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The Fetish Ball
The Fetish Ball was a series of work performed once a month for a year at "Freakazoid", a Rochester, NY nightclub. The nightclub held a Fetish Ball once a month and I was asked to create a series of performances for the night that involved the cube. This afforded me the opportunity to work with a number of people I had not worked with before and brought new insights and innovations into the works.
The series allowed me to explore the structural function of the cube and examine the interaction of a viewing audience in greater detail. I also was afforded the great opportunity to work with members of the local S&M community.
With the blessing of the club management I was also able to explore and use various locations on the grounds, from small niches to an outside courtyard.
One such event was held outdoors in the nightclubs open air courtyard. The night chosen was warm with a light drizzle of rain. I was bound with my legs folded up, knees resting on a stool, while the body was suspended, stretched out horizontal to the ground. The body created a canopy in the rain, protecting a congregation of lit candles beneath. Viewers kept primarily to the eves and awnings of the building. A support staff of three monitored my position and blood flow.
Another event took place in an alcove beneath a set of stair leading to a lower level of the nightclub. Here the cube was compressed awkwardly into the tiny space with poles thrusting out into the open space of the room. I was stripped down to a g-string, hogtied (hands and feet bound together behind my back) and suspended in the small inner confines of the cube. The height of the suspension was no more than two feet off the ground. I was gagged but not blindfolded. Several viewer took it upon themselves to shimmy along the floor to a position directly beneath me to make eye contact and observe.
Adding a new aspect to the work, another event took a volunteering viewer to be the bound subject. The volunteer was bound into a wheel chair. The wheel chair and volunteer were then brought into the center of the cube, hoisted up by ropes attached to the chair and inverted. The upside down subject hung in the nucleus of the cube, gently spinning and swaying for several minutes while spectators watched on. After the event many inebriated viewers had to be turned away wanting their turn on the "ride". Several weeks after the event an encounter with the volunteer subject revealed that she had sustained several severe rope burns and bruises from the event of which she was very proud and offered to show them to me.