New thoughts: Female sacred body/erotic body & money systems

A project which began broadly as ‘what is sacred in contemporary society from a political standpoint?’ through which I worked in the studio and daily practice ‘organically’ and ‘generatively’ to uncover glaringly synchronising and unifying principles which interested me, which my supervisors also pushed me toward clarifying and narrowing down to. The question is now:

What are some of the oppressive+ resistive transgressions of sacrilised power between money systems and the female erotic body in contemporary society?

At the moment the project is called ‘Sacri/$/Body’.

One thing I am noticing though is that there is a veering away in the project at the moment from very direct and obvious archetypes of female sexuality in relation to money such as you mention prostitutes, strippers, porn.. because for me- these are not so much disruptive to the money system or subverting but very much dominated and controlled by it... so things which are 'reclaimed' as sacred female sexuality/erotic body seem to sit outside these... away from money. I think that all of this will digest and play out over the 2 years of my MFA and become clarified in the 2nd year the relationships between.. 

But for now- i find that for example i want to put underwear at the ATMs with messages in them, as 'an installation' and remove the actual body (as suggestion by one woman about the power play of strippers and money in or out of underwear) next to atm which is money in and out.. very sexual also. Messages more from the 'sacred' female expression.. the mysterious.. the what is that? Questions.. something to make people think! I would love if people also left messages back... but i've no way to monitor this in public spaces, i can stand at a distance and photo/video document. Or i can question them after.. if they engage. But people are likely to take things.. while a gallery situation might be safer.. i like the idea of at the atm.

This is a bad example- as it still relates to stripping.. but it moves away from objectification into questions.. 

More like- ok having a bath.. this is a sacred and quite erotic act.. it is very private. 
Meditation, the body is inherently erotic.
Yoga, it is connecting to the sacred body.. yet when you look at the poses from the outside objectively they look very sexual! 'open'.
Even painting the body, or make up or dressing oneself or others.. these are more subtle, but erotic actions.. 
dancing also. Singing?
Sleeping, dreaming.. sacred, regenerative, erotic also.
Massage?
Hair - is very sensual... hair cutting..
Tattooing? maybe i get a tattoo as a performance..
Also kissing.. 

These things i guess are more transformative.. but i guess what i am saying is that there is room for the subtle, the actual female erotic.. not the 'sold' one. Mothering, cooking.. giving, nurturing, all these things.. they are not aggressive or exploitative- they are exploited like everything is.. by money but not in the way that female sexuality is. 

But I am also interested in the hard core stuff as well, as I said, it will integrate once the project gains momentum. To begin i want to do some of these subtler actions.. 

These subtler experiences of everything female sexual body are things to work in with money systems somehow.. like symbolic actions which can disrupt or question- particularly private actions in public places.. create questions. Whereas we are very used to seeing supposedly private sexual acts publicly everywhere - even in advertising.. the exploitation. It is a big question i am posing- is it possible to reflect and heal back the other way..? more real experiences.. ones that don't disempower but re-empower and heal, through real experience. Through actual female experience of themselves and in relation to money systems. Not the ones dictated.. the counter, the subversion. 

There is also the 2 fold thing of power as sacred, sacred as power.. 'money as sacred' - ie exclusive.. sacrilised/systemistised .. also female sexuality/erotic body as power as sacred (like you suggest in your relationship at the moment you have the power.. because you dictate when sexual interactions happen due to libido?) - outside of money.. and then - with the relationship between the 2 having been so warped and a 'power play' in which the prostitute the stripper and porn industry become 'sacrilised' in their own right- HOW CAN WE SUBVERT, RESIST OR DISRUPT this power dynamic in more sacred and real and powerful ways? Its very psychological right? But also magical. The importance in not speaking is big, that it becomes this action, rather than something talked about, that actions are very powerful (as we know with ritual). Of course if their were words which caused trauma they would probably be incorporated somehow. 

JODOROWSKY - Psychomagic: The transformative power of shamanic psychotherapy

The main essence of his work and theory is creativity, also symbolism and the imagination heals, that we can work with images, symbols, actions, images to unlock deeply patterned unconscious traumas to release pain. As the unconscious is where it is still hiding and directness will only achieve so much. The magic happens at a more subliminal level. Hence why art is so healing. He suggests the mixing of metaphors too, he gives people an action or a ritual (terms) to take. 

Performance artists work in 2 fold ways often, to just work as an intervention in the world with unknown people and communities to impact them subliminally, or to work specifically with particular communities.. i like the idea of working with both, online and offline. Being safe is important to me at the moment, so I have a woman whose kiwi here, a photographer, who will help document things.. and this is effectively creating a safety for me in public. If i do public street art, i am going to have to look into permits, or whether, as ties into the project, because i am not asking for money like a busker, i will not have to get one. :) I am working in a 4 fold process currently- 1) the gathering of friends experiences and ideas 2) my own ideas and processes 3) studio process which enables a safe trial process 4) street intervention.. 'actions' ... the words 'actions' and 'rituals' seem to interchange. 

While street actions - which become public actions of private processes/healings.. will be art in themselves and documented, they and all processes will feed back into a more 'theatrical' presentation outcome eventually including documentation and interactivity.

This is a potential example from the email from a friend which was highly personal- of a psychomagic action to take- which i have suggested to them as an example also - parts which i could also do in response, with them, at the same time somehow.

So for example we could ask you to dress as a man, put flowers and some playboy images in your suit pockets- for 7-8 days go to a place in nature that you feel safe, lie on the earth, pour water over yourself and slowly take your suit off (could be the other way around), then place money gently on your naked body along with flowers. Then drink a beer, or at least sip one. Then go to your brother's dressed in a sexy outfit (whatever this means), with a playboy magazine and rip it up in front of him on the 10th day (however old you were when it happened) and even kick him in the balls (that might be a bit much but he suggests slapping people in the face if they were abusive like a parent or something, so i don't see how this is different). Anyway (I hope that made you atleast laugh!) - but this is the kind of imagery he suggests to people, the mixing of metaphors and symbolic numbers to unlock things and allow the goodness to filter through. I was just tying together all the things that you mentioned, which were somehow restrictive or liberating, to jumble them up, to allow the unconscious to readdress the situations in a new way, to heal them.