Blue Wedding to the Sky Vows

Blue Wedding to the Sky Vows

Blue Wedding of Sky Photos

Vows to the Sky (June 2009)

Luke: Annie and Beth, are you ready to take your vows?
Beth: Yes, Annie: Yes
Luke: What is your gift to the earth?
Beth to Annie: I know that I am not always the best communicator but this year I vow to work on my communication skills. I will go to whatever classes you, dear Annie, decide will help the combined efforts of my throat, tongue and mind to form words and sounds that will express my thoughts and feelings to their fullest and most accurate meaning. I would like to extend my vows to embrace a dialogical aesthetic. I intend to include ACTIVE LISTENING into my art-life process. This will involve an even greater dependence on and vulnerability to my collaborator(s)/audience(s) and I embrace this conversation. I would also like to thank Geoffrey Hendricks aka Cloudsmith who is doing a headstand in Nova Scotia, as we speak, to celebrate the sky.
Annie to Beth: We’ve been together seven glorious years. I love you so much. Good clear communication is an important key to any relationship. So today I vow to learn new, and better ways to have an even deeper communication with you. I vow to do more shamanic journeying and spiritual explorations so that I can communicate more fully with my higher self, and with something even bigger than us, and bring that into our relationship. I vow to become a better listener.

Rings for the Brides

Luke: To remind you of your vows each day you will have rings. May we have the rings please?
Ring bearer comes out of the second story window and repels down the wall and presents the rings. The brides put them on each other

Carbon Capture Kiss

Claire: New scientific research shows that there might be ways to capture the carbon and help stop global warming. We can all do our part with a carbon capture kiss. Let me demonstrate. Do it with another person, or with yourself by putting your hand in front of your mouth.
Luke: You may now carbon capture kiss the brides, and each other. (to audience)

The Vows

Luke: Annie and Beth, are you ready to take your vows to the sky?
Annie: Yes, Beth: Yes
Annie: (Yelling) SKY, I LOVE YOU!! YOU GIVE ME SO MUCH PLEASURE. I LOVE YOUR CLOUDS, YOUR AIR, YOUR RAIN, YOUR BEAUTY. I NEED YOU and WANT TO BE WITH YOU FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE. I WANT TO SUPPORT YOU. I AM NOTHING WITHOUT YOU.
1. I vow to make more efforts towards becoming a vegetarian. 2. I vow to learn more about global warming and sky pollution and find things that I can do to help solve the problems. 3. I vow to love and appreciate all of you more each day and to listen to you.
Beth:
1. I vow to work towards becoming vegetarian 2. I vow to work towards ending mountain top removal 3. I vow to thank the sky everyday for being the medium that provides us with oxygen, wind, rain, sunlight, starlight, moonlight and Blue. THANK YOU SKY!!
Luke to Audience: Do any of you wish to make vows to the sky?
Audience: We DO!!!
Luke: Beth, do you promise to love, honor and breath in the sky for as long as you shall live?
Beth: I DO!
Luke: Annie, do you promise to love, honor and breath in the sky for as long as you shall live?
Annie: I DO!
Luke (to audience): Do you promise to love, honor and breath in the sky for as long as you shall live?
Those of you that FEEL THEY ARE READY AND WOULD LIKE to commit to love, honor and breath in the sky for as long as you both shall live, say I DO.
Audience: I do!
Luke: May we have the ring for the sky please?

OfferRing to the Groom

(And Craftsman's Vow)
Ariel: OH SKY! Groom to these two earthly maidens, on whose behalf have I crafted, from earthly rock, this ring of stone, and on whose behalf, do I now offer this ring, as an OfferRing, to you, which, as a token of your acceptance, and, in your own time, Take! And Hold! AND WHEN, OH SKY! After a night of darkness, You regain your blueness, and you wonder or question, ‘Did I really wed these earthly brides?’ THEN, just gaze upon this ring, and you will be sweetly reminded. AND THEN, OH SKY! In exchange for your accepting this ring, your taking it (in your own time), your holding it, your remembering upon it, and your cherishing your brides, THEN, do I, its earthly crafty craftsman, DO HEREBY SOLEMNLY VOW, to regard your doing so, as more than adequate recompense, for this, my labour of love, AND DO I FURTHER SOLEMNLY VOW, NOT to submit a bill to NEITHER you, NOR the brides, NEVER..

Proclamation

LUKE: I now pronounce you MARRIED TO THE SKY!!! You may now kiss the SKY!

Recession

Jimmy Hendrix’s Purple Haze Plays Loud! Brides leave the stage first, then everyone else recesses.

