Host of VFD's S.E.X. Erotic Salon, visual artist, writer and performance poet Tara Fleur - Woman of Bones took a little time out from f*cking up the system to answer some of our questions... Q: Tara, you’ve been part of the VFD family for a while. We’ve known you primarily as a writer and performance poet, but we just discovered you’re a visual artist too. A true polymath. What does being an artist mean to you, especially in the current climate of political and global chaos:
A: Yes, I guess I am a polymath. But I see no distinction between writing, painting or digital art. They are my artistic pallete, my creative tools that combine my desire to dissect visually and verbally my complete contempt and resistance to a world falling apart at the seams. Being an artist is not just a matter of creating for me, it is in a bizarre way my own little revolution against the system that would love for me to put down my paintbrushes and my pens, pull up my knickers and my socks… pick up a tube map that leads me nowhere other than a dead end job. I am agitprop… agitprop is me.
Q: Your art takes many forms and you create in many mediums, can you tell us about the amazing digital project you’re working on currently, which you’ve sneak-peaked on Facebook recently?
A: I have become increasingly interested in Agitprop (political art). I have been exploring this genre in my writing, but felt that I could achieve stronger reactions (Reaction is very important to my art practice) if I were to explore agitprop visually. I studied Digital Art at art school, it’s always been part of my pallete, but now it has become even more important as a social -political commentary. The Digital Art I am now exploring is pure agitprop and I am loving the process and the results. The style of these new pieces very much compliments my writing, the brashness of my performances and the boldness of my paintings. They are all part of one body of work, that body being Tara Fleur-Woman of Bones.
Q: You host the monthly ’S.E.X. Erotic Salon’ nights here at VFD, can you describe what goes on at these nights for the uninitiated?
A: Yeah sure. S.E.X is a safe, censorship free (within an artistic debate) erotic salon where writers, artists, performers can explore without worry of being banned or negated, erotica within their art practice. It is a very welcoming environment with a truly open and accepting audience. Visually I see S.E.X nights at VFD as a red light district for the arts rather than for solicitation. What goes on there? Well colourful, provocative, explicit, thought provoking, dramatic and fascinating works by some of the best poets, spoken word artists and performers London has to offer.
Q: Which artists inspire, or have inspired, you in your work?
A: Gosh so many artists have inspired me. I have been in love with the arts from childhood. I guess to name a few I would have to say ‘The Sex Pistols’ and punk. John Cooper Clarke. Anne Sexton. Sarah Lucas. Beth B. Louise Bourgeois. Rubens. Bosch …. and so many more. Anyone whose work challenges not only in their art but the artists who made them. This is important to me… The Artist as the ultimate work of art.
Q: A lot of your writing riffs on the female experience of sex and sexuality, is this something you consciously write about in order to blast remaining mainstream taboos around female sexual expression?
A: Yes, definitely. I see myself as part of the sex positive feminist movement. Fighting against the rigidity of historical feminism and a society that still feels so uncomfortable and challenged by women who see sexuality as an important form of expression within their art practice. If we can explore love, death, emotions, why the fuck shouldn’t we explore sex within our art.
Q: If you have anyone from history to present day, fictional or real, in the S.E.X. Salon, who would you choose and why?
A: Oh gosh again so many. But I think I would love to have Annie Sprinkle come and perform her public cervix piece (a nom de porn in honour of urolagnia) or John Courts performance ‘The anus paintings’
Q: Tell us in 5 words, why people should come to your next event? A: Because S.E.X is art personified.