Jeanelle Mastema (born September 15, 1984) is a Mexican-American experimental body and performance artist from

Boyle Heights, California Boyle Heights is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, located east of the Los Angeles River. It is one of the city's most notable and historic Chicano/Mexican American communities, and is home to cultural landmarks like Mariachi Plaza and ...

. Mastema incorporates

ritual A ritual is a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning. Traditionally ...

into her work through

play piercing Play piercing, needle play, or recreational acupuncture is body piercing done for the purpose of enjoying the experience rather than producing a permanent body decoration. Needles, sharpened bones, or other tools used in play piercing are removed ...

, hook suspensions, live magick and sacred objects. She performs internationally, solo and in groups, often acting as a medium for group intentions or a symbolic

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of worship. They are use ...

for channeling energy. Through performance, Mastema enters into a meditative head space to disconnect from mundane consciousness. Her major influences include:

Butoh is a form of Japanese dance theatre that encompasses a diverse range of activities, techniques and motivations for dance, performance, or movement. Following World War II, butoh arose in 1959 through collaborations between its two key founder ...

Kenneth Anger Kenneth Anger (born Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer, February 3, 1927 – May 11, 2023) was an American Underground film, underground experimental filmmaker, actor, and writer. Working exclusively in short films, he produced almost 40 works beginning i ...

Surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

Psychedelic Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary mental states (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips") and a perceived "expansion of consciousness". Also referred to as classic halluci ...

Art, the Viena Actionists, Kembra Pfaher,

Leonora Carrington Mary Leonora Carrington (6 April 191725 May 2011) was a British-born, naturalised Mexican Surrealist painter and novelist. She lived most of her adult life in Mexico City and was one of the last surviving participants in the Surrealist movem ...

and

Alejandro Jodorowsky Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky (; born 17 February 1929) is a Chilean and French Experimental film, avant-garde filmmaker. Known for his films ''El Topo'' (1970), ''The Holy Mountain (1973 film), The Holy Mountain'' (1973) and ''Santa Sangre'' ...

. She also works as the West Coast sales manager for an adult novelty toy store. She also worked at the Pleasure Chest for many years and is featured in a film called, ''Thank You Come Again,'' based on working there.

Early life and education

In 2010, Mastema studied Music Technology at Los Angeles Community College. She was asked to compose a piece of music and put it to video. She decided to make an art film called 'Contatus,' which was inspired by the Viena Actionists. The word 'contatus' is related to the inertial and survival instincts all people have. In the student film Mastema puts three cheek spears in her face. Mastema's first time solo in stage was in a show called ''Autumn Lights'' for the Omega Collective in downtown Los Angeles. The piece was part of a fashion show in which Mastema modeled Ernie Omega's designs. She pulled needles out of her face and dance as they projected her film Contatus on her body. In the beginning of her career she went to an Aesthetic Meat Front Performance called ''Escape from America.'' In the performance people were hanging from hooks and played as human instruments. Mastema was memorized and ended up becoming good friends with the leader of the group Louis Fleischer. They bonded over their admiration of the Vienna Actionist and Mastema did her first suspension with Louis in Berlin, Germany. She became a member of Aesthetic Meat Front shortly after and did her first group performance in Poland.

Performance art

Solo work

Mastema started her solo project, Virgo Rising on December 26, 2010. Elements implemented in her performance include fire, writing, psychedelic imagery through visual projection, perceived puking, live music, blood ritual, sexual objects, and urination. Common themes in her performances are rejection of religion, sacred femininity, and psychedelia. Performance Interpretation In 2018, Mastema performed ''Flesh Into Gold'' in Tijuana, Mexico at club called Dragon Rojo. For the show Embrace Chaos suspended Mastema from eight hooks in her stomach. While she was suspended, she cut the cords holding her up and fell on a bed of broken glass. She then pulled the hooks out of her body and created a sigil on paper. She revealed a chalice held up by her pelvic floor muscles and put the piece of paper she painted into the vessel. She lit the piece of paper on fire and put it out with urination. She concluded the performance by suspending again with two hooks in her back and swinging around.

Group work

Mastema has worked with a number of performance groups including Embrace Chaos Suspensions, Aesthetic Meat Front (AMF), Coven of Ashes, the Church of Coyote, and Constructs of Ritual Evolution (CORE).

