Why these artists are having sex with the earth
Note: The following contains descriptions and images that may be considered NSFW.
One Australian performance group is asking a provocative question: What better way to connect to the earth than through sex?
Pony Express, a collective of four artists, will perform at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria in Melbourne, between May 6-16, at the Next Wave Festival. The show, entitled Ecosexual Bathhouse, is meant to be a "complete sensory environment" according to the group's fundraising page.
Mainly, its intent is to get people to care about the planet in new ways, perhaps by relating to it sensually.
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According to Ecosexuality.org, where the movement appears to have originated online, an "eco-sexual" is defined as "someone who finds nature sensual, sexy." Some ecosexuals engage in sex acts with things in nature, according to blog posts from the website.
Image: Ecosexual Bathhouse Photo by Matt Sav Courtesy of Pony Express
When we spoke with Pony Express, the group said, "None of the performers or audiences are encouraged to have penetrative sex with nature or one another in the bathhouse. Ecosexual Bathhouse is an artwork — it is a playful and sensory environment. We encourage a safe space to get in touch with nature."
The acts described are very BDSM meets the forest, but not in a Fifty Shades of Gray kind of way. There is no dominate or submissive partner. Rather, there are intimate acts but no penetrative sex involved. Ecosexual Bathhouse is more about sensuality and the senses. The actors touch and feel the earth and each other, and include nature in sex-like acts with one another.
As seen in this promotional video, an actress sensually caresses a flower in the video, simulating a sexual act; another lovingly embraces a bathtub full of moss; performers in the photographs touch each other in the dirt while wearing greenery or flowers; there is a "Master" and "Mistress" of the Bathhouse, a "shapeshifting dominatrix."
The entire experience will take about 45 minutes with stations ranging from a post-consumer sauna to a shape-shifting dominatrix lair. Visitors are invited to participate and observe as little or as much as they choose.
Image: Ecosexual Bathhouse Photo by Matt Sav Courtesy of Pony Express
Pony Express creators, West Australian theatre-maker Ian Sinclair and Californian visual artist Loren Kronemyer, described a spiritual, energy-based connection between human and Earth. "Sex is complex and very diverse; in our environment it happens around us all the time in ways we can barely perceive. The biggest human sexual organ is the brain, and Ecosexual Bathhouse encourages audiences to use their theirs in a fun, playful, and deeply serious way."
The website includes advertisements for things like a "composting glory hole" or a "windplay zone," along with suggestive descriptions. (The glory hole is described as "so deep and dank, you’ll want to come over and over." Based on what the organizers said, it refers more to a spiritual orgasm than a physical one.)
Image: Ecosexual Bathhouse Photo by Matt Sav Courtesy of Pony Express
"The Eco-sex Manifesto," written by leaders of the movement Dr. Elizabeth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, inspired the Pony Express creators.
Stephens and Sprinkle are credited within the ecosex community for popularizing the movement with their manifesto. They also outline the "5 Zones of Love" with the earth, detailing the different ways people can connect and interact with nature. These range from a mental and spiritual connection to legitimate physical acts.
On Stephens' and Sprinke's website there are explicit stories of things they have done in nature. Most of the stories told on the ecosex convergence website describe, similarly to the Pony Express performance, non-penetrative sex, but rather communing with nature.
Image: Ecosexual Bathhouse Photo by Matt Sav Courtesy of Pony Express
When we spoke with New York-based sexuality educator Elizabeth Boskey, she hadn't heard of ecosexuality. However, she says, "That doesn't mean it doesn't exist."
There are several websites dedicated to this specific type of movement, groups of people exploring what ecosex can mean. It may be a recognized primarily through online communities at the moment, like many sexual movements (see: furries).
In the meantime, exhibits like Ecosexual Bathhouse are helping bring awareness to the identity and environmental sustainability at the same time.
“Sex sells, so if we have an erotic motivation for the ongoing conservation of our environment, then perhaps the stakes would be high enough to encourage global action,” said Kronemyer in the Pony Express press release, “If we learn to the love the earth, maybe we can save it.”
Wrote the company in an email, "Our interest is in promoting a paradigm shift from Earth as mother to Earth as lover, because the earth doesn't have to love us unconditionally."