Artists’ Statement

Artists' Statement

WE ARE THE LOVE ART LABORATORY, an artist couple dedicated to doing art projects that explore, generate, and celebrate love. We orchestrate performance art weddings in collaboration with various international communities. Each wedding is site-specific, interactive, and utilizes a different theme and color based on the seven chakra system (inspired by artist Linda Montano's 14 Years of Living Art.) The Love Art Laboratory grew out of our response to the violence of war, the anti-gay marriage movement, and the corporate greed causing the destruction of our planet. Our projects are symbolic gestures, which aim to instill hope, to be an antidote to fear, and act as a call to action.

THIS PAST YEAR, WE MARRIED the Earth in a magnificent redwood tree grove in California, we married the Sky in Oxford, England, and we had what may have been the first queer wedding in the Balkans, in Zagreb, Croatia. Hundreds of people attended these weddings and helped to create them through their generous collaborations.

FOR OUR SEVENTH WEDDING, AND IN OUR BLUE YEAR we will marry the Sea. We are passionately in love with her and desire to take care of her in order to help save her. We are eco-sexuals, meaning that we find nature incredibly romantic, extraordinarily sensual, and an exquisite lover. Additionally, we are "sexecologists," who combine sexology and ecology, and we intend to make the environmental movement a little sexier.

WHY MARRY THE SEA IN VENICE? During the Renaissance, the Doge (chief magistrate) decreed that, "Venice must marry the sea as a man marries a women and thus become her Lord." So each year the Doge would go out on a boat and drop a ring into the water. But can people really Lord over the Sea? What is perfectly clear is that people do have the power to destroy her, and are rapidly doing so. We will follow the tradition of marrying the Sea in Venice—as two women who have moved beyond the dominant-male and submissive-female dynamic, as seductive eco-sexual artists, and as global citizens who care deeply about the welfare of our planet.

THE FEAR SOCIETY PAVILION IS THE PERFECT PLACE for this wedding as we are afraid of the total destruction of our beautiful environment. The Sea has a fast growing cancer made of islands of plastic the size of Texas. She is suffocating from gases caused by our pollution. Globally, 90% of her large fish have been wiped out. She's overheating. Her reefs have been brutally destroyed. She's being raped and... Need we go on? And we simply can't live without her.

LOVING THE SEA EROTICALLY takes us all deliciously deep, deep, deep inside our primordial selves. Our bodies are made largely of water so in fact we are the Sea. We hope that our guests will take vows to love and protect the Sea along with us. Now let's get wet!

ANNIE M. SPRINKLE & ELIZABETH M. STEPHENS

Credits for Sexecology Exhibit

Credits for Sexecology Exhibit

GREEN WEDDING

Sustainable Green Wedding Couture Design and Creation: Kaytea Petro
Silk Bras and Corsets:
Ms. Antionette’s Versatile Fashions
Bob the Dog’s leather costume:
Kaytea Petro and others
Costume Assistance:
Vanessa Brunet, and 30 other helpers at two sewing bees. Feminist Kraft Corner, Lindsay Kelley and Nada Miljkovic, and others.
Beth’s Staff:
Lindsay Winslow and her mom, Mrs. Winslow
Photos
: Lydia Daniller
Set Design:
Shannon Walsh with Alan Tollefson & Assistants
Dangling Balls with recycled glass, parachute:
Shannon Walsh
Butterfly Bridal Bouquet and Boutonnier Scupltures:
Angela Ellsworth
Wedding Cake:
Suzanne Geneste Besme and the Cake Gallery
Other credits in the programs on the small table.

GREEN WEDDING VIDEO

Performers in order of appearance: Veronica Hart, Linda Montano, Geoffrey Hendricks, Camille Norton, Greg Archer with Tobin Keller and Rose, Joseph Kramer, Emma McNairy, Nolan Plant with Nina Chase, Cynthia Wehr: Sadie Lune with Lady Monster, Jennier Gonzales, Ms. Antionette, Alessandro Rumie, Alan Tollefson, Victoria Singh, Danielle Abrams, Isabelle Reichert and Sean Fletcher, Madions Young, Tirza Latimer, Helen and Newton Harrison, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Elizabeth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, Glen Navarra Domingo, Tina Takemoto.
Video Edit:
Adam Harms
Videographers:
Max Cirigliano, Christina McFee, David Fine, Kari Nevil, Ghristopher Guerrero, Jordon Tynes, Evan Wilson, Marc Loriston, Joshua McVeigh-Shultz
Wedding production Director:
Janna Barnes
Wedding production Manager:
Alicia Relles

