10.17169/ogj.2022.211

Issue

Vol. 6 (2022): Open Gender Journal

Section

querelles-net: Reviews

Categories

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