Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle
They know they can come across as a bit kooky. Their idea of sexuality is about as inclusive as it gets, and so is their unusual track record of nuptials.
Since getting married to each other in 2002, Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens have also tied the knot with the earth, the sky, the moon, the sun, the Appalachian Mountains-even with the snow. They take tree hugging to a whole new level.
They have held 21 such marriage ceremonies with the natural world, all elaborately staged as performance art spectacles including the "usual narrative of procession, vows, ring, kiss, throwing of bouquet," said Sprinkle.
Their seven-year Love Art Laboratory project involved more than 3,000 participants in nine countries. It was all part of celebrating their ecosexual orientation, which the Killam Distinguished Visitors will put on full display at the University of Alberta tonight-inviting new prospects into the fold.
"When you're an ecosexual, you always have a lover-and a romantic, sexual relationship with the earth, the sky and the water," said Sprinkle. "If you're feeling lonely or don't have a valentine, we will offer you a lover for the rest of your life.
"This is a new way to imagine sexuality, to incorporate the sensual pleasures of nature as part of a sexual identity."
Sprinkle is a former adult film star with some 200 films to her credit, including B movies, loops, numerous documentaries and various TV shows, including four HBO Real Sex programs. In addition to her work with Stephens, she has toured with a lecture presentation called "My Life and Work as a Feminist Porn Activist, Radical Sex Educator, and Ecosexual."
Stephens is a performance artist, filmmaker, author and educator. She has made visual artwork, performance art and writing about queerness, feminism and environmentalism for more than 25 years, and is professor and chair of the art department at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Both are quite prepared to explain ecosexuality in theoretical terms if asked. They see their work as a form of praxis connected to a radical environmentalism that is non-hetero-normative and non-human-centred. They will also voice outrage over U.S. President Donald Trump's deregulation bonanza and gutting of the Environmental Protection Agency.
"I find it disgraceful," said Stephens. "Everything is going to suffer in the future because of the kinds of industrial extractions that he's allowing to happen in places where it shouldn't happen. These things cannot be undone."
But waxing academic is not why they are here. Because they know people are feeling no small degree of despair over the state of the planet, they prefer to employ humour and "strategies of joy" in their presentations rather than sermonizing.
"People are so depressed right now and feel so alienated from the very thing they need to connect to in order to make change," said Stephens.
"We try to mirror the absurdity of society with the absurdity ofour work. And that frustrates people, because people in the U.S. can be very protestant. This is the problem we've had engaging certain movements-they're serious as a heart attack."
Stephens admits their tongue-in-cheek presentations annoy even environmental activists sometimes, "but we're really making fun of ourselves," she said.
"[Sprinkle and Stephens] bring a necessary breath of irreverent fresh air to a topic as urgent as human-induced climate change," said U of A art historian Natalie Loveless, who invited the pair to the U of A on behalf of the Department of Art & Design.
"Climate change is a difficult topic to stay with, and keep going in the face of…. They bring humour, serious play and audacity to the table."
The duo's week of events kicked yesterday with a reading and signing of their latest book, The Explorer's Guide to Planet Orgasm. Tonight they will give a talk called "Assuming the Ecosexual Position" for this year's Women's and Gender Studies annual Valentine's Day with Feminism Lecture in the Faculty Club's Winspear Room at 5:15 p.m.
Friday there will be an educational screening of their new documentary film, Water Makes Us Wet: An Ecosexual Adventure, in Humanities Lecture Theatre 1 at 4 p.m. The film explores "the pleasures, perils, profits and politics of water."
This event is sponsored by:
Vice-President (Research)
Killam Laureates
Department of Women's and Gender Studies
Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies
Department of Art & Design
Kule Institute for Advanced Study
CoLAB
SSRHC
The Travelling Tickle Trunk
Just Powers Feminist Energy Futures