Tiona Nekkia

McClodden

"Hold on, let me

take the safety off"

In haar tentoonstelling, die na het winnen van de $100.000 Bucksbaum-prijs op de Whitney Biennial werd geopend presenteert Tiona Nekkia McClodden verschillende objecten die gebruikt worden door de leer- en BDSM-gemeenschappen, waarvan de kunstenaar zelf deel uitmaakt. Een zwart geschilderde handmatige chute staat voor een zwarte modernistische stoel die er in eerste instantie uitnodigend uitziet - totdat je het scheermes ziet dat in het midden van de stoel is geplant. De strak witte muren contrasteren met het zwart van leren jassen, harnassen en laarzen die McClodden heeft geïnstalleerd in een bewegende show die de specificiteit van rituelen in een gemeenschap die wordt bekritiseerd omdat ze ingaat tegen de ideeën van sommige LGBTQ+ mensen. Wat McClodden ons wil laten zien, is de esthetische schoonheid van deze rituelen en apparaten. Ze zoekt de grenzen op van wat plezier kan zijn.

“Thank you, Tiona. Thank you for continuously championing kink and leather life in the art space. I worked at the Whitney Museum Library back in my college days, when the collection resided on the Upper East Side.
I could barely afford the deli food in that neighborhood then. But at night, as a newbie leather punk, I prowled and played in the meatpacking hood, at Hellfire, the Cooler, and MotherFucker.
It’s amazing to see leather cruising back on this street.

I owe my life to this community.
If I hadn’t found the way of leather, my self cuttings would have slipped too deep to recover. In return, I pay homage to those brave queers who created the traditions of flagging, service, and protocol. Pride was created by those who had the courage to bear the shame.

I want to thank, in particular, Cleo Dubois, the dominatrix who set my demons free, and to the late Fakir Musafar, whose flesh hooks connected me to Quan Yin, the Boddhivista of Mercy.

I want to thank my kink partner- Richard aka manmeat, my leather family, and the entire BDSM, leather, kink community. I wrote and produced Mercy Mistress with the hope of making you proud. I help bring Kink Out Events in service to you, to celebrate our glorious lifestyles.

Queer leather folk and sex workers enrich the NYC art and design world by creating art and/or inspiring artists, yet our communities are rarely recognized as legitimate culture creators and are instead relegated as subculture.

We are not a culture beneath the mainstream.
We are the instigators, the spellcasters, the heralders for true freedom of expression, bodily autonomy, inclusion of intersectional identities, and consent dialogue.

Thank you, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, for affirming this.
And finally, I’ll wrap up by pressing this message:
New York, Decriminalize Sex Work. It’s time