By ‘marrying’ the seas, skies, and soil, two ladies who are “fervently in love” with the Earth are attempting to make us care for it better.
Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens are performance artists and self-described “ecosexuals” from the United States. They wedded the Earth in front of nearly 300 people in the forests of Santa Cruz, California, in 2008.
It was the fourth year of the “Love Art Laboratory,” a seven-year art project. It was also the year in which they came out as ecosexuals.
“The Earth is our sweetheart,” says the narrator. Their manifesto declares, “We are madly, passionately, and ferociously in love.”
“We cooperate with nature in order to build a more reciprocal and sustainable connection with the Earth.
“We shamelessly hug trees, massage the earth with our feet, and talk erotically to plants.”
“We regularly caress rocks, enjoy waterfalls, and marvel at the Earth’s contours. Through our senses, we fall in love with the Earth. We take pride in our E-spots. “We’re filthy as hell.”
Annie and Beth met while attending Rutgers University and married in San Francisco in 2003.
In a lavish ceremony, 33 additional couples, both LGBT and straight, joined them in professing their love for one another.
“[We realized] we could mobilize the wedding ceremony as a vehicle to engage further political discussion, establish community, and produce love,” they write in their book Assuming the Ecosexual Position: the Earth as Lover.
They began performing wedding performances as part of their “Love Art Laboratory” series in 2004, bawdy and lively weddings that included hours-long kissing sessions, stripteases, and paddle spanking.
“We’re truly trying to shift the perspective that people perceive the Earth through,” Beth told CNN.
“Rather of seeing the Earth as a resource, we want people to perceive it as a source of joy and health.” They’re really intertwined.”
When same-sex marriage was banned in the United States, the pair utilized the ceremonies as a vehicle for activism, not just promoting ecology but also LGBT rights.
“More than ever, more love for the earth is required,” the pair stated.
The “Love Art Laboratory” featured an Orange Year, during which visitors dressed as carrots, a Blue Year, during which they married the Adriatic Sea in Venice and the sky in Oxford, and a Green Year, during which they married the earth.
After the project ended in 2011, Annie and Beth continued to perform, marrying coal in Spain and dirt in Austria, to mention a few.
The weddings are no longer organized by the couple, but by other ecosexuals or campaigners. They’ll be accompanying artist Ewelina Jarosz for a wedding to the brine shrimp of Utah’s Great Salt Lake in September. So, if any of you are interested in viewing additional images of the ecosexual wedding that took place, you can see them here.
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