Concept sketch for mural by Rich Miller.
Y’all I just looked at the list for the amazing installations we have lined up for #SEAF2018. It’s crazy. Like unbelievably cray. In addition to our fantastic staples such as Aaaahz, there will be a variety of experiences available all weekend. Check the schedule for all of the events just waiting for you to join in.
Get Personal with the Visual Art
We’re bringing back the Big Red Ladder. Patrons from last year will remember this marvelous visual representation of how many pieces of art have sold. Newcomers will quickly discover how much fun it is to see a docent climb the Big Red Ladder and change out a white light bulb for a red one (every time they sell a piece of art) in our tree of lights that visually corresponds to the number of art pieces in the festival gallery.
The People’s Choice Art Awards is where you decide which artists in the SEAF2018 exhibition get to be invited to SEAF2019! Get your tickets from the Art Docents so that you can vote for the 3 pieces of art that moved you most. After you are done, voting, be sure to get your “I voted” sticker and wear it proudly!
Try your hand at Life Drawing in the Rope Art Salon. This is a Beyond Nude life drawing session a la Rm. 1618 with trussed up models that are works of art in their own right. Drawing supplies provided or bring your own.
Live Art Making
Rich Miller will be painting a large mural, Hard & Soft, throughout the three days of the festival, giving patrons the opportunity to engage with art on a deeper level by experiencing it’s creation in total. I heard a rumor it will be auctioned off via silent auction during the course of the festival.
Speaking of watching the creation of art, Ronnie Werner will be doing live nude sculpturing. This is especially exciting because naked people are great to see and watching an artist craft their form into clay in real time only makes the experience of seeing a naked person better.
There will be installations of a wearable nature. Two fantastic corsets, Fire & Ice, made with glass in a collaboration by Sabina Boehm and Hilary Specht. Sorry, only the artist or their approved models may wear these creations. In addition to the buyer, of course.
Speaking of Sculptures…
“Reflections in Time” by Woody Morris of Sensuality In Stone
We’re going to have a couple installations that utilize them outside of the aforementioned. One of them is called Medusa’s Garden and I really don’t know what to say about it so I’ll just share the description I was given: “Legends tell of a monster, a cursed creature who turned men to stone with a single look. But what if the legends are wrong… Maybe Medusa is not a creature of torment and death, but a lover of passion and beauty; preserving the powerful in their most intense moments. Whether that be a child of Mars, locked in battle, or a worshipper of Venus bound forever at the pinnacle of pleasure. Walk through Medusa’s Garden, and see the passions that have been shared with you.” I don’t know about you but I’m a little bit scaroused.
The last bit of sculpture we have for installations is named Sensuality in Stone. This piece boasts of very sensual finished sculptures that glide under the hands, suggesting, even emulating, curves and creases of the body. Pieces range from figurative erotic to abstract, with a variety of textures and polishes, arcs and crevasses. This installation includes several artists from the Pacific Northwest, curated by Cyra Jane.
Speaking of Boundaries…
Artist Jim Duvall is putting some sexy people in cages and having them walk around the festival in a new piece, The Cages We Carry, that highlights the boundaries we carry with us and how they keep people out.
Artist Mariah Carle has an installation titled Photography is Not Sexwork that is a tactile page turning installation that goes through the booking of what the artist thought was a photo session. By the end of the photography session the artist learned that the client wanted a sexual experience. The photos were secondary and not even purchased by said client. The intent of this piece is to show the issues with erotic art when some people try to turn it into sex work. It also will show how a consensual photoshoot can be twisted into a NON-consensual sex act of exhibitionism.
Speaking of consent, cartoonist Kevin Boze (with collaboration from Aimee Ketola, Lesley Carmichael, Sophia Iannicelli, and the Consent Academy) has reimagined the classic board game Chutes and Ladders for the #MeToo movement. Creating an interactive piece that focused on “good” and “bad” choices and their respective consequences.
Inviting Intimacy
Fan-tastic Flirts, by Madame Umbra, is an installation that looks at the fan signals originated by the European courts and refined by the late 19th century societies for flirting within social gatherings. Check the schedule for times when you can decorate a fan and learn a new style of flirting!
There is a bridge between a performer and their audience, a microcosm of intimacy – Song Bird hopes to capture and distill that moment. For the price of a pretty bauble, a Song Bird will sing to you, and only you, drawing you in with a song to stir your spirit before releasing you back into the crowd.There is a bridge between a performer and their audience, a microcosm of intimacy – Song Bird hopes to capture and distill that moment. For the price of a pretty bauble, a Song Bird will sing to you, and only you, drawing you in with a song to stir your spirit before releasing you back into the crowd. Imagined by Redde Cesarzowa and populated with many a song bird.
David Peterman wonders, if you found yourself naked before the world, how would you censor yourself? Self-Censored Portraits is an on-site photo project where participants can pose covering themselves as little or as much of as they want with two black censor bars.
A Little Bit of Film
Jessie Sparkles offers up Prey: A Reprisal, and the feelings that came with it being the only film ever to have been accepted to and censored by HUMP!
There will also be a kiosk showcasing a film from last year’s SECS Fest. It is a silent, experimental, dizzying, and hypnotic masterfully edited collection of VHS pornography.
With cyborg.one, the humans of Unicorn Palace are creating a brand new genre of porn in The Fucking Future. cyborg.one is an artificial intelligence (a deep-convolutional neural network) that uses cutting-edge machine learning technology to convert videos into beautiful, psychedelic, moving paintings.
WHEW! That’s a lot of wonderful installations. It will definitely be a lot of magnificent art to take in as you stroll through the festival. But you have to buy your tickets first.