GREEN DISPLAY CASE: Wedding Performance Ephemera
Display case design created by Ruby Pearl
Display case on loan from
Industrialists.biz (next door)
Green Wedding Rings:
Ruby Pearl

Bridal Jewelry: Augusta Szego
Pillow:
Anna Fock
Custom Made Bridal Scents:
Libby Paterson
Earth Bags:
Emilia Katkov
Hair extensions:
Deena Davenport of Glama Rama!
Stuffed frog on case:
Linda Montano
Hawaiian Shirt:
Tony Debone
Green toy box:
Philo Northrup
Green pot of dirt performance ephemera:
Madison Young
Annie’s Shoes:
Nolan Plant
Headstand Toe Words:
Geoffrey Hendrichs
Bull Dog Photo:
King Eric and Cecile
Wood Sculptures:
Mike Rhienhart
Good Times Magazine Cover Story:
Greg Archer
Zagreb Ring box and rings:
Sasa Sekoranja
Beth’s Zagreb Crown on top of case:
Irena Rickovic
Love Art Lab Spoken Word CD:
Guttersaint (Tom Garretson)

BLUE DISPLAY CASE: Wedding Performance Ephemera

Annie’s Shoes, Beth’s Boots, purse: Sarah Stolar with Jeff Medinas
Dildo Performance Ephemera:
Sadie Lune & Lian Suffuentes
Believer magazine article about Wedding to Sea:
Michelle Tea
Carved Sky Ring:
Ariel Moss
Beth’s Staff:
Sarah Stolar
Cake topper:
Luke Dixon
Fans:
Shelly Marlo

Printing of the blue program in Venice: Pia Covre

BLUE WEDDING SLIDE SHOW
BLUE WEDDING TO THE SEA, VENICE BIENNALE, ITALY

Photographers: Gigi Gatewood, Tom Garretson, Tony and Golden Debone, Mark Snyder, Graham Bell Tornado
ANTI-PRIEST:
Beatriz Preciado,
MASTER OF CEREMONIES:
Jota Castro
PLEASURE PRIESTESS:
Dr. Carol Queen,

HOMILY: Michelle Tea

KUM: Zvonimir Dobrovic
CERULEAN BEARDED SEAMALES:
Lian Amaris & Sadie Lune
GODFATHER & GODMOTHER
Tony & Golden De Bone
FRENCH ROYALTY:
King Erik et Mamita de K-bull
BRIDES’ MAID & GROOMSMAN:
Sarah Stolar and Jeff Medinas
VIRTUAL MAID OF HONOR:
Virginie Despentes (In Absentia)
BLOWER GIRL: Merlene Schain,
RING BEARER:
Simona Homorodean
WATER GIRL:
Dominique Deyber
SM-oke:
Fred Marciniak,
ALL CHANT AMORE:
Beatriz Preciado
BURNING LIGHTS:
Guttersaint
HIDDEN DELIGHTS DELFT BLUE OCEAN UNDERWARE:

Harry Ruhe’ with Hugo Kaagman and Jeanette Dekeukeleire

HOOP/STAFF PARTNER WAVE DANCE: Starlight and Neptune
THE FUN OF CASTRATION--BLUE VERSION:
Tim Stüttgen aka Timi Mei Monigatti
SWISS MERMAIDS:
Maggie Tapert, Bettina, Esther-Maria, Daggi
POEM BY VENICIAN CORTESAN VERONICA FRANCO:
Pia Covre
INSPIRA L'AMORE:
Rolf Baltromejus
A FLOWER OF THE SEA:
Kyrahm + Julius Kaiser
WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO DESERVE THIS?
tR(ans)evolutionary eCoterrorists Graham Bell Tornado & Glamereuse Gay Bait.
26 LOVE LETTERS TO THE SEA:
Adrienne O’Hanlon
BLUE WRAP:
Natalie LovelessAMERICAN BURLESQUE SENSATION: Lady Monster
WATER INTO WINE PRIEST:
John Mueller
KEVLAR CHADOR FOR NEDA:
Jane Sullivan
ALTAR BOY:
Bernard Thimonnier
BLUE SQUIRTING FONTANA:
Diana Pornoterrorista
BLUE WEDDING TO THE SKY, OXFORD ENGLAND
Wedding Produced by
Luke Dixon

Hosted by Polly McLean & Grove House in Oxford, England
Slide show edited by
Adam Harms
Oxford photographers:
Del LaGrace Volcano, Eleanor Lindsay-Fynn, Sarah Ainslie, Petra Joy
Performers/artists pictured:
The Contessanessa, Veronica Hart, Sean Bruno, Violetta Storm, Polly ClLean & Rose McCaffee, Alexandria Lewis, Jamie Russel, Samanta Goodlet, Scottish Weirdos, Clare Cochrane & Sushila Dhall, Rolf Batromejus, Alex Glave, Luke Dixon, Ariel Moss, Del La Grace Volcano, Mithu Sunyal, Amber Hickey, Morticia Cahterine, Uri Baruchin, Cici Blumstein, Tessa Willis, Lexi Bradburn, and others. (See program.)

