The ProstitutionofArt: December 2011

"There was something romantic and terrible in whores, and of course you could always write about them. In my time, I had tried to save a couple of them (...)

If a woman wants to sell her body, I do not think that is very different from a concert violinist who is shown giving a concert (...) Just to compare what a writer does and what a bitch, how could you appreciate the difference ?..."

- Charles Bukowski

Never an artist has been prostituted so explicitly as now

I could have been any kind of artist who makes works that are sold as decorative items, a conceptual misunderstood genius who hides his mediocrity and lack of talent in the airy wing of the concept, which seeks fame by signing catalogs and drinking wine cheap in vernissages, or suffering, and have their own art in the famous hard climb towards global recognition of his work. I'm in this last batch.

I started spontaneously. No one taught me. I didn't go to art college to learn, because I learned to carve and paint wastes, listening to Frank Zappa. Feeling so naive artist from the first moment, and do works to satisfy my own instincts and exposing them in my own home.

Then I studied social communication. And I worked as a journalist, as a radio announcer and now as an copywriter in advertising agency.

My first exhibition was in college. And I felt the passion to show, to teach my work. And always looking for each work item controversial to provoke, to reflect, to think. Well, I never saw myself as an artist unconnected patches of inexplicable passions. For me art should be direct, sharp, decisive. No half measures or useless imagery. Nothing worse than simulated communication between artist and viewer, in the process hypocritical when we usually see anything there stated is the truth, when all the art festival is a great circus, a sham.

And I wanted to continue to expose, but without getting opportunities. And in the halls of art I get refused, again and again. And this is why I decided to prostitute myself as an artist. A picture and an idea that is nothing new in the art world, as they often talked about prostitution in the art.

As a coincidence, in my personal life had experienced the world of prostitution in a different way than normal. I knew them, prostitutes, since I was a teenager. And I knew what it meant to be a whore in Venezuela. A difficult country. A nation known worldwide as huge riches but with a great crisis, economic and human values. Where are the highest in use of BlackBerrys and consumption of whiskey, but also the highest in violence and underdevelopment (beyond petroleum, beautiful weather, a "president" controversial and high production of beautiful women).

So I met prostitutes. And I was attracted to her world of red lights, mirrors and sensuality. And by frequenting their places of work, talking with them over it, little by little I began to realize the sad reality that surrounds them.

And come to ask them to paint, to take crayons and express themselves, and put on a pad of paper what they wanted. The task was arduous and difficult, since it is uncommon to ask the whores to paint pictures, and somewhere in the middle of their places.

So my second solo exhibition took place at the Center for Latin American Studies Romulo Gallegos of Caracas, where I had my original 34 works and 10 works made by sex workers.

My name Deva Dasis, comes from a Hindu religious practice in which some young women were dedicated to a deity. According to their caste, were chosen to be dancers, singers and servants of these deities.

Having been with prostitutes either as client or as a promoter of his art led me to feel pain about every day have to face the profession. Not for what they do but how are often treated: disrespected, beaten, humiliated and with nobody to defend them.

That experience, of having asked to paint pictures were great. Seeing their strokes, most with very childlike ways, you can guess their wishes, dreams lost, and so on. The exercise I seek through art is the decriminalization of prostitution, at least in reference to the theme that each one of us must defend their human rights.
I am currently working on a second round on the same topic, but related to music that can be heard in places where they work, as their only attraction of at the time of waiting for clients.

I invite you through this blog, all the gallery owners, curators, patrons, and institutions related to sex workers to make yours my own art. Any comments, invitation or criticism is always welcome. I'm eternally grateful to Jane Wang for her support.

Twitter: @ladevadasis
In Facebook / devadasisart@gmail.com