KINK OUT: EPHEMERA
Artist Talk with Sheree Rose

Kink Out is a bi-coastal collective that unites people of diverse identities with lived experience in BDSM culture through art, activism, community organizing, and conversation. With KINK OUT: EPHEMERA, a month-long residency, the collective transforms MOCA’s WAREHOUSE into an active archive for those who live and love differently. Drawing on physical and oral histories the residency brings together The Carter/Johnson Library and Collection, a compilation of printed material which celebrates sexuality from the 1700’s to the present day, and a regular schedule of performances, panels, workshops, and community events, to explore the intersection between contemporary art, activism, and leather, kink, BDSM, and sex worker communities.

As part of their ongoing residency, Kink Out invites legendary domina and artist, Sheree Rose to be in conversation with activist and author Tina Horn. The conversation will speak to Rose’s practice and the intersection of BDSM, art, and community activism.

KINK OUT: EPHEMERA is co-organized with kd diamond and Daphne aka EthicalDrvgs in collaboration with The Carter Johnson Library.
KINK OUT: EPHEMERA contains sexually explicit content. Parents should use discretion.

Sheree Rose is a Los Angeles based artist whose films, videos, performances, and photographs have been shown at museums and galleries all over the world, including the Tate Museum of Modern Art in Liverpool, and the Jeu de Paume in Paris. Beginning in 1981 as the staff photographer for Beyond Baroque Literary Center in Venice, CA, Rose documented the growing music, literary, and art scene in Los Angeles, as well as the city’s BDSM community. Rose collaborated with her late partner, Bob Flanagan, in numerous art installations and projects including Visiting Hours, an installation presented at the Santa Monica Museum of Art in 1992 and the New Museum, New York in 1994.

Tina Horn is a writer, educatrix, and media-maker. She is currently working on a book of cultural criticism based on her long-running kink podcast Why Are People Into That?! She is the creator and writer of the sci-fi sex-rebel comic book series SfSx (Safe Sex), the host and co-writer of the Wondery podcast series on phone sex Operator, and the co-editor of We Too: Essays on Sex Work and Survival from Feminist Press. Her reporting on sexual subcultures and politics has appeared in Rolling Stone, Playboy, Hazlitt, Glamour, Jezebel and elsewhere. Tina has lectured on sex worker politics and queer BDSM identities at universities and community centers all over North America, and works as an on-set consultant for theater, film, and television including the dominatrix scenes of Pose. She is a LAMBDA Literary Fellow, an AVN nominee, the recipient of two Feminist Porn Awards, and holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing from Sarah Lawrence. You can follower her on Twitter and Instagram @TinaHornsAss and visit TinaHorn.net

Kink Out brings intersecting communities together. An ever-evolving container, Kink Out is a performance platform, ritual space, screening room, art collaboration, panel discussion, BDSM club, rally, call to action, tattoo studio, art auction, and fundraiser for communities most affected by the injustice of censorship, criminalization, and demonization of their lives and livelihoods.

Daphne aka EthicalDrvgs is a multidisciplinary artist most known for visual art and immersive performance art experiences. Her performance work has centered around the endurance of the divine feminine form and often features different variations of live body modifications. Her work centers the necessity of decriminalization and the advocacy of sex workers, often using visuals to show the unseen moments of the lives of sexworkers, specifically working trans girls, in order to reveal the aspects of their lives that many don’t get to see unless involved intimately. You can catch Daphne performing throughout LA either at shows or as a DJ.

kd diamond is a local tattoo artist, illustrator, and community organizer. One of the founding members of the Kink Out collective, diamond primarily uses her tattooing and art as methods to connect and engage community and politic. She’s illustrated over a dozen books about sex, gender, and sexuality. diamond recently opened Commonground Studio, a queer tattoo shop in Cypress Park.

The Carter/Johnson Library and Collection is a collective history of the communities who have chosen to live and love differently and features over 15,000 books (both fiction and non-fiction), periodicals, posters and other art, newsletters, and ephemera documenting the history of SM/Leather/Kink from early drawings documenting human sexuality to the present day. As the only library of its kind, it is our responsibility to let these communities know that their history is rich and long. The Library is designed to let people see it, hold it, read it and know it.

Wonmi’s WAREHOUSE Programs is organized by Alex Sloane, Associate Curator, and is produced by Amelia Charter, Producer of Performance and Programs with Michele Huizar, Programming Assistant, The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles.

Wonmi's WAREHOUSE Programs is founded by Wonmi & Kihong Kwon and Family.