BLUE WEDDING

Vegan Bridal Couture Head to Toe: Sarah Stolar
Bridal Costume Making assistants:
Jamie Farrell and Jeff Medinas
Telephone Communication Bridal Bouquet Sculptures:
Angella Ellsworth
Venetian masks:
Sarah Stolar
Framed Wedding Photographs:
Gigi Gatewood
Headstand Toe Words:
Geoffrey Hendricks
Kite above the Shop:
Stephanie Lady Monster

 

In the desk display case:
Wedding Album:
Tony & Golden DeBone,
Butterfly wings gift:
Unknown.

TULIPS & PENIS polaroid transfer with text by MARCO VASSI
From the COLLECTION OF JOSEPH KRAMER
SEXECOLOGICAL COLLAGES

Top Left: Stephens/Sprinkle with Adam Harms
Bottom Left: Stephens/Sprinkle with Tessa Wills
Top center: Stephens/Sprinkle with Camille Norton
Bottom center: Stephens/Sprinkle with Camille Norton
Right Top: Stephens/Sprinkle with Camille Norton
Right Bottom: Stephens/Sprinkle with Camille Norton

WATER & CLOUD PHOTOGRAPHS BY ELIZABETH STEPHENS

ANNIE SPRINKLE & ELIZABETH STEPHENS WISH TO THANK

Madison Young for curating our show at Femina Potens, all the Femina Potens. Thanks to ALL the wonderful, delightful and generous Femina Potens staff and volunteers—especially Malia Schlaefer. We could not have done this exhibit if not for the grant writing help of Jeff Jones and Beth Pickens of the Queer Cultural Center.Thanks to the San Francisco Arts Commission for a generous grant from their cultural equity program. And a grant from the UCSC Arts Research Councel. Thanks Katharine Gates for designing the post card.Industrial.biz we love you for loaning us the glass display case. Special thanks to our Love Art Lab volunteers, Stephanie Lady Monster, Tessa Wills for installation help.

Additional Sexecological Collages (in the tub) by Ruby Pearl, Lady Monster, Tessa Wills, Haley McConlogue, and Adam Harms

Green Year Gallery Installation

Green Year Gallery Installation

We installed our green and blue year projects together, in an exhibit at Femina Potens Gallery in San Francisco. We called the show SEXECOLOGY: Making Love with the Earth, Sky and Sea. Exhibited were collages, drawings, photographs, texts, our wedding costumes and ephemera. The opening reception was packed when we performed some of our research about Sexecology and ecosexuality.

It takes a village to install an art exhibit, and we couldn’t have done it without the wonderful Femina Potens volunteers, and our generous and talented friends, Lady Monster, Tessa Willis, Ruby Pearl (who designed the glass case display and made the green wedding rings), Adam Harms, Hallie McConlogue, and others. Katharine Gates designed some.

This exhibit was supported in part by grants from the San Francisco Arts Commission’s Cultural Equity Grants Program, UCSC Arts Research Institute, and generous support from the Queer Cultural Center. We especially want to thank Madison Young, who is the woman behind Femina Potens, for her continued support of the Love Art Laboratory project. Click Here for the Exhibition Credits

