Sex Worker Art and Creative Practices

Eight women covered in red body paint and white face paint, with two of them in wearing white clothing, pour flammable liquid onto the street in front of onlookers.

South Korean sex workers douse themselves in flammable liquid after a rally in Seoul, South Korea. Image via Lee Jin-man

A woman with red hair walks through a plaza on a sunny day in Venice. A large rectangle of fabric is draped over her shoulders that is printed with different flags. Two red umbrellas frame the image on each side.

CODE:RED, Red umbrella march, public action, 49th Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art, Venice, 2001. Image via Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana

A group of approximately 12 people walk down a sunny street in Venice holding red umbrellas.

CODE:RED, Red umbrella march, public action, 49th Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art, Venice, 2001. Image via Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana

A group of approximately seven people walk past a grand building with arched windows in Venice, holding red umbrellas.

CODE:RED, Red umbrella march, public action, 49th Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art, Venice, 2001. Image via Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana

A woman with bobbed blonde hair is turned away from the camera, one hand on the edge of an open door. She's wearing a red top with an a4 sheet of paper on her back that says 'LA PRESIDENTE PUTTANA'

CODE:RED, Red umbrella march, public action, 49th Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art, Venice, 2001. Image via Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana

A woman with red hair and glasses is walking down the street. In her red gloved hand she holds a sign that says 'stop the wars on the whores'. People in the background are looking at her.

CODE:RED, Red umbrella march, public action, 49th Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art, Venice, 2001. Image via P47 Gallery

A group of four East Asian woman in military-style outfits decorated with condoms walk through a room.

Performance by EMPOWER at International Aids Conference 2018 - Thursday 26th July, 2018. Image via Juno Mac

A screenshot from a music video that shows an abstract close up of the side profile of a face, with a condom emerging from the mouth. Four fingers are visible on the cheek with red nails. The backdrop is dark.

Screenshot from the 1987 Safe Sex national anthem music video by sex worker activist, comedian, artist, Scarlot Harlot.

Eight people in white garments and big hair fill the image, their faces are painted white, black and red

Face-painted South Korean sex workers rally in Seoul, wearing mourning garments. Image via Lee Jin-man/ Lee Jin-Man

Three women with red body paint, one of them holds a large container of clear liquid and is pouring it onto the ground and onto the person next to them.

South Korean sex workers douse themselves in flammable liquid after a rally

A black and white depiction of a figure bent over, the hand on their crotch holding a bit of paper. The stockinged legs fill the frame

Daspu Catwalk at Satyrianas theater festival 2016, in São Paulo, Brazil.

Seven figures are standing in a warehouse with a slanted roof. All but the central figure is wearing white and holding red shields of varying shapes and sizes

Sistaaz of the Castle (2015 - ongoing)

A trans woman with large hair drapes herself on an orate silver and red chair, she's wearing latex stripper thigh high boots and a glittering tiara against a tiger print backdrop

Sistaaz of the Castle (2015 - ongoing)

A cartoon depiction of two women, one older and one younger, hugging each other as people look on in the street.

Extract from 'Daughter of the Hills' via SANGRAM.

Lady of the Night School was a two part course that ran for three months between October to December 2021, and again between April to June 2022. Each month we collectively explored a new topic. The focus was less on current legislation and campaigns, and more on how we got to where we are today.

This is an archive of each session in the series. Here you will find recordings, reading lists, audio, and summaries of each section, as well as details of our hosts and where you can find them now.

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Sex Worker Art and Creative Practices (June 2022)

This session looked at sex worker art and activism worldwide to learn about the role creativity has played in our struggles for change. Featuring:

  • Lecture by Yves Sanglante, hosted by Tamara-Jade Kaz (Monday June 6th 7pm – 8.30pm)

  • Seminar hosted by Tamara-Jade Kaz (Monday June 13th 6.30pm – 8.30pm)

Yves Sanglante gave a world tour of the ways sex workers have used art as a form of advocacy and protest. Yves told us about the origins of the red umbrella symbol at the 2001 Venice Biennale, Empower's Bad Girls Dictionary and performance art in Thailand, and the Daspu fashion line in Brazil. The lecture also covered the San Francisco Sex Worker Arts Festival, the Durbar Women's Collaborative Committee's Tale of the Night Fairies, and Sistaaz of the Castle in South Africa. Yves emphasised the importance of archiving and documenting these works to preserve the history and impact of sex worker activism.

Lecture slides

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Yves Sanglante (he/him) is an artist, performer and curator interested in art as a means to inspire liberation. Through his work, he explores overlooked and forgotten stories from queer, trans, and sex worker communities to understand the present, and inform visions of the future. In 2016, as part of a collective of sex workers, artists and anthropologists, Sanglante co-founded sex worker-led archive ‘Objects of Desire’. He also co-curated the Decriminalised Futures exhibition at ICA London in 2022. You can follow his work at ‘Nostalgia Nausea’.

Tamara-Jade Kaz is an artist, activist and educator based in east London. Her art practice explores themes of marginalised identity, social justice and community, primarily through illustration. She has seven years of experience as a trainer and facilitator for social change groups. she specialises in developing bespoke programmes and workshops that challenge groups to reflect on strategy, structural power, group culture and relationships.She combines her passion for facilitation and visual art through her practice as a visual notetaker. Tamara-Jade’s background also includes working in and organising around gendered violence prevention from a Black feminist perspective. An intersectional analysis of these issues is particularly important to her as a Black lesbian. In 2019, Tamara-Jade was appointed to the good night out campaign board of directors; a CIC that works with nightlife spaces and organisations to better understand, respond to, and prevent sexual harassment and assault. She is a member of the designers and cultural workers branch of United Voices of the World trade union, and the association of illustrators.

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This course was made possible with generous support from the Barry Amiel & Norman Melburn Trust and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.

Sex Worker Art and Creative Practices was the final session in the second series of our popular education course Lady of the Night School.

The topics included:

  • A History of Sex Work Criminalisation in the UK

  • Trans Sex Workers Through History

  • Latin American Sex Worker Struggles

  • Sex Workers Built the Internet

  • Anti Trafficking in the Caribbean

  • Sex Worker Art and Creative Practices

Year: 2022
Type: public lecture
Series: lady of the night school
Subject(s): art archives