(l-r) Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens
(Photo credit: Mark Ritchie)
Sprinkle On The Annie!Edgy Women opens with Elizabeth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle
by David King
When I last interviewed Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, they were getting married for the third time.
The California-based couple’s yellow-themed wedding, a performance at One Yellow Rabbit’s High Performance Rodeo in Calgary, was one of seven wedding ceremonies celebrating love and equality as part of their Love Art Lab Series. Spectators participate as guests, and the weddings’ chakra-based, colours and themes are inspired by New York artist Linda Montano, who encouraged other international artists to participate in ‘durational’, living performance entitled 7 Years of Living Art and Another 7 Years of Living Art.
In Canada this month for a Montreal performance and their final, silver wedding in Ottawa (“you’re all invited!” says Sprinkle), the Stephens-Sprinkle, third wedding in Calgary still remains significant: in Canada, it legalized their vows. And while the pair doesn’t necessarily believe in the institution, they have more than enough reason to make it part of their experiments as Californians, who recently had the plug pulled on their state-sanctioned, gay marriages.
