2023
This performance critizices the church and its catholic rites and traditions. Saint or sinner? God or Devil? Good or Bad? When committing a sin, there is a punishment. Either God chooses to punish, or it is the sinner itself, asking for forgiveness. In catholic traditions certain members of the church do this by using a "discipline", a flogger made out of seven cords, which appears in combination with the Raccolta, a Catholic prayer book containing several acts of reparation, and other devotions. The discipline is a small scourge (whip) used as an instrument of penance by certain members of some Christian denominations (including Roman Catholics and Anglicans) in the spiritual discipline known as mortification of the flesh. Many disciplines comprise seven chords, symbolising the seven deadly sins an seven virtues. They also often contain three knots on each cord, representing the number of days Jesus Christ remained in the tomb after bearing the sins of humanity. Those who use the discipline often do so during the penitential season of Lent, but other use it on other occasions, and even every day. In the Bible, Saint Paul writes: "I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:27). Christians who use the discipline do so as a means of partaking in the mortification off the flesh to aid in the process f sanctification; they also "inflict agony on themselves in order to suffer as Christ and the martyrs suffered".
This performance plays with the similarities of the mortification of the flesh in christian tradition, comparing it to BDSM culture where discipline, devotion and the use of ropes (bondage/shibari) are part of the practice: they both differ from each other as one plays with spiritualism, the other with pleasure. The punishing aspect in this performance shows off in the constriction of the body (by tieing a harness) while the "punishment" displays with the usage of hot wax onto the naked skin.
Photo Credits: Zbigniew Kotkiewiciz
Performed in KitKat for Gegen
2023
This performance critizices the church and its catholic rites and traditions. Saint or sinner? God or Devil? Good or Bad? When committing a sin, there is a punishment. Either God chooses to punish, or it is the sinner itself, asking for forgiveness. In catholic traditions certain members of the church do this by using a "discipline", a flogger made out of seven cords, which appears in combination with the Raccolta, a Catholic prayer book containing several acts of reparation, and other devotions. The discipline is a small scourge (whip) used as an instrument of penance by certain members of some Christian denominations (including Roman Catholics and Anglicans) in the spiritual discipline known as mortification of the flesh. Many disciplines comprise seven chords, symbolising the seven deadly sins an seven virtues. They also often contain three knots on each cord, representing the number of days Jesus Christ remained in the tomb after bearing the sins of humanity. Those who use the discipline often do so during the penitential season of Lent, but other use it on other occasions, and even every day. In the Bible, Saint Paul writes: "I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:27). Christians who use the discipline do so as a means of partaking in the mortification off the flesh to aid in the process f sanctification; they also "inflict agony on themselves in order to suffer as Christ and the martyrs suffered".
This performance plays with the similarities of the mortification of the flesh in christian tradition, comparing it to BDSM culture where discipline, devotion and the use of ropes (bondage/shibari) are part of the practice: they both differ from each other as one plays with spiritualism, the other with pleasure. The punishing aspect in this performance shows off in the constriction of the body (by tieing a harness) while the "punishment" displays with the usage of hot wax onto the naked skin.
Photo Credits: Zbigniew Kotkiewiciz
Performed in KitKat for Gegen