Embrace Chaos Suspensions

Embrace Chaos Suspensions, headed by Matt Brawley, is an artist collective of suspension practitioners that provide public and private hook and rope suspensions. They also facilitate the hook suspensions for many performance art groups. They have collaborated with groups and artists such as Aesthetic Meat Front, Sheree Rose, Martin O' Brien, Virgo Rising, Coven of Ashes, Missy Munster. Embrace Chaos appears on television such shows such as Ink Master,

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

, and more. Performance Interpretation In 2018, Embrace Chaos collaborated with

Sheree Rose Sheree Rose (born 1941) is an American photographer and performance artist. She is best known for her collaborative work with performance artist Bob Flanagan, and her photography documenting a wide range of Los Angeles subcultures, especially in ...

and suspended Martin O'Brien during a performance called ''the Ascension''. Sheree Rose is a photographer, author, performance artist, dominatrix, and was the spouse of Bob Flanagan. Bob Flanagan was a writer and performance artist living with

cystic fibrosis Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disorder inherited in an autosomal recessive manner that impairs the normal clearance of Sputum, mucus from the lungs, which facilitates the colonization and infection of the lungs by bacteria, notably ''Staphy ...

. Sheree Rose incorporated

BDSM BDSM is a variety of often Eroticism, erotic practices or Sexual roleplay, roleplaying involving Bondage (BDSM), bondage, Discipline (BDSM), discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and other related interpersonal dynamics. Given ...

and

sadomasochism Sadism () and masochism (), known collectively as sadomasochism ( ) or S&M, is the derivation of pleasure from acts of respectively inflicting or receiving pain or humiliation. The term is named after the Marquis de Sade, a French author known ...

into her relationship dynamic with Bob as a tool to manage the chronic pain he experienced from cystic fibrosis. Rose documented her daily interactions with Bob through photography, video, drawings, and personal artifacts such as jewelry and sex toys. Martin O'Brien is Rose's current performance art partner since Flanagan died. O'Brien almost has cystic fibrosis. The gallery show at the Jason Vass Gallery in downtown Los Angeles featured a collection of Sheree's art and history with Flanagan including her book titled ''The Medicine Book''. On the opening night of the gallery Rose did a live performance with Martin O' Brien,

Ron Athey Ron Athey (born December 16, 1961) is an American performance artist associated with body art and with extreme performance art. He has performed in the U.S. and internationally (especially in the UK and Europe). Athey's work explores challenging ...

, and Embrace Chaos Suspensions. The piece started off with O' Brien crawling across the gallery floor as a woman wearing a latex nun costume guided him on a leash. Other women dressed as nuns showered him in small cut out pieces of paper with images of Bob Flanagan over him as he made his way into a back room behind the gallery. People gathered around on cushions on the floor behind a decorated bath tub. O' Brien is lead into the tub and the audience was asked to write an intention on a piece of paper. People poured blood on O' Brien's head and covered him in the pieces of paper they wrote on while Rose and Athey recited an homage and prayer to Flannagan. When Rose and Athey concluded their speeches Rose embraced O'Brien and cut a stylized letter ''S'' into his flesh. O' Brien is then sat down in a chair and was pierced by Jeanelle Mastema and Matt Brawley from Embrace Chaos Suspensions. They pierced live inserting two hooks in O'Brien's back and one in each forearm. His body resembled a T shape and was symbolic of a crucifixion. O' Brien swung around in the air hanging from hooks for a few minutes. As he descended to the ground he was embraced by Sheree who held him in her arms cradling him like an infant. In this performance Mastema performed as a practitioner rather than a character or symbol.

= Aesthetic Meat Front (AMF)

= Aesthetic Meat Front is a performance group based out of

Berlin, Germany Berlin ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the highest population within its city limits of any city in the European Union. The city is also one of the states of ...

created by couture fashion designer Louis Fleischauer. Fleischauer is known for AMF Korsets, his

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

line of wearable art and his performance art shows. AMF's performances are often public rituals where people are turned into human instruments through piercing, springs, blood and fashion shows with people hanging from hooks wearing leather corsets with wings. Performance Interpretation The most noteworthy AMF performance Mastema was a part of was ''The Nestle Death Curse'' at the Lethal Amounts gallery in downtown Los Angeles. This performance was a collaboration between Aesthetic Meat Front, the Church of Coyote, and Sheree Rose. In the performance Mastema's forearms were nailed to a cross and she had hooks in her chest. The performer's bodies were the medium

