ANNIE SPRINKLE & BETH STEPHENS

Instead of the widespread metaphor of "Mother Earth", the artists and activists Annie Sprinkle (née Ellen F. Steinberg) and Beth Stephens put forward the metaphor of the "Earth as lover". With their performances, such as "Dirty Sexecology: 25 Ways to Make Love to the Earth", 2010, or their films, such as "Goodbye Gauley Mountain: An Ecosexual Love Story", 2013, they are trying among other things to found a community of ecosexuals, criticising the exploitation of natural resources (like the hollowing out of a mountain to extract coal). As "aquaphiles, terraphiles, pyrophiles or aerophiles", they explore different ways of entering into a relationship with the earth's elements that is not only respectful, but erotic too. Eco-feminism enriches the work of Annie Sprinkle after she used her experience as a sex worker and pornographic actress to serve art with radical performances in the 1980s and 90s. *1954, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, lives and works in Sausalito, California *1960/Montgomery, West Virginia, lives and works in Sausalito, California