Sheree Rose is an LA-based artist and photographer who has long documented the local poetry and fetish scenes. She is best known for her collaborations with the late Bob Flanagan. Saturday night at 7pm Sheree will perform “100 Reasons” at Coagula Curatorial live along with the debut of her photographic prints of 100 spankings taken during the 80s and 90s at various fetish events.
“100 Reasons” was originally a collaboration which involved spanking Bob Flanagan 100 times as the late artist Mike Kelley read the poem, “100 Reasons” from his book Plato’s Cave, Rothko’s Chapel, Lincoln’s Profile.. “100 Reasons” are 100 names for paddles. The first live performance was so well-received that in 1991 they made a short film, which was purchased by the National Gallery of Australia. Mike Kelley had this to say about the piece, ” What separates this work from much of the recent spate of S&M performance is its humor, its deadpan truthfulness and its refusal to fall into dimwitted neoprimitive expressionism.” Sheree will be performing “100 Reasons” Saturday night with a surprise spankee.
The 100 photographs on display were each titled with one of the reasons by Mike Kelley. They are a powerful illustration of pleasure and pain. As Coagula Curatorial describes them:
Beauty is pain and pain is beauty in the world of sadomasochism, a
compelling paradox that pervades this group of photographs. The sheer
mass of images bestows the body of work with a collective power,
chronicling the aftermath of the pain willingly inflicted and endured
within a dominant-submissive partnership. Individually, each serves as
an intensely corporeal and intimate portrait of an anonymous subject,
the bruises and lacerations like gestural marks and paint strokes on a
canvas. These could be your friends, your family, your boss or your
neighbor.
Saturday night’s opening is from 7pm until 11pm. The show runs through May 24th. Coagula Curatorial is located in the new gallery row in historic Chinatown at 977 Chung King Rd, Los Angeles · (213) 620-1569. The Beat recommends you arrive early for dinner at Hop Woo’s, Golden City or Starry Kitchen.
