Story of O, 2013
Story of O is an explicit text about love, dominance, and submission. The novel follows O, a glamorous fashion photographer in Paris, as she willingly objectifies herself and becomes a sexual slave. In Story of O, I have appropriated Réage's text and have directly challenged the theme of agency in the novel by removing the sentence subjects and the possessive pronouns. By removing the sentence subjects, I remove the agents from the story; by removing the possessive pronouns, I remove any sense of ownership or possession one thing may have of any other thing. What remains in the text are objects and actions operating in a void, un-tethered to any agent or owner.
O, 2013
Based on Pauline Réage's Story of O, this video references the training that O, the titular protagonist in the novel, undergoes to become a sexual slave. After she has completed the first stage of her training, the rules that will govern the rest of her life are dictated to her — she must be available for anyone who may wish to use her, and she may never again cross her legs or close her lips.
