Several major news outlets, including MSNBC have reported on the controversial exhibition in Memphis by techno-metal artist Ira Sherman called “Impenetrable Devices.”
Ira has created a variety of wearable metal objects that are essentially chastity belts mixed with body armor. The belts feature barbed wire, mousetraps, electrified metal, razors and – eep! – “cutlery functions”. He was inspired to make the items after talking with women who had been raped.
Advertisement
Support independent, ethically made, award-winning porn. Bright Desire features all of my erotic films and writing. A membership to Bright Desire gets you access to every movie I've ever made and lets me keep making female friendly porn!
Click here to find out more.
-------------------------------------------------------
What they wanted, Sherman said, was body armor.
“When you talk with someone who’s been raped, you start getting details that are just horrifying. That horror I transform into my work,” Sherman said. “But if I were to make pieces horribly ugly and brutal, there’s no redemption. The beauty of the work has a kind of redemptive quality.”
Sherman’s work certainly is exquisite and it has a certain fantastic flair. His homepage features more examples of his work, including pics of his Impenetrable Devices. There’s also photos at the Memphis Ornamental Metal Museum.
I wrote a post on chastity belts a while ago. Sherman’s art is obviously quite different, as it exists to make a theoretical point rather than to be used sexually. His “belts” are also very pro-woman. Whereas chastity belts give power over the woman’s sexuality to another, the Impenetrable Devices are about providing safety and giving control back to the woman.
All that aside, I’m wondering if the belt fetishists out there are beating a path to Sherman’s door after this bit of publicity. Who needs the standard padlock number when you can get a “Saber Tooth Speculum” or an “Intimate Electric Fence”?