= Coven of Ashes

= Coven of Ashes is an all femme ritual performance group based out of Los Angeles, California. The group is founded and directed by ritual performance artist and blood witch Lauren Davis. This ritualistic performance group incorporates themes such as the feral feminine, the occult, body autonomy, death and rebirth. Using their bodies as mediums, they also incorporate channeling, automatic writing, bloodletting and Ankoku Butoh. One Coven of Ashes performance, ''Desecrated in Death: The Path of the Unholy'', marked the release of Missy Munster's fashion line ''Let the Devil In.'' The performance featured dramatic lighting in which performers crawled onto a giant spirit board, fell into a trance state and bled from their foreheads. One blindfolded performer in the middle of the circle hung from two hooks in her back. She paced back and forth around the circle and was lifted into the air as a human pendulum. Later in the performance, Lauren Davis, playing the role of shadow demon, summons the dead. Jeanelle Mastema and Carmen Carrasco, playing the dead, hung from flesh hooks. They spun in a circle like a mobile until finally resting in their coffins. A sermon was given, while Munster was brought out, bound by rope. With the assistance of Lauren, Munster cut through her restraints and proceeded to insert a spear in her face and cut her chest with a scalpel.

= The Church of Coyotel

= The Church of Coyotel is a performance group headed by Steven Johnson Leyba. Leyba is a performance artist with indigenous

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

and

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

roots, and was adorned as a minister of the

Church of Satan The Church of Satan (CoS) is a religious organization dedicated to the religion of LaVeyan Satanism, Satanism as defined by Anton Szandor LaVey. Founded in San Francisco in 1966, by Anton LaVey, LaVey, it is considered the "oldest satanic reli ...

by Anton LaVey. His work is often controversial and deals with personal political issues. Many of the Church of Coyotel's themes include anti-corporate values, reclaiming of indigenous identity, rejection and rebellion of patriarchal values, intersectional feminist ideologies and more. Performance Interpretation On September 15, 2018 Jeanelle Mastema performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tucson, Arizona. Steven Leyba brought Mastema in as a performer and member of the Church of Coyotel. The exhibition their live performance was featured in was called ''Blessed Be: Mystics, Spirituality and the Occult in Contemporary Art''. The performance called ''INVOKATION OV RECKONING: A Curse on Your Corporate Masters, A Magickal Retrospective.'' To begin the performance Mastema knelt on a bed of broken glass. She had pierced needles into her cheeks with peacock feathers on the ends, and she painted a diamond shape on her chin to represent the tongue of the Hindu goddess Kali. Mastema painted sigils on paper and a fellow performer bled on them. Mastema got up from the ground to reveal a chalice hanging from a vaginal weight. Mastema proceeds to burn the designs and urinate on them to extinguish the fire. Leyba recited spoken word preaching a new Avalon of creativity.

= Constructs of Ritual Evolution (CORE)

= Constructs of Ritual Evolution is a performance group founded by Steve Joyner. Steve Joyner is on the Association of Professional Peircers Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Chair and Committee and Board of Directors. CORE was a suspension performance group in the early two thousands. Performance Interpretation In 2014, CORE performed with

Fakir Musafar Roland Loomis (August 10, 1930 – August 1, 2018), known professionally as Fakir Musafar, was an American performance artist considered to be one of the founders of the modern primitive movement. Life Born Roland Loomis, he claimed at age 4 ...

in Dallas Texas. In the thirty minute performance Jeanelle Mastema suspended in a cross-legged position with two hook in her back and two in each leg. She spun in circles above the stage while other people performed below her. One of the performer's burdened a

kavadi Kavadi Aattam () is a ceremonial sacrifice and offering practiced by devotees during the worship of Murugan, the Hindu god of war. It is a central part of the festival of Thaipusam and emphasizes debt bondage. The ''Kavadi'' ("burden") itself is a ...

in which he had a cage of spears inserted into the mid-section of his body. Fakir inserted hooks into his chest and pulled against them. He then interacted with a performer named Luna who suspended from two hooks in her chest.

Body art and performance art

Scholars have written about incorporating pain in performance art. In ''Performing Bodies in Pain'', Marlo Carlson, "propose that pain is unique among sensations, not because it is inexpressible or radically un-shareable, but because it creates an urgent need to communicate things which no one is eager to listen." Carlson makes the point that watching pain brings up emotions for people that are often difficult to confront. Carlson then goes on to say that, "dramatized pain typically serves as a means to get at the consciousness of the person who inhabits the body, thereby also serving as a call to action for the spectator." As the author points out pain performance art is unique, because of its visceral nature has the ability to deeply move people. This and other scholarly works may provide insight to some of Mastema's performance art.

