The desire of material fetishism rarely includes a fetishisation of its production. For example, the rubber catsuit, potent with visceral sensualities, hides the conditions of the agrarian class, the biological miracle of the laticifer cell, or the blood of tumultuous histories. But a real fetishist leaves no stones unturned in their obsession. For them, desire does not exist without a rubber suit which does not exist without the rubber plantation which does not exist without colonial projects in Southeast Asia which does not exist without—

Taking the transformative potential of the material fetish as a starting point, this programme intrudes into the typically veiled processes of fetishisation and opens up the political, historical, industrial and emotional conditions of a fetish’s construction. The (moving image, porn, music video) works in this programme point towards the fluxes of material desires, and the interconnectedness of things.

This programme will feature a live performance with Shibari artist Hua Hua and DroneLarvae.

Queer East 2025 … Rio Cinema … Total runtime: 100 mins

This event at the ICA London celebrates the semicentennial of Shūji Terayama’s film Pastoral: To Die in the Country (Den-en ni shisu, 1974). Pastoral is a playfully painful, shrewdly surreal investigation into the mutability of memory & identity. At the foot of Mt. Fear, in a fever dream idyll of the countryside, a boy longs to escape a present that never was.

A screening of the film will be preceded by a polyphonic recital of Terayama’s poetry, co-directed by Kaisa Saarinen and Alan Fielden & in collaboration with performance artist Noe Iwai. The dialogue of poetry and cinema in Pastoral will be expanded into a trilogue of forms through this hybrid performance.

Curated by Kaisa Saarinen … ICA London … Total runtime: 120 mins

Part screening event, part immersive bondage endurance test, this licentious line-up of films is most appropriately experienced in the discomfort of rope restraints. Side effects may include rope burns, and also finding out that all things under heaven are inextricably and disconcertingly tied up in each other. The former stings but the latter would injure you permanently. Don’t let this wound heal, may it impart to you the sneaky ability of sensing from a subordinated position. Doing so would not only startle the freedom/subjugation dichotomy, but could also, if your lucky stars align, lead to the hallowed arrangement of ‘topping from the bottom’. There’s something sexy to be found beyond rights and evils, but first you have to resist resisting. 

Some audience members may volunteer to be bound for the entire duration of the event.

Queer East 2024 … Ugly Duck … Total runtime: 90 mins

‘Feature’ is an event series inviting interactions between the worlds of art, poetry, and performance. This edition welcomes Katrina Palmer, Carl Gent, Jordan/Martin Hell, and Bart Seng Wen Long. The series is presented by Rory Cook and Alan Fielden.

I presented ‘out in the world’ in a different format for this event — the film was projected both on a screen and onto the rubbery face of a gimp.

Feature by Monitor Books … Cafe OTO … Total runtime: ???

A series of short films and artist moving images that work intimately and unapologetically with and through stereotypical elements of racialised East and South East Asian media, leading to lubricious slippages and unexpected relationships between the filmmakers and the motifs they consort with. It’s like chancing upon a seedy late-night cinema hall only to find the films they show to be uncanny subversions of the usual classics, where even the cliché perverse finds itself perverted further more. 

Queer East 2023 … Prince Charles Cinema … Total Running Time: 85 mins