CONTACT: Malia Schalefer – feminapotenspress@gmail.com 

SEXECOLOGY: MAKING LOVE WITH THE EARTH, SKY AND SEA: Collages, photographs, wedding costumes/ephemera + an ecosexual walking tour

Annie Sprinkle & Elizabeth Stephens:  The Love Art Laboratory 

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – December 13, 2009- January 10, 2010 – Femina Potens is delighted to be welcoming artist couple Elizabeth Stephens & Annie Sprinkle as they aim to make the environmental movement sexier! Two years ago Elizabeth and Annie made wedding vows, along with 400 guest-witnesses, to “love, honor and cherish the Earth.”  This propelled them to take the Earth as their lover and start the “ecosexual movement.” They believe that “if more people experienced the Earth as their lover instead of thinking of the her as their mother, it would make for a more mutually beneficial and sustainable relationship.”

      On view in the gallery will be their vegan and bio-degradable wedding costumes and ephemera from five of their way-beyond-gay ecology themed weddings; they married the Earth in Zagreb, Croatia, the Sky in Oxford, England, and the Sea at the Venice Biennale. Viewers will be visually transported to those wedding days and perhaps even be inspired to make their own vows to the Earth, Sky and Sea.

      Stephens & Sprinkle have invented a new field of research they coined “Sexecology” which explores the places where sexology and ecology overlap, and they are “sexecologists.” This show explores these themes through new collages on topographical maps layered with eco-erotic images, romantic plantings, sensual delights, erotic growths and soiled, wet romps. The artists have also produced a new poster: 25 Ways To Make Love to the Earth.

      Join us for some of the events Stephens & Sprinkle offer the Femina Potens community during their month long exhibition. Do not miss their fun, unique and inspiring Sexecological Walking Tour where along the way, Beth and Annie will share their post-queer erotic wisdom, and their vision for helping to save our environment from pollution, overheating and destruction.

Dec. 13, Sunday. 5:00-8:00. Opening reception. Presentation/performance by the artists at 6:30. 

Dec. 17.  Thursday. 7:00-8:30. International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers: A Memorial Vigil Ritual.

Dec. 19.  Saturday.  1:00-4:00.  The Sexecologists are In. Annie & Beth will show you around, chat, answer your questions.  

Jan. 3.  Sunday. 2:00-3:30. Sexecological Walking Tour with Beth & Annie. Meet at Femina Potens, and take a walk to explore your ecosexuality-- rain or shine. $15.   

‘Sexecolgy’ Visual Art Exhibit + Events

December 13 – January 10

Opening Reception Sunday, December 13th, 5-8pm

Femina Potens Art Gallery

2199 Market St @ Sanchez

San Francsico, CA 94110

Hours: Thurs.-Sun, Noon-6:00. 415-864-1558 

Feminapotens.org

For more about the artists and for press photos go to www.loveartlab.org.  Press photos are available for promotional use and for download on the site, go to PRESS, then to PRESS PHOTOTS.)  The artists are available for press interviews.

Write to bethandannie@loveartlab.org

This exhibit is supported by grants from the San Francisco Arts Commission’s Cultural Equity Grants Program, UCSC Arts Research Institute, and generous support from the Queer Cultural Center. 

Femina Potens funded in part by San Francisco Foundation, California Arts Council, San Francisco Arts Commission, Zellerbach Foundation, San Francisco Arts Commission, QCC, Grants for the Arts, Golden Rope Level Donors: James Mogul, Catherine Murty & Nancy Peach. 

BIOS

Love Art Laboratory—“We, Elizabeth Stephens & Annie Sprinkle, are an artist couple committed to doing projects that explore, generate, and celebrate love. The Love Art Lab grew out of our response to the violence of war, the anti-gay marriage movement, and our prevailing culture of greed causing the destruction of our planet. We utilize performance art, visual art, installation, and interventions. Incorporating the seven-year, seven-chakra structure created by artist Linda M. Montano, our projects explore different themes and colors. Each year we orchestrate one or more big interactive performance art weddings in collaboration with various international communities, and everyone is invited. We have had eight amazing weddings in the past five years. To learn more about our art experiments, visit www.loveartlab.org.

Elizabeth M. Stephens is interdisciplinary artist, activist and educator who has explored themes of sexuality, gender, queerness, and feminism through art for over 20 years. Her current passion is SexEcology: the art of exploring the Earth as a lover. This work is designed to create the desire in others to love, cherish and honor the earth as they would their own lover, instead of expecting the earth to take care of them as one might expect from one’s mother. SexEcology combines Stephens’ interest in sexuality and ecology in order to help stop environmental degradation and bring about environmental healing and pleasure. Some of her other works include the bronze sculptural installation, The Academic/Porn Star Panty Collection; the road trip performance piece Wish You Were Here; the video installation, Kiss, as well as her ongoing collaboration with Annie Sprinkle in the Love Art Laboratory. She has exhibited and performed in museums, galleries and festivals around the world. For more information about Elizabeth's other work see http://www.elizabethstephens.org/

Annie M. Sprinkle is an internationally known multi-media artist whose work is often studied in History of Performance Art classes, gender studies and film studies at major Universities/Colleges. Sprinkle has continuously toured one-woman theater performances about her life since 1989, such as Post Porn Modernist and Herstory of Porn. Ms. Sprinkle’s art projects have long championed sex education and equal rights. She has pioneered numerous new genres of sexually oriented media. She became the first sex film star to successfully bridge into the world of art, and to earn a Ph.D., which she was awarded from the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. Sprinkle’s book, Post Porn Modernist broke new ground in art books that include sexually oriented imagery. Her book, Hard Core From the Heart; The Pleasures, Profits and Politics of Sex in Performance won the Firecracker Alternative Book Award (2002). For more information about Annie Sprinkle, go to her other web site, www.anniesprinkle.org.