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Sex worker art show lets exhibitionists exhibit

By David Moye

February 13, 2006

San Diego--If art is in the eyes of the beholder, what kind of picture is being presented with a sex workers art show?

That question could be answered on Feb.16 at UCSD, thanks to a traveling exhibition called the “Sex Workers Art Show.”

The program is a variety show featuring music, spoken work, burlesque, performance art and a visual art display presented by various sex industry veterans, including prostitutes, strippers, gay porn stars, webcam girls, a dominatrix and a phone sex operator.

Annie Oakley in a moment of repose

Annie Oakley, the show’s curator and emcee says the sex drive and the creative drive are closely linked, and the exhibitionist exhibition allows the artists to touch on the full range of experiences that sex workers go through while demystifying the stereotypes people have about prostitutes. For instance, one performer, Juba Kalamka, discusses his appearances in gay porn films and another, Scarlot Harlot, discusses what it was like being the “foremother” of the prostitute rights movement.

Meanwhile, a professional dominatrix sings about her work (no word whether her song is a hit), and another performer, Ana Voog, won’t actually be at UCSD at all. She holds the record for “longest continuous cam girl performance online” so she will be doing her performance from the comfort of cyberspace.

Oakley, a former stripper and escort, started the traveling show nine years ago in Olympia, Washington after discussions with people who called her decision to pursue sex work as a career “anti-feminist,” a term she feels reeks with “sexist and classist undertones.”

As a result, she hopes the show gets audience members to think about sex work as a legitimate career choice for those who wish to pursue it and to ensure those who do have the same job rights and standards of any other job.

Oakley says it’s no coincidence that the show is taking place at a university because “a pretty decent percentage of college students are in the industry working their way through school.”

Although the “Sex Workers Art Show” might get some conservatives’ panties in a bunch, Oakley says the police have never been an issue for her traveling troupe of trollops. One of the reasons is because none of the performers actively seek “jobs” for extra money after performances and, she points out, “we don’t allow it anyway.”

Except, that is, for Scarlot Harlot, who does ”fake solicitations” of audience members as part of her performance piece.

In fact, while the show deals with graphic sexuality, Oakley promises the closest anyone gets to being nude is pasties.

The “Sex Workers Art Show” takes place Feb. 16 in Price Center Theatre, UCSD at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $7-$25 and are sold on a sliding scale. For more information, check out www.sexworkersartshow.com

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