A triple performance work directly informed by the book A Pictorial History of Striptease, R. Wortley, Octopus, London, 1976, a book I grew up with and which has become one of the most influential media I have ever encountered:
Researching this book online, I found that I've left what is still the only review of this title on Goodreads, some 8 years ago now, under the pen-name which, with some modifications, became my legal name this year:
The book also inspired several lines in, and the overall theme of, my performance poetry work 'Bump 'N Grind' (including a quote from Rhoda Rodgers, p. 148).
The burlesque material especially has relevance to my recent research on Annie Sprinkle, the aspect of her career that I found the most interesting and relevant to my own.
The performance is planned to take the form of two vertically wall-mounted 48" video monitors, connected via Raspberry Pi to play two separate striptease videos in perfect synch along with a central, live, performance between the monitors. The accompanying music will likely be provided by one of the two videos via a sound system, the other video being muted, so that all three routines are in perfect time to the soundtrack.
The music was composed around the heavy drum pattern, which is usually a very prominent part of any classic 'stripper' theme music, with a simple improvised synthesizer riff designed to evoke specifically the work of David Rose ('The Stripper') and Sonny Lester ('For Strippers Only').
The triple multiplication of what is already an entirely predictable sequence (a 'ritual', according to Barthes - Mythologies) also suggests the infinite possibilities and permutations which had kept the art form alive for so long in the first place. It also, in its present plan, expects to make demands upon the audience - which part of which panel to view at any given moment? As the music speeds up and the expected climaxes approach, the broad field of vision becomes a problem, especially as the live performer distracts attention from themselves towards either of the other panels.
Left panel:
BERLIN LEATHER
Inspired directly by this image (p. 134):
A routine "for the heavy end of the market", according to the author. Hence the decision to film in a warehouse/industrial setting (in truth, the old family garage), whilst keeping the monochrome of the original still image - a single point from which the rest of the performance had to be extrapolated, and imagined. The leather jacket and boots have been a mainstay of my own wardrobe since 2012.
The blonde wig I wear in this video was the first I ever bought, c. 1999, and I chose that style almost entirely due to my personal association with this image.
Right panel:
The 'climax' of the book is a 4-page sequence (pp. 149-52), each page comprising 4 small images and one full-size, which depict a strip routine from start to finish:
The wig in this clip is an upgrade from the second wig I ever bought, c. 2000, and again in a style totally reminiscent of the model in the original sequence (which also happened to be very similar to my natural hair at the time).
Having an entire sequence to work with this time imposed more limitations, perhaps - I don't own any white lingerie, so decided to channel the spirit, if not the actuality, of the original, although I did my best to keep the style of garments as close as possible. Study of the original shows up an anomaly: the model loses her holdups halfway through but the removal is not depicted, and she keeps on her heels throughout.
The elegant background accessories in the original could not be included here, due to the requirements of the tight camera framing.
COVER MODEL
The centre panel of this triptych will be me in live performance, interacting with the two monitors, and against a red background (most likely the large curtain I've used in multiple performance videos over recent years). The plan at this stage is to recreate the cover, endpaper and frontispiece images of the blonde model, images which I originally found so striking and which I've directly referenced already in one burlesque video:
The original idea was to have the live element deliberately 'censor' the two side panels at appropriate moments, but as there isn't much in need of covering up, this might extend to more humorous interactions, which will require exact timing and will necessarily be cued by the music. And any 'censoring' of the two video climaxes, will effectively leave the live element uncensored by the end - an interesting toss-up which will require some thought as to how this will be worked out for an audience.
Accompanying printed media may also be produced, including perhaps screenshots of the two videos which most closely pay tribute to the original inspirational images.
This is the plan as it stands as of 16/7/23, and will likely evolve further in due course.
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