The name Sprinkle is assumed, but the bazoombas are Goddess-given. From the pages of mob-funded 1970s porn magazines to subculture-defining motion pictures like Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle, her endowment was her currency. By the early 90s, and transformed into a celebrated feminist performance artist and sex educator, she caught the eye of a sharp Rutgers graduate student named Beth Stephens, who included one of her inky “Tit Prints” in a curated exhibition. An invitation to campus followed, inaugurating a memorable first collaboration: femme Annie straddling a Harley Davidson, butch Beth playing the leather-clad biker-cum-photographer, coaxing the sex symbol to perform on her own terms, and ultimately their own terms.

A romance took hold, followed by a decades-long partnership generating a dizzying array of collaborative artworks, many defying simple classification and instead combining elements of performance, video, photography, publishing, and life-as-art experiments. There were Sidewalk Sex Clinics, activist manifestos, feature-length documentary films, and a seven-year Love Art Laboratory project. They are perhaps most well-known as founders of the Ecosex movement, and for their ongoing love affair with the Earth itself. Under the Ecosexual banner, the artists have embarked on an epic series of 21 public Gesamtkunstwerke, ceremonially marrying fire, soil, sun, snow, rocks, sea, mountains, moon, sky, and more, over the course of nine years across nine countries.

No subject or surface was immune to their artistic approach. Even Annie’s first breast cancer diagnosis in 2005 catalyzed an emotionally moving series of collages, unflinching operating room portraits, touring two-woman theater piece, and chemo fashion show. The couple has said that producing art made having cancer worthwhile, a radically optimistic perspective that speaks directly to their belief in art as a force for healing.

News of a breast cancer recurrence, followed by a lumpectomy this past summer, inspired the idea of a San Francisco exhibition about change, desire, and disease. There could be new collages made from strangely beautiful MRI scans mixed with old pin-up photos, cheeky mammogram selfies, a celebratory photo shoot of their aging and erotic breasts, and the sharing of creative strategies for survival with their communities. But the pathology report revealed more cancer, an “occult” form undetectable in scans and visible only in the laboratory. A double mastectomy was suddenly very much on the table, along with related questions: What does a commitment to art, life, and repair look like under such conditions? And how does an artist and performer primarily known for her bazoombas face the prospect of living without them?

The artists not only decided to proceed with the exhibition, but to deepen their commitment to it—and to each other. The show would become Bazoombas in Love, a love story in boobs, a reflection on growing up and growing older, and ultimately a chronicle of their richly intertwined lives.

The exhibition features brand new visual artworks, a “Love Infusion Clinic,” bronze chest casts, Beth’s early photographs, a boobliography, vintage materials spanning Annie’s five-decade career, and much more. A separate room includes breast-related artworks from their personal collection, made by friends, colleagues, and community members.

While anchored in a physical presentation, the exhibition pulses with programming: a pre-exhibition walking tour from Cushion Works to The Lab, a breast cancer healing circle and panel with seven generations of cancer vixens, “Tit Print” demos, and “Tits, Tarts & Crafts,” a holiday gift-making event. Not to mention “Tit Lit” open mic night, gallery tours led by the artists, Boob Reiki, and discussions about art, erotics and illness. Annie’s Radiation Termination Celebration will be part of the fun, too, as it marks the end of her treatment (November 15).

The proceedings begin in October, during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Bring your mind, bring your heart, and bring your body. In fact, every body is invited.

Calendar

The gallery is open every Friday & Saturday from 12 to 5pm.

Friday, October 17, 6-7:30 pm — “An Ecosexual Walking Tour In Search of the Elusive Boobie Bird” with Beth Stephens and Amanda Starbuck. Cameo by Annie Sprinkle. Produced by THE LAB.

Saturday, October 18, 8-10 pm — Screening of Playing with Fire–An Ecosexual Emergency, Artist Television Access.

Thursday, October 23, 6-8pm — Opening Reception

Saturday, November 15, 12-5 pm — Beth and Annie will be in the gallery all day offering Love Infusions, milk from the Milk Bar, and giving personalized tours of the exhibition. They will also serve tittie torte cup cakes to celebrate Beth’s birthday and the completion of Annie’s breast cancer radiation treatments.

Saturday, December 6, 12-5 pm — “Tits, Tarts & Crafts” — Drop by and make some holiday cards and gifts with Beth and Annie and their crafty friends. We will have art supplies, though feel free to bring your own supplies and ideas. Special guest artists to help you include Julie Blankenship, Deborah Oak, and Carol Queen.

Gallery closed for holidays December 7 to January 9.

Saturday, January 10, 12-3pm — Gallery tours and Love Infusions by Beth and Annie.
3-4:15pm TIT LIT — Open mic for all breast related readings. Bring poems, writings, medical reports, musings, etc. Special guest reading by Camile Roy. Hang out til 5pm.

Saturday, January 17, 12-2pm — The artists will be present, the Love Infusion Clinic will be open (get milk at the Milk Bar!), and experience various Experimental (Art) Healing Modalities with our clinicians.

2pm — Panel: Artist Cancer Stories: Every Body is Invited. An inter-generational, gender diverse panel will share stories of their experiences with cancer.  The panel will climax with a “Ritual Blessing of our Bodies.”

Saturday, January 24, 12- 5pm — Closing event with Beth and Annie, details to be announced. After gallery hours conclude, we will walk two blocks to The LAB for a “Milk Bar Community Meal,” where the food and entertainment will all be inspired by breasts.