The Orgasm Archive: an Interview with Artist Christine Sloan Stoddard

Christine Sloan Stoddard is a Salvadoran-American author, artist, filmmaker, theatre-maker, and the founder of Quail Bell Press & Productions. This includes the namesake publication Quail Bell Magazine. Her newest books are Heaven is a Photograph (a poetry and photography collection) and Naomi & The Reckoning (a novelette). Her newest film, "Bottled," is available on Amazon Prime. Her newest play, "Mi Abuela, Queen of Nightmares," is forthcoming in a book by Table Work Press.

First of all, thank you for allowing us to publish your work and letting us interview you! We loved your piece “The Orgasm Archive” but felt like we needed to hear more about your process and reasoning for creating it before we published it. How did you first come up with the idea to do an art project about orgasms, and in particular, about the disparities between female and male pleasure?

A grad school project prompt in my interdisciplinary art program inspired me to consider creative ways of representing power imbalances in heteronormative relationships. I focused on pleasure because I was thinking about how art is often thought of as a source of pleasure or decadence, something that isn’t necessary to survival, but on some level, it is. Art is necessary in life just as much as pleasure, including physical pleasure, is necessary in life. I also focused on pleasure because I wanted to portray something that’s common knowledge about heteronormative power imbalances, even if not everyone agrees it is a bad thing. As a personal challenge for myself, I wanted to find creative ways to illustrate this common knowledge. Just because something is commonly known doesn’t mean it can’t be represented in a new way. In some ways, it’s tougher to do that than illustrate novel knowledge.

“Just because something is commonly known doesn’t mean it can’t be represented in a new way.”

“The Orgasm Archive” includes photography, illustrations, GIFs, typographical experiments, sculptures, and installations. It’s quite a vast project in large part because the class project demanded we pursue something generative. Over the course of nearly two months, we were required to produce a new aspect of the project every week and present it for critique. My process in general involves producing numerous things and then weeding out what I don’t want, or at least don’t want for this edit of a project. There were definitely pieces that didn’t make the final cut for my class project but that I still consider a part of that process and intend to showcase elsewhere.

A faked orgasm is an insanely visual and audio performance that represents something that is not quite true, but a production that is meant to entertain, excite, and deceive. How do you think that plays into your visual representations of orgasm?

I wanted to allude to orgasms without creating literal depictions of intercourse or oral sex because an orgasm isn’t just physical. It’s also psychological and can even be deeply emotional. As you mentioned, if it’s faked, it’s definitely performative. And even if it’s not faked, there’s still an awareness of performance and often pride or shame attached to it: “Am I being too loud?” “Is my orgasm face weird?” “I bet I look really hot.” One of the reasons why I love making art is that you rely so heavily on your imagination, but you’re still tasked with tapping into something real. I enjoy making work that feels completely magical or unreal, but I also enjoy making work that captures reality to the point of magnifying it, almost to the point of hyper-observation and obsession. I leaned into both of these impulses, depending upon what quote I was working with.

Obviously a lot of what we understand about female pleasure is the result of less-than-accurate information, or lack thereof, about female orgasm. Did you learn anything you didn’t know before when you were doing your research for this piece?

I didn’t learn anything I didn’t already know about female orgasm. Instead, I was reminded that there can be a lot of thinking, research, writing, and publishing related to a problem without real change being effected. Women still aren’t getting off as much as they want to get off.

How did you find and choose the quotes that you used in The Orgasm Archives?

Because it stemmed from a class project, I relied on my campus libraries. I went to the main library and the science library at The City College of New York and gleaned as much as I could in the time that I had. Admittedly, it wasn’t any more systematic than that. I supplemented with online research at home, but I was really invested in what had been published in physical books, including much older ones. This was in part because I figured I might as well make good use of campus resources while I had them, but also because I was thinking about the physicality of some of the artwork I was creating. Scanning and/or photographing books definitely factored into my process and I did use actual books for one of my installations. I was one of those jerks who literally checked out 40 or 50 books at a time because being a grad student afforded me that privilege. And, yes, those books did end up in one of the campus art galleries.

