Lukas Zpira's exhibition opening, Uber

Last Friday I attended the opening of Lukas Zpira's "Crazy BodMods Tour" exhibition at Uber in Sydney. The lower dungeon area of Uber had been transformed into an exhibition space, its dark walls providing a perfect backdrop for Zpira's extraordinary images.

Considering the stressful week everyone had had (how on earth does Australia Post always managed to lose art work for a few days in transit? They've made a fine art of it) the Uber team had done a terrific job. The unframed photos were placed directly on the wall, not an easy installation task on one of the most humid days in Sydney. When marian mentioned they'd tried to use double sided tape - only to find half the works on the floor the next day - I winced. Thank God they shifted to BluTac.

I asked Satomi if she was pleased with the installation. She was. Although most grateful for how quickly Australian venues had been organized - an unexpected bonus at the end of a long European and Asian tour - it had been hard in Melbourne, she confided, to not have room to hang the whole show. As a curator she knew I understood how difficult it is for artists in such circumstances to have to make choices as to what goes up on the walls and what doesn't. Especially when a lot of thought has gone into the structure and thematic content of a traveling exhibition.

I curled up in a corner to people watch for a while. I always enjoy looking at people looking at art. I was also aware that while I enjoy Lukas Zpira's artwork very much, many kinksters find his work too extreme.

I picked up a copy of Lukas' monograph Onanisme Manu Militari II (Hors Editions 2005). I'll review the publication further in the article I'm writing for Kink-E Magazine / later blog post on Lukas, but for now it's enough to say that it's not a book for the feint hearted or for those who plan only a brief glance. Absolute concentration is needed, to decipher it's juxtaposition of differing languages and philosophical voices, sited within complex manipulated imagery.

And highly confronting imagery at that. The photographs are both his own, and others. I believe the body modifications they display are Lukas' alone. And they depict a ferocious skill and talent.

The book (cover at right) certainly is NOT a "how to" manual of piercing or cutting. What it actually is, is harder to define: it's enough to say it documents the highly personal journey of a unique human being. If you enjoy unique human beings, or are seriously into body modification then your library must contain this book (purchasing details in the References + Online Resources section below).

I watched several people pick the book up and asked them what they thought. Many found it "over designed", which amused me. They were quite right. But then the complexity of the book's design - with every surface decorated, even to the point of detracting from the text and primary imagery - to me, perfectly represented an artist who's focus and interest lie in intense and complex decoration of the body's surface. I look forward to seeing Lukas' latest publication "Hidden shadows" (on one of the most important vampyres clan based in New York) as well as the documentary on the same theme.

Lukas - who'd been watching me watching people - handed me his business card: "body hacking, mutations & subculture documentation". I'll save further discussion of his history and art for my later article / blog post, but it's worth recalling here that Lukas is credited with mainstreaming the terms "body hacking" and "body hacktivism". This terminology, he writes:

"was born from the necessity to define a movement of artists, researchers and thinkers working around mutations using body modifications as a medium, which, as opposed to modern primitives who use tribal anthropology as their bases,practice, theorize and/or invent prospective avant guarde body modifications, influenced by manga culture, comics, science fiction films and literature and made possible by a constant curiosity of the evolution of tekno-medical discoveries.

"These practices, experimental by essence, are defined as « Body Hacking », expressing the will of these artists, researchers and/or thinkers to surpass the bio-logical frontiers. The terms « body hacktivist » and « body hacktivism » also signifies the necessity of action, to take our destiny into our own hands by the perpetual will to reinvent ourselves"

Lukas Zpira and Satomi began touring the "Crazy BodMods Tour" exhibition (poster at left) several years ago.

They accompany the display with workshops in their areas of specialization: Japanese bondage (Satomi) and body modifications (Lukas). (I enjoyed an exchange between the couple during Lukas' body modification workshop the following day, when Satomi - who, to her husband's amusement, had just had trouble turning off an unfamiliar blowtorch - reminded him she was the expert with "rope, not fire"!)

