SAT MAY 11th - Life Drawing @ MUSEUM OF SEX OBJECTS - VFDalston

In collaboration with Museum of Sex Objects, ELSC are running a special 3 hour class. Modelled by long time ELSC member, stripper extraordinaire & researcher Maddie Burdon, the class will comprise of short, snappy pole poses, more traditional 5, 10 & 15 min poses, and a special presentation of Maddie's research into the history of sex workers in art, the model & muse, and institutional theory. Join us as we blur the boundaries of the model, the muse, the artist & the academic. 

Museum of Sex Objects presents work that documents an archive of sex worker history & platforms current work by London's most prolific SWer artists.  The exhibition will include pieces by:

- Miss Gold, a dominatrix & photographer, best known for her work with the London Vagabond

-Whore's Handbags; a documentation of banal objects found in SWer handbags 

- Sex and Rage; a SWer founded lesbian BIPOC organisation

Join us for a very special collaboration & enjoy the exhibition!

Class will be hosted by ELSC's very own Samantha Sun! 

Maddie Sexy

IG: @xx.maddie.sexy

Holding an MA from Central Saint Martins, Maddie is a writer, performance artist & ELSC resident researcher of all things sexy whose work engages affect theory & autotheory with a focus on sex work, art & queerness. Her work has been featured in the Lethaby Gallery’s YES exhibition, Crawford Art Gallery’s Muscle: A Question of Power, Femzine, GROT, i-D & the Wellcome Collection. Her talk is adapted from a paper originally delivered as part of ‘A Spanner in the Works’ symposium at Norwich University of the Arts, February 2024.

VFDalston is a grassroots LGBTQ+ venue based in East London. They platform radical, avant garde interdisciplinary work across nightlife & the arts. It's a match made in heaven for ELSC! The 

*******************************************

Founded in 2014, & incorporated in 2020, the East London Strippers Collective support & promote self-organisation among strippers & lapdancers. They challenge stigma around sex work, stand up to exploitation & fight for improved safety & harm-reduction in the wider sex industry.

ELSC grew from a grassroots collaboration of striptease performers working together in East London SEVs (Sexual Entertainment Venues). The founding members of the collective were all united around a shared set of workplace grievances & a mutual desire to see their safety, dignity & employment rights acknowledged within their industry.

ELSC de-stigmatises sex work & creates their own working conditions through artistic mediums such as life drawing, visual arts, dance, performance & writing.

Life Drawing with ELSC first launched in 2013 as a natural progression from the age-old practice of hiring professional harlots and hussies as models for art. ELSC gives artists a unique opportunity to draw strippers performing and pole-dancing. The classes are open to professional artists, designers, sketchers, illustrators, animators, doodlers, students & first-timers alike.

ELSC welcomes all gender expressions & identities, and artists from all ethnic & cultural backgrounds. We support a diverse audience that reflects our community of strippers & sex workers. 

The class will be led but not tutored. £17.50 per person. All levels of ability welcome. All materials and paper will be provided free of charge!

*******************************************

Helpful tips

• We accept drop ins - but we cannot guarantee you a space in our class unless you book online!
• For Couples/Group Bookings: please arrive early at 13:45 in order to get seats together. 
• Each ticket guarantees one seat or stool.
• If you wish to leave the class early please inform the host and wait until an appropriate time in between poses to exit the room.
• Latecomers: Late arrivals are disruptive to class once we have started. If you are more than 10 mins late, please knock and wait outside for the host to meet, greet and seat you!

Accessibility

We are located downstairs at VFDalstons Outsider Gallery. No step-free access.

If you have any specific access needs or requests please email us in advance or speak to the host as soon as you arrive. We will try to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate you (eg: adjustment to light, sound, break schedule, host communication, instruction style etc.)