From the Art of Making to the Art of Domination

I was a shy kid growing up. Raised in a disciplinary and perfectionist Asian household, I used to feel what I said or did was never good enough. I struggled to interact with strangers and felt anxious that the whole world was judging and rejecting me. My apprehension about verbal interaction ended up turning me to art to process my emotions. Throughout my childhood and teenage years, I made drawings and sculptures to express thoughts that can’t be communicated by languages.

In college, I ended up studying fine arts. I firmly believe in the power of art to probe beneath one's surface and reveal the hidden. My practice focused on choreographing multi-sensory interaction between robotic objects and the human bodies. I explored how combining touch, intimacy, pain, pleasure, violence, discipline, and fear in artworks could build cathartic and therapeutic experiences that expand the normative understanding of "care". This is when I first became aware of the conceptual intersection between my art practice and BDSM.

In the process of making sense of my artistic framework, I've become my own subject of interrogation, discipline, and reflection. I’ve learned to come to terms with my anxieties, imperfections, fears, and vulnerabilities as integral parts of myself. By looking within myself, I regained confidence in my interaction with others and took back control of my domineering self.

I entertain the belief that the damage we survive makes us more resilient and resourceful. Exploring BDSM and kinks helps me confront how I chose to deviate from what my gender role and conservative upbringing prescribed for me. It empowers and liberates me to accept myself just the way I am. And I hope to adapt my creative sensibilities in making art for healing to help others discover hidden parts of themselves through BDSM.

Just like how constraints spark greater creativity, I believe the stigmas and taboos underlying the shame and humiliation only fuel our exploration in kinks to be more passionate and sincere. I look forward to creating a new chapter of the playbook with you, in which we share trust, expand comfort zones, and redefine desires.