End of Year Summary

End of Year Summary

A 15-minute stream-of-consciousness writing by Elizabeth Stephens

Year of love. Compassion was hard to come by at times. At other times it flowed like honey on the comb. This has been my favorite year so far. Lush and natural, in nature, love of nature. Sexecology was the perfect way to end the year. Being buried in the earth, in the dirt. Getting dirtier and dirtier. Formulating the Mountain Top Removal project. Trying to save the green, green mountains. The beautiful green mountains that are being blown away so that we can have our electronic toys, our mountain killing toys. Meeting the people who are living in the mountains. Risking their lives to save the mountains. This year seemed to come easy, the work came easily. Lots of love, lots of fun. Green is my favorite color, the color of my eyes. Especially when I am near green. The heart, compassion and love. Environmentalism. The formulation of the graduate program. It is coming along. Working with the Harrisons has been wonderful. Amazing minds and amazing art. I can’t say I feel that way about so many. The Interventionist Festival was wonderful. Interrupt!! Intervene!! Rethinking Art as Social Practice. This event brought together a gathering of powerful artists trying to change the world. If our program could be activated and actually help artists to learn to do this then I would get some satisfaction at my job. Hopefully the future will be more interesting than the past. This chakra does make me feel hopeful. As if there is a huge green world to explore. Mother earth to marry to take as a lover and to be taken as fertilizer. It all goes round. I wish Diane were here. She would have enjoyed this eclectic journey. Green. I wonder why it is also the color of jealousy. I seem to be getting over that in some small ways. Perhaps being in the green year has made that possible. That would be a relief. We also made the worst piece of our work together. It is so bad it is almost somehow good. Hilarious. This is the year that is going to launch this project. I’m not certain what that means but I can feel in in my bones. The green weddings. Santa Cruz could not have been better. Beautiful ritual, beautiful collaboration. Love fest extraordianary. New friends. Zagreb. Different culture. Had to catch up a bit. It’s good to have to catch up everyone should have to. Green means go signifies growth, the color of money. This is the year that all the money disappeared. As bad as it might get it may be a good thing to have to reassess global capitalism. Reassess and grow. Grow into blue.

A 15-minute stream-of-consciousness writing by Annie Sprinkle

Ahhhh, green. How I love you, how I love you… Wish I could stay with, and in you, forever. But I’m off and running to dive into the blue deep throat. I’m told there are more shades of green than any other color. I think its true. Feel like we saw and experienced many shades. Each morning looking out from our Boulder Creek windows at the mountains full of redwood trees was so fitting. Doing green year in green environment. It was indeed a year of love and compassion. Green is delicious, ecstatic and I am fulfilled by the love of green. And love of Beth, with whom I had many green adventures in embrace and dance of compassion. Marrying the Earth, with fabulous Guillermo Gómez-Peña as our High Aztec Priest—was the climax highlight of the year. Our big fat Green wedding big fat love fest all around. After vows we definitely felt more connected and bonded with our generous Earth lover, and continue to carry on this three-way relationship with her. Fecund. Fecund. Dirty, earthy, wet green grass, mushrooms growing in moss. Scent of pine. My nipples squirt green love. Wow, a mature relationship with my baby Beth. She’s so good to me, and I feel more loved than ever. It was a happy year. Travels across green globe, people all so kind and generous. We entered the environmental movement with glee, and it feels so right. It’s time. Maybe I’m becoming a green witch at last. Less of a red witch. Sexuality moves up to heart; red libido low, green libido high. Our doggy Bob’s love so pleasurable too. He is shiny, silky from flax seed oil in his food. Handsome and buff--a love sponge that drips back on me. Earth is great. Earth is good. Good-bye green. Fare well green. Hello Earth, blue sea, blue sky. Hello deep throat. This Love Art Lab project is feeling like a fairy tale. Green frogs. Thank you GREEN.

Performance Karaoke Meets The Love Art Lab

Performance Karaoke Meets The Love Art Lab

Performance art living treasure, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, invited us to join him for some “performance karaoke” at SF Camerawork Gallery. How could we say no? We adore Guillermo, love his work, and it sounded like fun. We were to be part of his art project, “exploring the interface between performance and photography.” In October, 2008, Guillermo and photographer RJ Muna did a series of photo shoots involving audience members and “special guests” from the San Francisco community. Guillermo had a bunch of props, costumes, set pieces, and the members of his performance troop, Pocha Nostra, at hand to pose/perform with us. Nothing was scripted, it simply unfolded.

As Guillermo had recently been our High Aztec Priest at our Green Wedding, we decided to explore the wedding themes a little further. We brought along our wedding costumes and scribbled “Just married” on our behinds, then exhibited some honeymoon activity. Loud music played, tequila flowed, inhibitions melted, and a good, productive time was had by all.

To view more of Guillermo’s Performance Karaoke project visit pochanostra.com/karaoke/

Photos by RJ Muna.

Love Art Lab Spoken Word CD

Love Art Lab Spoken Word CD

PERFORMANCE ART FOR THE CANVAS BETWEEN YOUR EARS LOVE ART LAB (the sound CD) is the collaborative performance artwork in sound by us in collaboration with producer/musician GUTTERSAINT. Recorded in San Francisco, USA and Norway, the album explores love in abstractions, in tableau musical pieces, poetry, soundscapes and audio sculptures. Both melodic and rough, sophisticated and nasty – just like love. Released by Provocateur Media. Click Here to View the Press Release

Chakra Targets

Chakra Targets

We explored our own and each other's chakras by making these paintings together. We got targets from our local shooting range, some mean acrylics, and took turns taking 'shots' at each chakra. It was fun.