Right to be flogged while painting...

Since day one of entering painting classes at Oberlin, my art has dealt with issues of sexuality, consensuality, and violence. It was at Oberlin that I first heard of and studied "performance art": a genre in which men and women have developed self-mutilation and embracing the abject as a means of turning themselves into living metaphors. I had practiced recreational sadomasochism previous to attending Oberlin, but in studying the likes of Keith Hennessy, who has bleed himself on stage and decorated himself with saliva collected from the audience, and Chris Burden, whose accomplishments include being shot with a rifle as a gallery exhibit and being crucified atop a Volkswagen bug, I was offered s&m as part of an art form.

Through my work with the S/M&B/D group, I have been developing this section of my avocation, continuing my progression as an artist. Last week, after significant delay and multiple attempts, the SLC again set section of my avocation, continuing my progression as an artist. Last week, after significant delay and multiple attempts, the SLC again set aside the S/M&B/D group's charter.

The reason S/M&B/D group is having difficulty being chartered is ostensibly the insurance risk involved in highly aggressive contact situations. Seeing the validity of this, there will be a discussion this week among the group members to attend to setting aside club funds to seed a means of insuring S/M&B/D events. Similar to Oberlin athletes (who I am told pay for extra coverage because of their extra liability) we are willing to work with the college to come up with a fair way of dealing with the expenses.

But there is an additional reason S/M&B/D group will not be chartered that the Review did not publish. We are informed that our activities do not fall within "community standards" and thus should not be encouraged.

I have spent much of my life being told that I am not supposed to be what I know I am. My early education taught me art was frivolous and I wasted much time ignoring my talent in order to make myself into something "useful." The community I was reared in taught me I had no wasted much time ignoring my talent in order to make myself into something "useful." The community I was reared in taught me I had no right to exercise my homosexual nature. I thought I had left that sort of tyranny of the majority behind for a bit while I was at Oberlin...

I am not going to be able to write down for you why being flogged is important to my art. Words are not going to do much convincing here. But I am also well aware that this predilection for pain, this willful attempt to make beauty out of the abject is, although rare, not unprecedented. I and many before me seek entrance to a spiritual realm in exploring our thresholds of pain. I point to the medieval flagellant, the Norse seidremun, the modern performance artist all as examples. The Sundance, asceticism, sensory deprivation therapy: these may or may not have a place in our futures, but those of us who need to see if the do would like to have your sanction to develop our skills in a safe environment.

Despite the rulings of the GLC, the Oberlin Art Department has members that stand behind me in my work dealing with consensual violence. The issue of whether or not I have a right to be flogged members that stand behind me in my work dealing with consensual violence. The issue of whether or not I have a right to be flogged while I paint had not come up before, but now that it is being determined that these actions are outside our "community standards," perhaps it has.