Live performance archive

Filmography

Television

Music videos

Books and publications

Additional reading

* Aldersey-Williams, Hugh. ''Anatomies : a cultural history of the human body''. .

OCLC OCLC, Inc. See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was founded in 1967 as the ...

881832175 * Ana Finel Honigman (2014) Enabling Art, Third Text, 28:2, 177-189, DOI: 10.1080/09528822.2014.885201 * Brayshaw, Teresa (2013-10-01). "The Twentieth Century Performance Reader" doi:10.4324/9780203125236. * Burton, Johanna, editor. Bell, Natalie,. ''Trigger : gender as a tool and a weapon''. .

1011099218 * Di Bella, Maria Pia, editor. Elkins, James, 1955- (2017). ''Representations of pain in art and visual culture''. Routledge. .

1009067648. * Diamond, Elin (2017), "Feminism, Assemblage, and Performance: Kara Walker in Neoliberal Times", ''Performance, Feminism and Affect in Neoliberal Times'', Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 255–268, * Flanagan, Bob (2017). ''The Book of Medicine''. PrimrosePathPress. . * Granata, Francesca, (2017). ''Experimental Fashion : Performance Art, Carnival and the Grotesque Body''. I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd. .

978979920. * Johnson, Dominic (2013). ''Pleading in the blood : the art and performances of Ron Athey''. Bristol, UK: Intellect. , 9781783200351 * Lattin, Don; Writer, Chronicle Religion (1997-05-08). "Davis Party Performer Says He's Satanic Priest". SFGate. Retrieved 2019-03-11. * Lea., Vergine, (2007). ''Body art and performance : the body as language''. Skira Editore. .

231021228. * Leyba, Steven Johnson (2015). ''Coyote Satan Amerika: The Unspeakable Art and Performances of Reverend Steven Johnson Leyba''. Last Gasp. . * Leyba, Steven Johnson (2008). The Coyotel Way. Coyotel Press. . * Logan, Barbara Ellen (2011). "''Performing Bodies in Pain: Medieval and Post-Modern Martyrs, Mystics, and Artists'' (review)". ''Comparative Drama''. 45 (3): 303–306. doi:10.1353/cdr.2011.0016.

ISSN An International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) is an eight-digit to uniquely identify a periodical publication (periodical), such as a magazine. The ISSN is especially helpful in distinguishing between serials with the same title. ISSNs a ...

1936-1637 * Metzger, Jane. Sean A Shanks, Gwyneth (2016-01-01). ''Performing the Museum: Displaying Gender and Archiving Labor, from Performance Art to Theater''. eScholarship, University of California.

1078235377 * Musafar, Fakir (2015). ''SPIRIT AND FLESH''. Arena Editions. . * Oliver, Sophie Anne. (2010) "Trauma, bodies, and performance art: Towards an embodied ethics of seeing," Continuum, 24:1, 119-129, DOI: 10.1080/10304310903362775 * Paffrath, James (1984). ''Obsolete Body / Suspensions / Stelarc''. JP Publications;. * Petra., Kuppers, (2007). ''The scar of visibility : medical performances and contemporary art''. University of Minnesota Press. .

182857333. * Phelan, Peggy. (2012). ''Live art in LA : performance in Southern California, 1970-1983''. Routledge. .

876441952 *"Extended-Body: Interview with Stelarc". ''web.stanford.edu''. Retrieved 2019-03-11. * "Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985". Panorama.2018. doi:10.24926/24716839.1653.

2471-6839. * Regan, Margaret. "Art From the Dark Side". Tucson Weekly. Retrieved 2019-03-11. * Rothstein, Adam (2015-10-26). "Meet the Artists/Occultists Channeling the Death of Monsanto". Creators. Retrieved 2019-03-11. * Santana, Analola (2018). ''Freak performances : dissidence in Latin American theater''. Michigan: Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press.

References

External links

Aesthetic Meat Front performance of ''Escape from Amerika''
at YouTube * * https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=PwJxFSwbF_w {{DEFAULTSORT:Mastema, Jeanelle 1984 births Living people American performance artists 21st-century American artists 21st-century American women artists