A man dances in the space, a blur of rosy tissue and liquid mass sliding over shifting ground. Threads of whipped candy and shining flesh bounce and spin in the artificial luminance. A face of silver and pink, eyes bright, scanning the trembling edge of the circle for signs of joy and reconnection.
Sounds kind of beautiful doesn’t it? If you thought slathering yourself in Vaseline and sliding around your wetroom was something seedy that was only to be done in the privacy of your own home, think again. Artist and sexual pioneer Robert Hesp is ready to show you a whole new way of thinking.
HARD C*CK is a 60 minute performance celebration by Hesp; an open look at ideas of sexual autonomy, identity and fragility and an attempt to rediscover the pleasure of skin and bone in a live space.
It’s been described as “A piece for me, for you, for the void and the person on the other side of the laptop screen” allowing you to interact with it physically and viscerally, should you choose to, as well as from the security of your own home/dungeon.
Hard C*ck delivers an exciting and fresh vision of sexual expression and liberation, looking at texture, light, audience and materials in combination with sexual fascination and expression. Robert performs with 5kg of Vaseline which he uses across the stage and his body with amazing movement and expression.
He invites an audience member into the production for real interactive elements and then he broadcasts the piece in front of the theatre audience live on CAM4 and invites the world to join the show.
Yes that’s right, your favourite streaming site CAM4 are proud to be research partners of Hard C*ck; not only part way through the show does Robert go live on CAM4 to the world but the site also aided in research and helped financially to ensure the show was able to progress to festival and ideally to tour during 2017.
Robert personally chose CAM4 as the platform to go live with, which they were more than willing to support and encourage, leaving all artistic ideas and development purely with Robert.
It’s an amazing sign that a massive platform like CAM4 is willing to support such creative projects, especially those that challenge and highlight sexual education and expression. We look forward to seeing more from both Robert and CAM4 in the near future.
• Taking bookings now, Hard C*ck will be touring in 2017. Visit RobertHesp.co.uk for more information and tickets.
• Images by Sarah Kouhou (Visual instincts) and Lucrezia Chiarle