The inherent artistry of sex workers is on display in Amsterdam North

Published 11 November 2023

Lees dit artikel in het Nederlands

The Artist Sex Worker Artist Show is a daring exhibition by a group of sex worker artists. It is on view at No Limits Art Castle in Amsterdam North, until early December. Our art director Cat Astrophe visited, and recommends you do too.

Sex work requires creativity. Client interactions have always had elements of performance; sex workers visually transform themselves through costume, painting on faces and remodelling hair.

Some sex workers take it a step further and explore the inherent artistry of their sexual practice by being both artists and sex workers, blurring the line between the crafts.

Inhabiting multiple spaces

When I arrived, I was immediately drawn to the strong and bold visuals of a poster design by Kaiden Ford. Besides being a sex worker, Ford is a multidisciplinary artist (poet, dancer and performance artist). Mounted on top of the poster they have placed a screen showing two video pieces. The videos are visual poetry; one of them is beautiful turquoise footage of Ford dancing underwater, light catching in their Pleaser shoes. The poster is a strong contrast to such a tender video; photos in blood-red and black juxtapose with snippets of Ford’s poetry. The poster rejects the stigmatisation Ford faces, and the video celebrates the inherent beauty they possess.

Vincent Riebeek & Máxima have collaborated on several video pieces that reflect their respective backgrounds in dance and performance (Riebeek) and political activism, writing and cosmetic medicine (Máxima). Using religious iconography to show how divine sex workers and trans people are, satirising the speeches of harmful politicians or dancing around to a catchy EDM song with explicit lyrics - all of the videos challenge sex worker stigma through the use of both artistry and activism.

Jet Moon is also dealing with activist themes. Their art reflects the many spaces they inhabit: kink, sex work, queerness, disability and survivorship. A video of theirs is displayed, showing the sissification work they do online. It is work they have been able to rely on, since their disability limits the kinds of sex work they can offer. As a queer person there is tension in Jet Moon’s video, as they taunt clients about being gay. There is humor and a sense of liberation in it too, utilising other peoples’ fears and kinks for their own survival.

Exploring Intimacy

Pennie Key has contributed an audio installation called ‘Subjectification’, that lists the male clients they have seen through sex work. Sitting still and listening to it feels deeply private yet eerily disconnected, giving a sense of how sex workers are expected to fill so many different roles - in a sense as many roles as there are clients. I also thought about how often sex workers face being exposed and shamed, while clients can typically remain hidden and protected - this installation consciously shifts the lens.

Levi Jacobs has several pieces in this exhibition. His work feels very personal, reflecting experiences in his actual life and weaving them with layers of intimacy. After receiving unsolicited dick pics on Grindr, he began creating penis portraits. He’d respond by sending a portrait, and over time he found that he’d learned how to draw Now he offers penis portraits for pay. A large feature in the exhibition is a carpet depicting a nude image of him, which had been shared online without his consent. Jacobs’s art is not only meant to be viewed, but in the case of his tongue -which has been cast in chocolate - to be quite literally consumed. The different pieces connect together by reclaiming space, agency and bodily autonomy.

Heightened Attention

Xenia Klein is a multidisciplinary artist, working within photography, installation, performance and poetry. As an international escort she explores the role of sex work as care labour.

She has created an installation and performance space which you can enter. Hidden behind a nondescript door, a small room is draped with lush red velvet, with sparkling beads and assorted trinkets of personal meaning hanging from the ceiling and adorning the walls. The space carries both spiritual weight and a playful lightness. She explains it is an enticing place to be “lured in”; the sex worker’s archetypical position as a guide, witch and oracle is fully indulged.

Viewers can inhabit the role of the client; part of Xenia’s performance is offering a selection of services, some in the role of spiritual guide while others are sexually explicit. Xenia has previously set up this performance in Sweden, and considering the strict Swedish legal model, she had to be cautious with her descriptions and services.

Here in Amsterdam she can be more direct and therefore has a menu listing everything on offer. Her focus is to be present in the space, so she can “escort them in the social aspect of the word.” Whether you opt for a tarot reading, a spell, a curse lifting or a sexual service, Klein says “the experience for me is the heightened attention”. As with the rest of the exhibition, I cannot help but be lured in.

Photos Chandler/Red Insight

Cat Astrophe

Cat is a semi-retired stripper, an illustrator and a lover of all things femme. She does Art Direction for Red Insight and draws romance comics about monsters.