At present the traveling exhibition includes about sixty works, for sale (you receive a fresh signed and numbered print). The works are all untitled, although Satomi is happy to provide info about where and when they were taken (in London, Japan and Mexico). Some are film, others digital. Satomi is quick to state Lukas does not use Photoshop, but confusion is understandable because the vibrant colors and complex imagery of the images immediately suggest this possibility.

While many photos feature Satomi, the exhibition also includes examples of other recent themes that Lukas has explored: Japanese street people, Goths, vampyre communities, etc. Satomi herself appears in many different guises, whether as a French maid with an entire warehouse to clean, channeling unsettling fairy tales (concealed in a red satin cape, accompanied by a wolf), or bound and gagged on a medical chair....

A series I would love to have adorning my own walls is surely inspired by Charlotte Rampling in The Night Porter. The poster for this provocative, sadomasochistic 1974 film directed by Liliana Cavani - depicting Rampling in Nazi cap, men's trousers and suspenders, and black satin gloves - did disturbing and permanently perverse things to my youthful mind. Lukas and Satomi recreate this icon, presenting Satomi in similar clothing and pose, yet claiming the image their own via the addition of a slash of scarlet lipstick and glimpses of Satomi's tattoos, as her form emerges from the darkness.

I've always enjoyed the complexity of Lukas Zpira's art works ... time after time I have approached a photo, believing I am focused on it's primary imagery, only to find my eye drawn further by tiny, often confronting details. For an example of what I mean, look more closely at the poster above of Satomi admiring an ice cream sundae while reclining in a golden kimono. Suddenly cockroaches appear in unsettling places....

In another example, Satomi crouches in a Tokyo street, naked but for her long black hair, tattoos and black patent lather and velvet ribbon shoes. She makes eye contact with the camera, both hands at her crotch. Closer study reveals she is peeing.

Hellfire's Ultra and I both admired this photo, and (sharing an interest in this topic as we do, lol) enjoyed comparing it to one of our favorite works "Sub's eye view" (or "Green Piss") by Noel Graydon, which you can view here. When I later queried Satomi about her expression in this photo, she smiled: "I was so nervous ... there were so many people walking there (pointing to the back of the street)!"

As Satomi and I walked around the exhibition I wondered aloud about which images might be her favorites... and then apologized - it's an impossible question to ask either an artist or his muse, lol. But after we'd finished laughing she generously took the question seriously and led me to several favorites, including an image from a series taken in a Tokyo love hotel's Miss Kitty room, where Satomi sits on a pink piano, her ballet slippers filling the fore space. You can see another photo from this series on Satomi's myspace page.

Satomi was a professional dancer for many years and I asked if she still danced. "Only as part of my performances" she said, and told me of her knee injury. I commiserated ... my left knee was strapped into the tightest of thermoskins even as we spoke.

Just before I headed home, David (from Uber) and I spoke about the possibility of future exhibitions at Uber. There are so few venues willing to display kinky / fetish art in Oz. It's now clear that Uber would provide a good space, but obviously its primary function is as a dungeon. David and I also discussed ways to redress the current lack of a benchmark in terms of the quality of local fetish art. One idea being that group exhibitions could also function via their curatorial selection process as a means of establishing artistic integrity. Installation art also has potential in Uber's environment.

I stayed up late writing a more formal review of the exhibition for Kink-E Magazine. Then on Saturday afternoon I returned to Uber for Lukas' body modification workshop. Post to follow soon....

REFERENCES + ONLINE RESOURCES:

• Lukas Zpira website
  
• info on "body hacktivism manifesto" here
• Satomi - Tokyo Love Doll website
• Ms160's post about Satomi's performance at Uber
• Uber 's website
  
• interested in buying Lukas Zpira's Onanisme Manu Militari II? You can order it via Sax in Sydney, or online here
• info on Lukas Zpira's vampyre doco and book
  

Many thanks:
to Satomi for permission to reproduce
my installations photos of Lukas Zpira works;
to everyone at Uber

Photos:
Uber installations = Ms160
Lukas Zpira - book cover: courtesy Hors Editions
Lukas Zpira - exhibition poster
from Uber 's exhibition opening invite