What do you hope people will get out of The Orgasm Archives? What do you want them to take away about themselves and about their relationship to pleasure?

In reality, I think most people will only see bits and pieces from “The Orgasm Archives”—a photo here, a GIF there. They won’t experience the whole archive at once, but I like keeping the project name attached to individual pieces to cue the audience to the fact that those pieces are part of something larger. Depending upon the piece they see, I hope they will respond to the humor or enchantment and feel camaraderie with other women or compassion for women. If they are someone who doesn’t believe all people should experience pleasure in consenting sexual encounters/relationships, then I want to change their mind. Or at least encourage them to question why they think that way!

How does sexuality and pleasure influence your other work? Your other mediums?

It’s really case by case, but I’m definitely interested in those topics and often explore them in my projects. My first published novelette, Naomi & The Reckoning (Finishing Line Press), deals with sexuality and pleasure more directly than most other recently released pieces. This novelette follows Naomi, a young woman with a physical deformity living in Richmond, VA. Struggling with body acceptance all her life, Naomi also comes from a strict religious upbringing. Purity culture further complicated her relationship with her body and, now recently married, she can’t find sexual satisfaction. You can order the book directly from the publisher here. An audiobook and film for Naomi & The Reckoning are currently in production, with actress Donna Morales serving as the narrator for both.

Talk to us about eroticism in the art world, as well as what it’s like to be a woman in art, doing work about sexuality and sensuality. 

Though I’ve experienced cyberbullying and sexual harassment, I haven’t quite been accused of being a “nymphomaniac” yet and even if I were, I wouldn’t care. I’ve grown immune to comments, DMs, unsolicited emails, etc. Isn’t that sad? Yet that’s my coping mechanism and survival strategy. I receive a lot of unwanted attention from men and occasionally women—strangers and acquaintances alike—but I think that’s just by virtue of being a public female figure or even simply a woman, because it happens regardless of whether recent projects have focused on sexuality and sensuality. Even during my more dormant periods, these people seem to feel entitled to my time and attention, or at least they want my time and attention. But I know my boundaries and I set them. I’m not obligated to give anyone anything. I really only make myself accessible to the public as someone whose work they can view, read, purchase, or study. I’m not your girlfriend or fuck buddy because you saw one of my creations in a magazine and now think I must be hot to trot. There’s a clear division between my work and myself as a person. I cannot be bought. I am not a commodity. If you’ve bought a book or painting from me, great, thank you, I appreciate your patronage, but that doesn’t mean you get me. Unfortunately, enforcing boundaries is often necessary for a female artist’s safety and sanity. I keep most of my private life incredibly private.

To find more of Christine’s work, follow her socials and other projects below:

I am always creating and it can be hard to keep up, but I don’t expect anyone to do that. I can barely do that! I only hope that when they do stumble upon my work, some aspect of it intrigues them and they seek more.

Current Projects:

Heaven is a Photograph

Hello, New York—The Living And Dead

Two Plays: True Believer and Mi Abuela, Queen of Nightmares

Bottled

Virtual Caress

Nessie

Mural commissions

Websites:

You can find out about my other books, as well as my film and video work, like my recent release Moonskating, and my visual artwork, like my murals, at www.worldofchristinestoddard.com. I am available for hire as a writer, visual storyteller, and cultural producer (www.wordsmithchristine.com) and take commissions as a fine artist (www.christinestoddard.com). 

I also run Quail Bell Magazine at www.quailbellmagazine.com and Quail Bell Press & Productions at www.quailbell.com.

Socials:

My Facebook fan page is facebook.com/artistchristinestoddard. I’m on Instagram at @christine_sloan_stoddard and Twitter @csloanstoddard.

Article and interview written, edited and conducted by the whorticulturalist.