Anastasia Booth does not wish to discuss what this collection represents.
When I first arrived at the opening of this exhibition, I chatted to a friend who knew how much of a fan I am of Booth’s work having found a shared experience in the realm in which she creates. After discussing briefly my feelings about meeting someone who forged much of my undergraduate study, I was sent into the gallery with a warning from my companion “do not ask her what her work means’’.
A Man That Didn’t Have Betrayal in his Heart is an ode to a younger Booth, fuelled by youthful excitement and new experiences. The reason Booth’s work resonates with me so much is it seems to echo my own past connection with desire and passion. The playroom style layout, innocent pink bondage equipment and delicate toy collection remind me of my own melancholic submission. What Booth and I share is a deep-rooted relationship with kink and fetish which holds a delicate balance of joyful experience and heavy-hearted sensual dynamics. With this in mind, her work is not for everyone.
Walking into Gallery Two of the Metro Arts Gallery, a familiar sense of excitable unease rushed through me. Entering a dark lit space, with toys and bondage gear scattered on the floor and toys projecting from the wall is not an unfamiliar sensation to one versed in fetish culture. There are only three works in the space, and they fit together as if existing in a dungeon space or playroom.
Combining abstract minimalism with leather, glass, lustrous metals, sex toys, latex, timber, hair and lube, her work provides no clear meaning. These striking structures present themselves as an imitative fragment reminiscent of the Freudian fetish and dark fantasy that intertwines itself with Booth’s sculptures. Defying gendered limitations and sexual ferocity, her work blends pleasure with dark fantasy and idealism. Often using yellows, pinks and whites as an allegory for the traditional feminine body, taking what is often the desirable and pinnacle of beauty – a trope which exists in the kink scene more prevalently than some may choose to admit – and placing it within abstract structure. However, her current collection leans instead into inadequacy, reclaiming intimacy in the self-aware form of love hotels, kink gear and fetish that mocks dramaturgy. Spinning cheapness into the luxury expectation of pleasure and the unattainable attributions we assign to arousal.
The first piece that catches the eye, Until Equalized, has a striking white panelled form which juxtaposes the deep burgundy baseplate. Attached in gold hardware are pastel pink leather cuffs which match in colour to the pink splatters that fall along the form of the piece. A friend in the audience remarked that this pink made her think of pleasure, as if it flowed across a bed. Having attended many play parties and dungeons in my life, I could almost imagine the form of a person lying there, strapped down in quiet anticipation. But what I appreciated most about this piece was the pink collar on the edge of the display, that I regret not taking a closer photo of so the reader will have to see it for themselves. The golden tag reads ‘just let go’. A tribute, I feel, to the release and absence of thought that comes with trusting a person with yourself and your vulnerability.
To provide trust in someone, to know they do not hold betrayal or harm in their heart and give yourself wholly over to them is something that can be truly terrifying. Kink and fetish can come with a vast array of emotions, and this dark side almost seems to whisper through the work with the tape outlining each sculpture. Reminiscent of a crime scene, making one think of those old school sex hotels or associated locations which were closed due to the harrowing nature of their history. But it takes a deeper look and understanding to see the dangerous elements of what, on the surface, seems like a space designed for fun and pleasure.
Which brings us to the next piece, poetically as it is also the next piece one sees as you slowly trace through the tiny room at Metro Arts. Pleasures Profusion is a large metallic pole, with bulbous white and pink shapes extending from the side, beside which is an assortment of glass blown plugs and other toys. It feels almost like the ecstatic nature in which we view intimacy when young. The excitement and energy that we associate with experimenting. The work stands in the corner, like a bedroom lamp, facing the bed-like structure of the previous piece. It feels as though the piece lingers in the corner, like the way an emotion lingers within us. Holding a sense of youthful excitement that seems to follow melancholically with us as we move through intimacy with a history of both positive and negative memories.
Despite this feeling of melancholia Booth does not appear to let go of hope. The final work, a tiny sculpture, sits suspended from the wall. A Promise Held, is a plastered hand, offering an enticing golden glass plug to all those who walk past. One last testament of trust. The hand does not seem forceful or coercive. It simply sits, in silent offering, with a promise of safety in control.
The sculpture rests facing Until Equalized, the only humanoid piece in the room. As if a person is going to walk through the wall and initiate a scene.
A Man Who Didn’t Have Betrayal in his Heart holds an intense personal and intimate quality. It filled me with emotion, curiosity, and anticipation. Booth has transformed the dark gallery of Metro Arts into a sacred and shared space. In which she invites one to hold space for our joyous excitement of exploration as well as the harsh memories that come with all our sexual histories. The dark walls and minimal colour scheme draw one into quiet contemplation, it feels natural and immersive. Filling the viewer with intense personalised thought and experience, before they return to the regular world.
Cassius Owczarek is a Meanjin (BNE) based artist and writer who specialises in identity politics and political art. Working primarily as a performance artist and photographer Cassius tends to write about the works that call to him most and relate still to his practice. Especially focusing on the obscure and taboo that can become rejected from the art world. Find Cassius on Instagram @saturn.ii.dae
