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Sex Workers Art Show

Emily Hall savages the Sex Workers Art Show, an annual event in Washington state, arguing that nearly every exhibition and performance failed as art:

The work, mostly performance and some visual, that I saw at the Fifth Annual Sex Workers' Art Show at Olympia's Capitol Theatre was didactic, stunningly literal-minded, and absolutely stripped of nuance. Many pieces were prefaced or ended with "I made this because..." — usually the wish to start a dialogue or heal some pain. These claims work in opposition to art: They close the mind of the viewer rather than open it, with a plangent and stubborn refusal to be interpreted; "I am wounded. Don't criticize me."

[. . .] Art is not social therapy. Art is bigger, weirder, more questioning; its unmistakable fingerprints are investigation, complexity, context. It is about using our imaginative faculties, not about receiving information through a single channel. At the very least, don't claim for art what belongs to therapy. Bringing up your howling pain is brave, but it is not art. It is not elitist to ask artists to treat us like grownups with interpretive abilities.

The Stranger (Jan 2002)

The Stranger runs an outraged letter to the editor responding to Emily Hall's scathing review of the Sex Workers' Art Show in Olympia. Stranger editor Dan Savage responds to the letter.
The Stranger (Jan 2002)

The annual Sex Workers Art Show held in Olympia, Washington, has spawned a national tour. The show played in Tucson, Arizona, on Thursday as part of a weekend-long sex arts festival. Some state legislators are angry that the festival received a taxpayer-funded grant and that two events took place on the University of Arizona campus (a lecture on international sex slavery and trafficking, and a workshop on spiritual sexuality led by Annie Sprinkle). Official SWAS site. (Nov 2002) ~~