Estonian artist Sandra Jõgeva at Grace Exhibition Space Gallery

15.06.2009

GRACE EXHIBITION SPACE
840 BROADWAY, 2nd Floor - Brooklyn
(646) 578-3402
gracexhibitionspace@yahoo.com
www.grace-exhibition-space.com

SANDRA JOGEVA
[TALLINN, ESTONIA]

"HUMAN TOUCH, DIVINE TOUCH"

Friday, June 5
7:00 - 11:00 PM
Free (by donation)

PERFORMANCE ART and INSTALLATION by SANDRA JOGEVA

Religion and S&M are the subject matters that Sandra Jogeva explores through her art. It's about submitting yourself for a higher power. It could be a Dominatrix or God Himself. It is about being a deviant in society through one's religious beliefs or through sexual orientation.

The installation with performances, "Human Touch, Divine Touch" are based on Sandra Jogeva's experiences as a professional Dominatrix over two years:

I am the Domina, you are the customer. I’m the psychologist, you’re the client. I’m your marriage consultant, the symbol of your domineering or harsh mother (whom you desire, but cannot have, for you’re not allowed to touch). But when you experience physical pain your brain releases endorphins and adrenalin and due to the combined effect of these chemicals you feel very much present and alive, and above the problems that usually prey on you. As nature intended. And therefore you spend your lunch hour in my company. After that you go to your office and feel wonderfully relaxed and confident. Happy.

I will never again connect with people on such a basis.
At which I even feel slightly sorry.
- Sandra Jogeva. November, 2006
Sandra Jogeva www.hot.ee/cnopt

ABOUT SANDRA JOGEVA

SANDRA JOGEVA has performed internationally with the performance group Pink Punk, including at the Judson Memorial Church, NYC in 2003 and Grinnell College in Iowa. And the Cleveland Perfomance Art Festival in Ohio. She has also performed internationally with the performance groups Non Grata and CNOPT and has been included in group shows throughout Europe and New Zealand.
Sandra Jogeva www.hot.ee/cnopt

Videos presented in Human Touch, Divine Touch

1. "The News". 2007. ca 2 min
Shot in NYC in September of 2005, this video was a part of my solo exhibition titled "Ars Longa" in Tallinn City Gallery in the end of 2007.

2. "The Gauntlet". 2007. ca 6 min
This is documentation shot with a photo camera that contains thousands of frames of a performance I did at the opening of the Tallinn Art Hall exhibition called "The Sex Market", a show about prostitution.
- It was based on my experience as a dominatrix for 2 years and is also an ironic gesture toward the educationally and politically correct purposes of the show. Every man who entered the opening reception got hit with a whip by 8 young women dressed as dominatri.

3. "Vox Dei: Karaoke Version". 2007. ca 3 min.
I was quite interested briefly in religious cults and obscure Christian congregations. A family in southern Estonia tried to save my soul using "speaking in tongues" as their method. My recording is transcribed into the international phonetic alphabet. My intent for it is to be a sort of tutorial for members of those obscure groups who are unable to speak in tongues themselves. I have used this video for several Speaking in Tongues Karaoke performances in Alytus, Lithuania, Berlin and Tartu.

4. "Talk Show". 2008. ca 7 min.
This is documentation of a performance of the same name I did at the Diverse Universe Performance Festival in Tallinn, Estonia at the Art Container together with the members of the performance group Cnopt. It is a staged talk show, where the special guests (an artist from Bermuda and a genuine child of British 60's love generation) discuss drugs, parenthood, conservatism and the hippie movement's ideals.