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Hello! I am Luca, a performance artist based in London. My work involves BDSM and body modification practices often used to explore bodily control, sexuality, and vulnerability. Other times, I try to bring my body to exhaustion to see “how far I can go”.
I am also a practice-based PhD student at Central Saint Martins. The main focus of my research is how UK legal frameworks, regulating sadomasochistic practices, shape and constrain body art. The project looks at theories about the relationship between power, sexuality, and the body, using lots of Michel Foucalt’s and Jeffrey Weeks’ works as theoretical frameworks. More specifically, I examine the Foucault’s and Weeks’ theories to understand how institutions and society attempt to control the body through the regulation of sexuality. My practical work functions as a physical manifestation of the theories explored. I am trying to represent the concepts I am examining by using BDSM and body modification, repetition and restriction of movements, pain, and endurance.
I am also looking at historical Body Art, particularly at the works of Gina Pane, Sheree Rose and Bob Flanagan, Franko B, and Ron Athey. Through them, I try to understand my work in terms of legacy.
I began performing because I felt that what I was doing (painting) had become too mechanical. I felt like a machine doing something as though it was programmed. Besides, I don’t think I was doing anything interesting. Switching to performance was quite natural, as I had been interested in body art since I was still in Italy (I moved to London in 2013). I also thought it was the most direct way to express the ideas I wanted to explore at that time, during my MA Fine Art course at Chelsea College in 2015. I then slowly abandoned painting.
Some people see my performance as self-harm – even within institutions like Central Saint Martins, which should have a better understanding of these practices. Years ago, I had a meeting with the Health and Safety Office and Ethics representatives because they were concerned about “what you do with your body”. I explained that everything is controlled: the procedures I follow, the aftercare, the collaboration with professional piercers (if, for instance, I do hook suspension), adding that I’ve never had a serious injury. (Actually, one of the worst injuries I’ve ever had was playing volleyball years ago: I hurt my ankle and ended up on crutches for a month. Maybe volleyball needs some regulation!)
Then, they asked me if the venues where I perform AT tested my blood in case I was HIV positive. I was quite upset because it felt less like a question about safety and more like a question based on assumptions about me and the communities I’m a part of. I explained that I don’t throw blood at people, that today we have U=U, PrEP and PEP, and that the whole concern was based on VERY outdated ideas. I think that moments like this show how quickly certain bodies can be seen as “dangerous”, and something that needs to be controlled.
I have a few, but at the moment I’d say my proudest achievement is playing The Maid in Bruce LaBruce’s The Visitor. The Visitor is a sexually explicit reinterpretation of Pasolini’s Theorema, produced by a/political and premiered in the Berlinale Panorama in 2024. My role, among other things, involved self-flagellation, solo breath control and hook suspension (so… I suppose my CV finally came in handy!). Part of the film was shot in Lourdes, which meant spending a whole afternoon going up and down the sanctuary’s stairs, wandering around in a red dress and purple veil, kneeling, praying and pretending to have visions, surrounded by actual worshippers. That was quite fun!
The most difficult part is going on stage (LOL). I’m quite shy, so the idea of walking on stage isn’t always easy. I can handle the pain, (that’s the easy part); but being on stage, exposed, watched, semi or completely naked, in an altered state thanks to endorphins and adrenaline is sometimes difficult. But I do it anyway.
There’s also the constant institutional misreading of my work: having to explain, over and over again, that what I do is safe, consensual, and not reckless.
During lockdown, I managed to focus a lot on my studies, which was quite unusual, and I have done a lot in that period. I have always had to work full time, and still do, as I don’t come from a middle- or upper-class background, so it’s not really an option for me not to. Also, since performance venues were closed, I had to find alternatives to continue my practice. As I was in my 3rd PhD year, and I started thinking about recording. This led me to produce a performance for camera, which was later screened at several porn and fetish film festivals.
At the moment I’m getting ready for the viva, which should happen in the autumn. So, I’m working on the presentation, rereading the thesis, and thinking about the kinds of questions that might come up. I’ve also started working on some collages using images from my BDSM sessions combined with cut-up texts. I use some online apps to cut the images into pieces, rearranging their parts, repeating them, and seeing how they transform. Then, I write down (usually quite quickly) what I remember from that specific session, and I cut the sentences and words into pieces. I mix them together to create a new text, which I then cut into the collage so the words and images become connected.
I really enjoyed when TG organised Body Probe – Ron Athey’s Farewell. I did like performances by Ernesto Tomassini, SUKA OFF, and Ron Athey. I would love to see a similar night again.
Moreover, some of my favourite shows are one by Skinny Redhead at Coronet, when she performed with Bliss of Pain. I did like that piece and it is one of the shows at TG I have enjoyed the most. I also liked two performances by Cynth Icorn at Electrowerkz. In one piece, she arrived on the main stage with her back, arms, and forehead pierced. Some white feathers were attached to the needles that she removed during the act. The other one is when she performed in the courtyard and her body was covered with blood and gold leaf before being suspended with hooks. I found these images very powerful.
What drew me to the fetish scene is people expressing themselves through materials, outfits, and practices, and how fetish and kink in general allow you to explore your sexual boundaries in ways that ‘normative sex’ often doesn’t. I am a masochist, and I like the altered states I experience when I go through pain-based practices and the agency over my body that I reclaim by submitting to another. I also like to see, through pictures, my skin changing colour or opening up after an intense session. I always want a pic of it! 😀
You can find out more on Luca’s website; and you can follow him on Instagram & Facebook
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